The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth at the Centre of WWII's Greatest Battle

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Historian Iain MacGregor brings [Stalingrad's] graphic horror to life through his own storytelling and eyewitness accounts of soldiers on both sides of a conflict during which the dead were left frozen where they had fallen. On a windswept winter’s day by the Volga it was now his turn to be given a soldier’s farewell from the people of the city that had made all this possible. Pavlov was heavily decorated and lauded for his uncommon bravery, paraded everywhere as a hero of the Soviet Union and cynosure of everything that Stalingrad came to symbolise. Carved into the brickwork is a message in Russian: “In this building fused together heroic feats of warfare and of labour. Confronted by mounting setbacks, Hitler always blamed his generals, not admitting his own misjudgments.

The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth at the Centre The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth at the Centre

Stalingrad was attacked in the autumn of 1942 as a result of the relative failure of “Operation Barbarossa”, Hitler’s 1941 invasion of Russia.A friend of the family, Zaitsev reached to comfort Petrovna, pointing back down the hill toward the giant statue in the circular piazza, of a bare-chested giant clutching his PPSh-41 machine gun in one hand and a hand grenade in the other, guarding the entrance to the square they had just walked through. As we talk on the phone, Nikolai Chuikov’s voice suddenly breaks, lost in his memories of the day the citizens came out onto the streets of the city that had decided the fate of the Second World War in Europe, to say farewell to their adopted son. The grim brutality of the conditions in which the men of both sides fought—and died—is brought back to life with immense clarity; one can almost smell the smoke and stench of death.

The Lighthouse of Stalingrad’ Review: Truth and Book Review: ‘The Lighthouse of Stalingrad’ Review: Truth and

Iain MacGregor traveled to both German and Russian archives to unearth previously unpublished testimonies by soldiers on both sides of the conflict. Without stopping, the procession climbed a second set of granite steps past Heroes Square and then through the cavern-like Hall of Military Glory (the Pantheon), built into the hillside, with grass covering its roof. All Hitler’s hopes were dashed at Stalingrad – and the long endgame of the Second World War began to play out. Nikolai Chuikov continued: “My grandfather, of course, remembered and talked about veterans all his life, until the very last days, when, after multiple strokes, he was already very unwell. A thrilling, vivid, and “compelling” ( Wall Street Journal) account of the epic siege during one of World War II’s most important battles, told by the brilliant British editor-turned-historian and author of Checkpoint Charlie.The NKVD, the KGB’s predecessor, set up “blocking detachments” behind the front lines to shoot any soldiers who tried to retreat. At his eightieth birthday, a full courtyard of veterans gathered under the windows of his apartment on Granovsky Street in Moscow. The battle makes for a compelling account, and MacGregor effectively uses primary sources, including the archived personal stories of Soviet veterans and the unpublished memoir of German officer Friedrich Roske, who comes fully alive in these pages.