First up is translation of a Russian book called "Turning Point." This book was released a few months ago but because I've been so busy getting the next one done, I haven't been able to devote as much time to promoting it as it deserves. So, better late than never!
Turning Point: Recollections of Russian participants and witness of the Stalingrad battle
Authors: P.P. Popov, A.V. Kozlov, B.G. Usik
Here's a cover shot:Rarely do Westerners gain an understanding of the Russian perspective of the battle. While a flurry of translated memoirs by senior commanders like Zhukov and Chuikov in the 1960s and 1970s provided a higher level point-of-view, very little has been reported in English about how the fighting affected ordinary Russian soldiers and civilians. Retired Colonel Anatoli Venediktovich Kozlov, a participant in the battle and section chairman of Volgograd city's veterans' council, realised it was imperative to record the accounts of the few remaining veterans before time inevitably claimed them all. Glasnost has enabled these veterans to provide a more candid account of their experiences than if they had been interviewed during the Communist era. Kozlov's wish was for this book to be available to Westerners – and now it is.
The book is divided into two distinct parts, each describing a different aspect of the Stalingrad battle. In Part 1, titled "On the Southern Approaches to Stalingrad," Popov writes about a sector often overshadowed by dramatic events further north. Long before the Germans approached Stalingrad, tens of thousands of its citizens were put to work erecting defences around the city and in doing so endured unbelievable hardship. The southern district of Krasnoarmeysk was soon struck by the full might of Hoth?s panzer army in August 1942. Popov explores the district's preparations, defence and retribution in detail.
In Part 2, "From Beyond the Don to the Volga," Kozlov and Usik explore the better known aspects of the battle by way of rivetting first-hand accounts. It begins with the battle in the great bend of the Don, an armoured clash in the hot dusty steppe which resulted in Kozlov losing his entire tank unit. The fighting then moves into the streets of Stalingrad and we discover how the brutal struggle was viewed by Red Army soldiers and scores of civilians remaining in the city. The book concludes with the victorious November counteroffensive and eventual destruction of Paulus's 6. Armee in the Stalingrad pocket.
Russians are proud of their victory at Stalingrad, and justifiably so, but only by reading the veterans' own words can this source of pride even be begun to be comprehended.
• 264 pages
• A5 format
• Hardcover only
• Several photos, maps and aerial photos
• Index
I have just now completed a large photo volume about Stalingrad called "Angriff" and it goes to the printer this week. I should take delivery in late November.
Angriff: The German Attack on Stalingrad in Photos
Author: Jason D. Mark
Too often the visual aspect of the Stalingrad battle is portrayed using the same well-known images, and while most are no doubt stunning, their repeated use – with incorrect or misleading captions – adds nothing new to the record. Angriff:The German Attack on Stalingrad in Photos aims to rectify that. A rich cache of spectacular images is spread throughout collections across the globe. The photos used in this book have been gathered from a multitude of sources: military archives, photo libraries, museums, but most of all from private collections. The content of photos from these collections often portray the battle from the perspective of an individual soldier. Some of these photos certainly depict the stark reality of war but not every soldier saw action on the front-line. When all these private photos are combined, however, they form a montage and provide an insight into the lives of 6. Armee's soldiers. Furthermore, they often show periods of the battle that never fell within the viewfinder of a professional photographer. Every photo – including each famous image – has been painstakingly researched so that it is paired with a meaningful and accurate caption. In most cases, the location of the photo has been pinpointed, as has the date and unit depicted. This has enabled it to be placed in its correct historical, chronological and geographical context. While this process has cast a light on previously vague aspects of the battle, it has also debunked captions to many familiar images. If you want to see what Stalingrad was like from the German perspective, this book is for you.
• 368 pages on high-quality paper
• 280 x 217mm
• Hardcover only
• 700 photos
"Turning Point" is available for sale now through my wesbite (http://www.leapinghorseman.com.au). A pre-pub offer for "Angriff" will be announced soon. There are plans for a premium edition of "Angriff" but more details about that later.
With these books out of the way, I can get back to another one that I've been working on for a while. There's quite a few exciting projects on the way from Leaping Horseman!
All the best,
Jason