STALINGRAD

After the success of his "Les Secrets du IIIe Reich" and the "Maîtres de guerre"
series, François Kersaudy opens the collection up to the world's major battles.

Stalingrad remains in many ways the monster of all battles, because of the length and the intensity of combat, the number of men engaged and the number of casualties, the strategic importance of the territory at stake, and the exceptionally symbolic importance of its outcome. This was the Homeric confrontation of two dictatorships between the Volga and the Don, and it represented a unique watershed in the evolution of the war in Europe. Seventy years after von Paulus's surrender, it is still fascinating to follow the progression of events on three levels, that of the supreme commanders, that of the generals in the field, and that of the long-suffering infantrymen.The accounts of combatants, the photos taken in both camps, and the many maps permit the reader to understand the magnitude of this duel of Titans at the southern tip of Eastern Europe, at a time when the outcome of the war was still uncertain. François Kersaudy has taught at the universities of Oxford and Paris. A specialist of the Second World War and a renowned historian, he has concentrated his work on events on the Eastern Front for the past several years. His excellent biographies published by Perrin include, among others, Hermann Goering (2009) and Hitler (2011). His latest work is Les Secrets du IIIe Reich (2013).