Paperback(Reprint)
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Colonel Wilhelm Adam, senior ADC to General Paulus, commander of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, wrote a compelling and controversial memoir describing the German defeat, his time as a prisoner of war with Paulus, and his conversion to communism. Now, for the first time, his German text has been translated into English.
His account gives an intimate insight into events at the 6th Army headquarters during the advance to Stalingrad and the protracted and devastating battle for possession of the city. In vivid detail he recalls the sharp personality clashes among the senior commanders and their intense disputes about tactics and strategy, but he also records the ordeal of the German troops trapped in the encirclement and his own role in the fighting.
The extraordinary story he tells, fluently translated by Tony Le Tissier, offers a genuinely fresh perspective on the battle, and it reveals much about the prevailing attitudes and tense personal relationships of the commanders at Stalingrad and at Hitler's headquarters.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781473898981 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pen and Sword |
| Publication date: | 06/26/2017 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Sales rank: | 953,023 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
During many years working in several senior official positions in Berlin – including spells as provost marshal and British governor of Spandau prison – Tony Le Tissier accumulated a vast knowledge of the Second World War on the Eastern Front. He has published a series of outstanding books on the subject including The Battle of Berlin 1945, Zhukov at the Oder, Race for the Reichstag, Berlin Battlefield Guide and The Siege of Küstrin 1945. He has also translated Prussian Apocalypse: The Fall of Danzig 1945, Soviet Conquest: Berlin 1945, With Paulus at Stalingrad and Panzers on the Vistula.
Table of Contents
Translator's Note x
Introduction xi
Maps xii
Chapter 1 Marching to the Volga 1
The death of the Field Marshal 1
Paulus, the new commander of the 6th Army 3
By jeep to the subordinate corps 4
Has Timoshenko lost steam? 6
A horrible experience in Belgorod 8
A depressed atmosphere back home 9
A call on General Keitel while on leave 12
A sergeant turns back a Soviet prisoner 14
Propaganda Leader Fritzsehe 16
Hitler's attack aims for 1942 17
Spring attack on Charkov 18
Fritsche gets a reprimand 18
Schmidt, the 6th Army's new chief of staff 19
The army needs replacements 20
Conference with Hitler in Poltava 21
Major Reichel shot down with the operation plans 22
Field Marshal von Bock has to go 24
The summer offensive begins 25
Deeper into the big Don Bend 27
Replacements and supplies give concern 29
The disastrous Order no. 45 31
Scientific work in a Steppe village 32
A bad atmosphere at Kamenski 33
High-ranking visitors 34
The armies of the Allies 37
The battle at Kalatch 39
Growing losses and sinking morale 40
Disappointment at Vinniza 44
Thrust over the Don 47
Chapter 2 The Shattered Attack on the City 49
Ready positions on the west bank of the Don 49
The 76th Infantry Division before the attack 50
The Don crossing is made 54
The 'Land Bridge' between the Don and the Volga 56
General von Wietersheim is relieved 57
The attack remains stuck 59
Once more at Führer headquarters 61
In stormy weather with the commander-in-chief 64
An officer cadet school behind the front 65
The 'Commandant of Stalingrad' 66
'Registering Commandos' and 'Oil Brigades' 66
Mamai-Kurgan and Zaritza 67
Gumrak main dressing station 68
Talks on the train 71
The cure at Falkenstein 74
An experience in Frankfurt 75
Little success with great losses 77
The battlefield painter and the Stalingrad Shield 79
The enemy has grown 80
Bad omens 82
Winter preparations 84
Looking after the problem child 85
In the pincers 86
Among the rums of the Volga city 88
The Army High Command permits defensive measures on the northern flank 89
The looming catastrophe 90
The tragi-comedy of winter clothing 91
Chapter 3 Counteroffensive and Encirclement 93
The storm breaks 93
Breakthrough at the Rumanians 94
Our first countermeasures 95
Hope and highest decisions 96
Attack also from the south 97
A general reports sick 98
Hours of unrest and uncertainty 99
Paulus applies again to abandon the city on the Volga 100
Transfer to Nishue-Chirskaya 101
Paulus and Schmidt fly into the cauldron 104
Combat teams out of scattered soldiers 105
Hitler orders the Volga city to be held 106
Chir railway station is no longer responding 108
Driven by fear 110
Defence without heavy weapons 110
Battle commandant of Chir 111
Army Group 'Don' under von Manstein 113
Horn's relief army 114
What do we want here on the Volga, Colonel? 115
New storm on the Chir 115
Chapter 4 Between Hope and Destruction 117
Lieutenant-General von Gablenz relieves me 117
In Morosovsk 118
I fly into the cauldron 121
A bunker in the steppe 124
Breakout forbidden 125
General von Seydlitz resists 127
Is Hoth's army strong enough? 128
'Fortress Stalingrad' 130
General von Seydlitz's memorandum 132
Göring's lie about air supply 133
Gnawing doubt 135
The army eats its horses 137
New hope of a breakout 138
Manstein gives way 140
Army group sends a major 142
A Knight's Cross with a horrible background 143
Burning questions 145
The distress of the wounded 147
No orders for a breakout, but fortress battalions 150
Medals and propaganda instead of bread 151
Codeword Thunderclap' does not come 152
Christmas in the cauldron 153
Activity should distract you 154
'I am no Reichenau' 155
The commander-in-chief writer a new report 158
The High Command and the van Hooven report 159
General Hube flies to Hitler 160
Painful recognition 162
Promotions and awards 163
Rumours and a handful of soldiers 164
Hube's message and the Soviet offer 166
Capitulation rejected 167
Caught up in illusions and formulas 169
Chapter 5 An End to the Horrors 172
A thundering reply 172
Back to obedience 174
Alarm at Pitomnik 175
Fantastic breakout plans 176
Major-General Pickert leaves his division 177
Germans on the other side 177
The road of death 180
'Hartmannstadt' 181
Captain Behr's task 182
Gumrak airfield 183
No more supply aircraft 184
Who will be flown out? 185
My friend Colonel Selle 187
What does Lieutenant-General Schmidt want? 189
Colonel Elchlepp's plan 191
Our penultimate headquarters 192
The general von Hartmann seeks death 194
Capitulation refused 196
Major-General von Drebber writes from captivity 198
The tragedy of the wounded 199
Typhus 200
Last post: the department store 200
The generals demand surrender 201
Innumerable victims 203
Was Lieutenant-General Schmidt playing a double game? 204
Suicide or captivity? 205
Lying glorification 205
Colonel Ludwig negotiates with the enemy 207
Red-starred tanks before the department store 208
When did the tragedy on the Volga begin? 208
What was my life? 209
Germany's luck or misfortune 211
'The Russians are here' 212
Chapter 6 New Shores 216
The train of the defeated 216
Meeting the victors 217
In a village near the Soviet front headquarters 219
Railway journey to an unknown destination 220
Krasnogorsk prisoner-of-war camp 221
The camp library 223
Hitler and the Red Cross postcards 224
To Susdal Monastery 224
Dispute over German history 226
'Remember, Colonel Adam!' 228
Wilhelm Pieck 230
Rents in the generals' front 234
Discussion about the National Committee Tree Germany' 235
The war is hopelessly lost 237
'More civil courage, Colonel!' 237
A guessing game with four generals 238
Fear of a new 'stab in the back' legend 240
An apparent victory over the Seydlitz delegation 241
My 'straight way' 245
The Soviet war aims 246
The founding of the League of German Officers 248
The oath of allegiance 249
Solution: withdrawal to the Retch borders 250
More generals travel to Luniovo 252
My friend Arno von Lenski 253
Walter Ulbricht's comparison with 1918 253
Solution: going over to the National Committee's side 254
The Teheran Conference 255
In Krasnogorsk a second time 256
The assassination attempt of 20 July 1944 257
Member of the League of German Officers 258
The men of the National Committee 'Freies Deutschland' 259
Attending a session of the National Committee 260
The consistency of Lieutenant-General Müller 261
Field Marshal Paulus turns against Hitler 262
Study and work 263
The teachers from Korsun 264
War front lines on German soil 265
History acknowledges the National Committee 266
In alliance with the leading worker class 266
Paulus as a witness at Nuremburg 267
Holding-on strategy in Voikovo 269
'The Foertsch Staff 271
'Colonel Adam to the transport!' 273
Another encounter with the Volga city 274
With Paulus at Turmilino 277
Returning home to the New Germany 278
Chapter 7 For the New Germany 280
In Dresden 280
Farewell to Paulus 281
The real causes of catastrophe 282
The east-west officers' meeting 284
The 'unpolitical' soldier von Manstein 285
Conclusion and outlook 285
Appendix: German Generals Captured at Stalingrad 287