Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: Historically the battle for Stalingrad is probably the biggest battle in the history of humanity, if not in count of soldiers, then in importance.This book shows it clearly.
And the good thing is, it doesn't take sides. Germans and Russians are the same - soldiers in hell.
Even better, the book is not just a boring sequence of battles and numbers. It has characters the fate of which it follows. You care for them. You feel their pain.
Better yet it's historically accurate. And my pesonal opinion... This is among the best books I have read. It has educational value, it is an epic, it is much, much more heroic than any of the ... fantasy books and as much so as the good ones. If you are a WWII reader OR a fantasy lover of epics, this book is a must. Too bad the movie was not as good.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing
Review: As an historical reference, this is the definitive account of the most brutal battle in the history of war. Through the use of Nazi and Russian officers' diaries, uncensored letters, official communications transcripts, documents and interviews with the combatants, William Craig has created a masterwork that is compelling and hard to put down.
After seeing the movie, I read the book and was astonished to learn that the movie - which does take a few artistic liberties - was based on only a few pages!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Too Pro-Axis and Suffers from Cold War View of Russians
Review: I came to this book after reading the great books on Stalingrad by Beevor and Walsh, and after actually visiting Stalingrad/Volgograd. The Beevor book does a much better job of personalizing the war than this book, and puts those stories in historical/milttary context. In comparison, as the reviwer Igor Biryukov mentioned, this is book is _primarily_ from the German point of view. It is so much from the point of view of the Germans, that German atrocities are almost protrayed as exceptions, and not the rule of those "oh-so-human invaders". Simply protraying outrageous incidents from both sides does not make this some objective insight into the nature of what happened in Stalingrad. This books suffers from a Cold War mentality in indeed protraying the Russians as indeed "card board" figures and in many ways elevating the German invaders. We get details about the German generals yet almost nothing about Chuikov whose brilliance saved the city. In protraying the stories, the author draws a moral equilavence between the Russians and Germans, and quite frankly white washes the millions those oh-so-human German soldiers starved to death, executed, and butchered, or sent to death camps. The author seemed to have lost the point that the Germans INVADED Russia to conduct a genocidial war and remove Russians from their lands. Beevor's has a story about those "normal invading Germans" that Craig so sympathetically protrays as telling each other that they wanted to come back after the conquest and set up their own farms along the Volga River--such are the attitudes of the "normal" German soldier that are never revealed in this book. Or that the Germans invented carpet bombing and used it on the civilian population of the city without compunction and mercy, and it was "normal Germans" flying those planes. Let me say this: the books should and must be read, but also rejected for it's subtle and not so subtle pro-Axis slant. It is well written, flows well, and spins a good yarn. For this reason it is very beguiling. The reader would do well to imagine such a book and its style applied to concentration camp guards. Would we be as sympathetic? Or let the reader imagine if those stories were about troops who invaded America and killed millions upon millions of soldiers and civilians--I think the reader will then realize the slant. Yes, let's have the truth and whitewash nothing, but also realize the context of how and why the war started, and what the invaders did. This book fails in this way. If you want an uncompromising personal tales that look at both Russians and Germans in the context of the war (and for the Russians in the context of a brutal/murderous regime under Stalin), better to read the Beevor book. With the Beevors book you get everyting this booked probably wanted to be, plus historical and military context.
Rating:
Summary: In one word: Excellent!
Review: I have not tried any books on military or history before. I picked this one during one of my routine flights just to pass the time, and I should accept that this book was so compelling and narrative that I finished the book in a matter of 4 days (fastest by my reading standards) and I am buying more books about World War I & II. History is interesting you see! More than history, William Craig has done an excellent job of narrating the pain and terrible costs of war through the best possible source: the people who fought the war. And this is one book that is unbiased in its text. As a reader, you can visualize every event unfolding in the battle field, like: 1. The plight of the Russian soldiers & volunteers who painfully protected the arms factory and the grain silo in Stalingrad 2. The German Stuka divers who mercilessly sprayed bullets and bombs on the civilians and injured soldiers alike on the banks of the Volga river trying to get out of the fully destroyed Stalingrad city 3. The tremendously pressurizing situation in which the Sixth army leader, Von Paulus was in when many of his units were loosing to the Russian Red Army and Hitler rudely declined to consider the Russian demand for surrender of the Sixth Army. A classic example of what continous victory can do to even the best of leaders: ego and arrogance that can literally close your eyes. Ofcourse Hitler was not the best of leaders, though. 4. The atrocities commited by German and Russian soldiers, for example, the two German soldiers who tore a Russian baby into two infront of her mother. I can understand that such atrocity finding place in a review would create a ghastly impression about the book, but lets accept the fact: War and war crime are brutally, utterly inhuman, doesn't matter who does that. Thats the same impression I got about war and war crimes after going through this book. This particular narration affected me so much that I am yet to come out of it. There are many events like this, and the author does a wonderful job of painting the exact image of the battlefield in your mind. I literally felt that I was very much part of the battle for Stalingrad from start till the murderous and terrible end. Again, you feel the pain of tragic loss of human lives, that too, at such big numbers when you read those last lines of the book. They tell you that the Sixth army, dangerously professional and of a size of 250000 soldiers was reduced to a mere 5000 when they landed back in Germany! That said, over all, its a very very good book, but with a few minor drawbacks: 1. I felt the maps could have been beter and a bit more detailed. There could be an alternative reason why the feeling set into me: I was so glued to the text that I forgot to refer to the maps!! 2. Too many names put in. And some names are very rarely used, probably a good 50 pages apart. I guess, there could have been some reference mechanism within the text of the book that would have helped me remember about the soldier who found mention some 30 pages back! But all this drawbacks are definitely overcome by the compelling text. You must read the book to see for yourself what I am trying to say. Its impressive text can be experienced only by reading it. If you are interested in WWII, this is the book that you should have in your collection.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent historical read
Review: William Craig's "Enemy at the Gates" recounts the battle of Stalingrad, the turning point of WWII. In simple but vibrant prose, he brings the Russian countryside alive, with its bombed-out building and blood-drenched earth. This is an excellent read for anyone interested in WWII or Russian history.
Rating: 
Summary: None but the Best
Review: This book is different from the average history book. Here the story is told through little mini-stories with the people involved. This book is loaded with facts and requires some re-reading in certain areas to digest it all otherwise probably the most interesting of history book I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: TOTAL WAR !!
Review: Craig's book on the Battle of Stalingrad is as close as horrifying as the event it so magnificently sets out to depict.The German-Russo conflict of WW2 is the most ferocious war ever fought in the history of mankind. It was a no holds barred war between two ideologies, both of whose take on human rights and life was a non-existent national policy. Sadly for Hitler he did not exploit the welcome his armies received in many of the regions (they saw the Germans as liberators from the suppression of communism) and the subsequent ill-treatment and blatant slaughter of the population turned sentiments against the invaders; resulting in a very effective guerilla front being mounted within the occupied terrorities. Craig's account epitomizes the full drama of total war. Encircled by the Russians, cut off from their supply lines and in the grip of General Winter, and against express orders from Hitler himself not to break out, the 250000 German soldiers of the 6th Army, found themselves fighting, for the first time in their to-date triumphant war, a major defensive, door to door, building to building, battle to survive under the most horrendous conditions of cold, hunger, sleep deprivation, lice infestation, disease,
artillery bombardment and depleting ammunition resources. Of the 90000 Axis troops who eventually surrendered and went into
captivity less than 5000, the majority of them only 12 years later, were destined to see Germany and their families again. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the major events that changed Hitler's successes in WW2.
Rating:
Summary: If you hated the movie you will still love this book
Review: Forget the moview. It was long and focused on romance. It wanted to be Titanic set in Stalingrad. Very little of this book is devoted to Vassili Zaitsev (unlike the movie). It is instead about the entire battle for Stalingrad (and the horrible famine, freezing, and loss of life). This book does what any good book on war does......make you want to avoid it if possible. Any rating less than five stars is an insult to this book.
Rating:
Summary: Impending Doom
Review: "Enemy at the Gates" is a page-turner, a tight combination of historical detail and strong narrative. I read most of it in a day. I agree with many of Igor Biryukovs comments (see reviews below), though I think the focus on the Germans is due more to the impending sense of doom that drives the book than actual sympathy. That doom hangs over every anecdote, over every communiqué between Paulus and the Wolf's Lair, over every plan to break through the Russian lines. In fact, the attention shifts from the Russian side to the German as the advantage shifts during the battle. Although few people sympathize with the German cause, Craig manages to creat and sustain hope in the reader, through the individual stories, that deliverance will come. The hope persists though most readers know the outcome of the battle before it began, and that the rout and subsequent destruction of the German army and Nazi Germany are rightly celebrated events of the 20th century. I did find it difficult to keep track of individuals named throughout the book. Sometimes, a person will not be mentioned for one hundred pages, and then only for a paragraph. I spent a lot of time in the index and looking back through the book to keep track of the soldiers. My biggest complaint is about the lack of maps. The maps provided did not contain the names of many of the places mentioned in the book, nor some key troop movements. If you are not the type to refer to a map often, then you will probably not be bothered. I like to look at maps as a situation unfolds and I found my curiosity frustrated.
I have not seen the movie, though I heard it concentrates on the snipers. I suggest seeing "Stalingrad" directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. It is a German movie and is as overwhelming as the book. You will be cold for hours after the credits roll.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Movie!
Review: WARNING: This book does NOT focus on the characters in the movie. They mention little about Zaitsev, which was a little dissapointing. It focuses on the ENTIRE battle of Stalingrad. I don't know why they call it the "Movie-Tie-In" just because it's the same title. If you're looking for screenplay novel I suggest War Of Rats. If you want to know more about the battle then this book is the best!
| 
