Stalingrad Letters from the Volga

Antonio Gil

Book - 2019

"From August 1942 to February 1943 the city of Stalingrad on the banks of the Volga was home to the bloodiest battle of World War II. Stalingrad: Letters from the Volga offers a fast-paced depiction of this titanic struggle: explicit, crude, and without concessions--just as the war and the memory of all those involved demands"--

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Subjects
Genres
Nonfiction comics
Historical comics
Published
Annapolis, Maryland : Dead Reckoning [2019]
Language
English
Spanish
Main Author
Antonio Gil (author)
Other Authors
Daniel Ortega del Pozo, 1979- (author), Jeff Whitman (translator)
Item Description
"Originally published as Stalingrad: la historia gráfica."
Physical Description
112 pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm
ISBN
9781682473931
  • Prologue. Hell came to the Volga
  • A long road "to victory"
  • Factories of death
  • Fight to the death along the Volga
  • An impossible odyssey
  • Rattenkrieg
  • Surrounded!
  • A ray of hope
  • Until the last cartridge.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

WWII's largest and bloodiest battle gets recounted in this gory and densely researched work of graphic nonfiction. In 1942, the German army's initially successful assault into Russia grinds to a halt. As winter approaches, Soviet and Nazi armies face off around the city of Stalingrad, where over two million souls will endure a freezing crucible. Gil and Ortega ostensibly structure their narrative around a band of beleaguered German soldiers trying to snuff out the stubborn "Ivans." But with the exception of back-home letters mixing grandiloquent phrasing ("fire-tongued assassins rip through the sky") with plaintive hopelessness ("beaten in a sea of ruins, the Red Army does not surrender"), they opt for historical details over personalization. Many famous aspects of the battle are highlighted, from the Soviet snipers to the "night witches" flying stealthily overhead in their biplanes, and the underground horror of the Rattenkrieg (war of rats). The narrative frequently pulls back from the punishingly savage combat in Stalingrad's frozen hell for a bird's-eye view of the wider battle ripping across the Eastern Front. The art emphasizes action over storytelling, leaving it mostly to the overheated yet accurate text to describe the battle's epic horrors. This relentless account provides a devastatingly grim vision of a pivotal WWII battle. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved