Amazing book on the drive to Stalingrad: The Onslaught (with 150 colour photos!)

[Freycinet]

I bought this book back in the 80s and it totally changed my view on WWII, which until then had seemed remote and irrelevant to my existence. Highly recommended, not just for the photos but for the text too. Really "brings it home" what happened at Stalingrad...

 

  

The Onslaught: the German Drive to Stalingrad Documented in 150 Unpublished Colour Photographs

 

by Graf Von Einsiedel, Heinrich

 

You can still get copies here:

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Onslaught-Stalingrad-Unpublished-Photographs/dp/039301939X

 

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch.detail?invid=10415178925&qwork=13375677&qsort=&page=1

 

"Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking photos August 5, 2006

By Michael A Dorosh

Format:Hardcover

 

The photos are breathtaking not necessarily for their quality - many are washed out and most of the subject matter is routine day to day military stuff - but for their rarity. While the Germans seem to have been at least as far advanced in the use of colour photography as the Americans, there is still a paucity of colour photography in the public record. That is being addressed by the various nations who took large amounts of colour film in an official capacity, including the US, UK, Germany and Canada.

The book's captions are adequate to the task, and there are good historical sections, as well as an introduction by Max Hastings as well as commentary by an actual German war corresponent.

The strength of the book is in its ability to bring the participants of the subject campaign - the German invasion of Russia up to and including Stalingrad - to life. The use of a large format allows one to note small details of the photos, and relate to the subject matter on a personal level. Despite the lack of "action" shots, there is much to see in facial expressions, uniform details, and especially geography as the Russian steppe is shown in summer and winter, as well as the famous Russian mud (Rasputitsa) about which so much has been written.

An attempt to even the balance is awkwardly done, with a few black and white official Soviet photographs tacked on at the end of the book. An admirable attempt at deflecting possible criticism of the book as some sort of "pro-Nazi" tome, but given the nature of Signal magazine, it would be hard to expect much of a balanced coverage of the "other side". Unfortunately, the Soviet photos come off as second best and as an afterthought.

If one can suspend one's imagination when looking at long lines of Soviet PoWs (most of whom died in captivity due to mistreatment by the Germans, or died after return to the Soviet Union by the hand of the Stalin regime) and overlook the tragedy of the entire costly, brutal war in the east, the photographs will help bring a visceral understanding of the experiences of German soldiers there, and cast some light on how Soviet civilians lived at the time as well."