The Forsaken Army [antikvár]

THE FORSAKEN ARMY on november 22, 1942, two armoured columns of Marshal Rokossovksy's forces closed the ring round the 270,000 men of the Germán Sixth Army. The climax of Stalingrad, the decisive land battle of the twentieth eentury, was at hand. Six weeks later, on February 2, 1943, a starved and exhausted remnant of 91,000 Germán soldiers surrendered and were driven off into captivity. By 1945 about 6,000 of these were still alive. Only a handful ever returned from Russia. Gerlach was one of them. He determined to devote the rest of his life to teliing the world how he and his fellow soldiers had been sacrificed to the megalomania of a single man. For Hitler could have saved the Sixth Army by ordering its withdrawal. He refused to do so because he had committed himself to the conquest of Stalingrad. From the moment of surrender Gerlach began to collect personal stories of hundreds of his fellow-prisoners: Generals and ambulance drivers, padres and pilots, gunners and infantrymen, veterans and boys who had only just left the Hitler Youth. The Forsaken Army is a növel: for it relates one of the great events of history through the thoughts, conversations and actions of individuals. But it is alsó a unique historical document, for every episode, every character, every detail of deseription in it is authentic.