EricCWelch

By 1942, the war against Russia had resolved itself to the outcome of one battle: that for Stalingrad. The Russians refused to budge and made the Germans pay for every foot of bombed-out city. The horrible bombing and shelling by the Germans turned the city into an enormous maze of dens and hiding places, perfect for snipers. The Russians created a special group of talented snipers who managed to put fear into the German soldiers. In response, the Germans sent a sniper whose job it was to find the leader of the Russian sniper team and kill him. Robbins has written a great story around these historical events. The Battle for Stalingrad became a high-water mark of human destruction. An estimated 1,109,000 soldiers died. Civilians were not immune. “Of a prewar population in Stalingrad numbering more than 500,000, only 1,500 were alive there after the battle.” Three of the four main characters were historical figures and the sniper hunt between the two great snipers is based entirely on historical records. One of these characters was an American woman of New York Russian immigrants. How she got to Stalingrad as part of an elite sniper team is an interesting story in itself. By January 1943, the situation was bleak and the Russians offered to surrender to the Germans, but Hitler refused the terms and the battle continued. The Russians later collected enough strength to attack in force and slaughtered the German Sixth Army, leaving alive only ninety thousand out of an original three hundred thousand German soldiers.