The Lighthouse of Stalingrad

August 8, 2022
Historian MacGregor (Checkpoint Charlie) delivers a brisk and dramatic account of a much mythologized episode in the Battle for Stalingrad during WWII. Drawing on firsthand accounts from German and Soviet archives, MacGregor details how German and Soviet forces waged “savage, almost medieval combat” in Stalingrad from September 1942 to February 1943, resulting in the deaths of 64,000 civilians. In Soviet accounts, the fight for “the Lighthouse,” a four-story building at the city’s center with a view of the Volga River, was one of the battle’s key turning points. MacGregor, however, claims that the event was “ relatively insignificant,” and questions the glory heaped on the leader of the Soviet assault team, junior sergeant Yakov Pavlov, a 24-year-old peasant “renowned both for his dandyish fur cap and his tenacity in defense against overwhelming odds.” Armed with machine guns, bayonet-knives, and grenades, the team probably found the house empty, MacGregor contends, disputing the legend that it was filled with German officers playing cards. Pavlov also may not have destroyed a dozen Panzers from the rooftop as the Germans tried to retake the building. (“Who knows for certain,” MacGregor asks, noting that he can’t find any mention of such details in combat diaries or records.) Meticulous yet action-packed, this will thrill WWII buffs.

Starred review from September 1, 2022

At incredible cost of life, the Soviet Union halted Nazi Germany's advancing armies at the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43). It was a major turning point in World War II. By analyzing eyewitness testimony found from archives in Germany and Russia, MacGregor (Checkpoint Charlie) provides a detailed look at the harrowing urban warfare that took place there. This work not only tells the sweeping story of the buildup to and conduct of this battle, but also the story of Pavlov's House, a building in Stalingrad secured by a Soviet "storm unit" led by Sergeant Yakov Pavlov. The building's location made it strategically important, and the story of its capture was useful for Soviet propaganda. The author strives to identify what actually happened at that house beneath the layers of propaganda that came in the following weeks, months, and years. Readers will appreciate the chronology, cast of characters, and maps throughout. VERDICT This riveting read is essential for anyone interested in World War II or the history of the Soviet Union.--Joshua Wallace

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2022
The voices of the combatants enliven this account of the Battle of Stalingrad. The titular structure, for those unfamiliar with details of this pivotal conflict, is no aid to maritime navigation but instead a four-story apartment building in the middle of Stalingrad that became a critical garrison for Soviet forces struggling to repel the Nazi invaders. Given the call sign "Lighthouse," it provided a commanding vantage point amid the rubble that surrounded it (marked "ruins" on an accompanying map) and became the stuff of legend when its dramatic storming by Yakov Fedotovich Pavlov and an ethnically diverse group of guardsmen hit the Soviet propaganda machine. Despite the title and his introduction's insistence on the need to examine the truth behind the myth, MacGregor spans the entire campaign, from Hitler's decision in spring 1942 to take out Stalingrad on the way to the Caucasian oil fields to the ignominious surrender of the tattered remains of the Sixth Army in winter 1943. The capture of "Pavlov's House" occupies a chapter midway through, but the author reserves an actual examination of the myth for the epilogue. Uncertain focus notwithstanding, the battle makes for a compelling account, and MacGregor effectively uses primary sources, including the archived personal stories of Soviet veterans and the unpublished memoir of German officer Friedrich Roske, who comes fully alive in these pages--as does Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev, whose 1967 memoir also furnishes significant color. MacGregor's telling, however, is notably rough. In addition to presenting readers with the usual alphanumeric thicket of names pervasive in military histories, the author has a propensity for convoluted, awkward sentences that make the reading experience a slog. That the drama of the conflict, with the fighting waged room by room, still comes through is no small testament to the story's bones, but readers will find a more satisfying study in Antony Beevor's Stalingrad. An adjunct to but no replacement for earlier, more-skilled accounts.

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