THE LIGHTHOUSE OF STALINGRAD

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and MacGregor effectively uses primary sources, including the archived personal stories of Soviet veterans and the unpublished memoir of German officer Friedrich Roske, who comes fully alive in these pages—as does Alexander Ilyich Rodimtsev, whose 1967 memoir also furnishes significant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.