November 1942: The Eastern Front The trilogy of three books set in the final months of the most vicious battle in history. Leutnant Hausser, a young experienced German infantry officer with the 76th Infantry Division is assigned with a handful of men to the south of Stalingrad.
As the fighting heightens in the city, the officer and his men bolster the defences of their allies, the Romanians, on a relatively quiet part of the front. As the Germans strip their flanks and move units into the city in a desperate attempt to clinch victory, the Russian Red Army prepares a massive offensive designed to trap their enemy in Stalingrad.
As the Russian offensive is launched, smashing through the flanks to the north and south of the freezing city, small units of survivors desperately try and escape the Russian onslaught. Not many will make it. The battle for the city will continue in the bitterest conditions, the trapped Axis forces struggling against cold, hunger and a vengeful enemy, hell-bent on their destruction.
The German air force, the Luftwaffe, attempt to supply the city from the air. Failing to consider the distance, miserable conditions and roaming Russian fighters and anti-aircraft fire.
Erich Von Manstein, the German Field Marshall is ordered to break through to the frozen city on the banks of the Volga River, the relief effort (Operation Winter Storm) struggling against Russian forces deployed between them and their goal.
Leutnant Hausser and his small squad continue their battle for survival, the rations and ammunition cut, the weather unbearably miserable, their enemy becoming increasingly more powerful and a hunger gnawing at their stomachs.
Russian food kitchens are moved near the front lines, ensuring their starving enemy can smell the hot meals provided for their soldiers. The Germans and their allies are down to 1000 calories a day, the city rationing providing limited bread, soup and horse flesh. Loudspeakers deployed across the front sound a clock ticking, a voice announcing that 'Every seven seconds a German soldier dies in Russia.' The loudspeakers play twenty four hours a day.
Fiction with an accurate historical backdrop.
The writer aims to provide a thoroughly enjoyable and imaginative reading experience at an affordable price for the reader. All three works from the author's World War 2 Series concentrating on the Battle for Stalingrad have achieved Best Seller status on Amazon in the UK and many more stories are outlined.
Imagination is personal, free and to be cherished.
About the Author: As a boy, I used to write reports of the local football matches in my home town in northern Scotland, my favourite stories to write at the time being adventure and war and how the human condition adapts to the pressures of fate and unpredictability. Fascinated by history, I used to consume books at a frantic rate, reading personal accounts and historical works across all ages and becoming frustrated upon perusing articles that would compromise fact for common belief or to embellish a tale. My parents had always encouraged me to follow my interest, and this continued with my father occasionally enquiring if I had written anything, something I regret I had not done at the time. Although the pressures of buying property, running a business and having a career allowed me to develop plots and devise potential ideas for books, tales, twists of fate, etc. this was usually accomplished whilst sitting at traffic lights, awaking from a dream, waiting in a bar or the bane of my life, rush hour traffic. I did not realise at the time I was continually formulating stories in my mind, it was just an entertaining pastime to prevent boredom with the initial extracts of imagination then added to over time and usually when passing the same place. On long journeys, I would mentally start out with a plot and character, allowing that to grow and flourish in my mind...quite a useful diversion on say an eight hour car journey...by the time I reached the destination, a whole set of characters and actions had been formulated, sometimes even with terrain and weather. I would then write these whims down, unaware my sub-conscious seemed to be storing the colourful adventure, the key being the location I was at or even emotional state. A couple of years ago, my father unfortunately passed away and it was on the train to assist in the arrangements for the funeral that I considered what my father had encouraged me to do, the things he had been proud of that I had perhaps let slip. All the plots and stories began to pour back as I sat staring out into the French countryside, the silly twists that life throws at us, comical endings to situations and the 'itch I could never scratch', understanding fate's choices and the luck in life. I determined at that point that I would finally achieve what I had always dreamed of and write. At the end of the journey with the train pulling into Bezier...I had completed the first chapter of the first book, Bloody Iced Bullet.