El faro de Stalingrado

With more than two million combatants killed, wounded or captured, the Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest of World War II and the turning point of the conflict. In this brutal fight to the death between the Soviets and the Wehrmacht between August 1942 and February 1943, a strategic building on the banks of the Volga River was crucial. Its code name was the "Lighthouse". Inside, a small garrison of Red Army guards held out against German air raids and daily infantry and armored assaults. The Moscow media took advantage of the chronicles of this resistance in the military newspapers to instill morale in their soldiers, immersed in a battle whose outcome seemed uncertain. After the war, the Russians took the "Lighthouse" as a symbol to rebuild their towns in ruins, and this building would adopt the name with which it has passed to posterity: "Pavlov's House". Iain MacGregor collects in this fascinating narrative previously unpublished testimonies from soldiers on both sides and offers a new perspective on this emblematic battle that marked the beginning of the end of World War II.