Breakout at Stalingrad

By: Heinrich Gerlach, Carsten Gansel, Peter Lewis - translator

Narrated by: Paul Holme

Bloomsbury presents Breakout at Stalingrad by Heinrich Gerlach, read by Paul Holme.

One of the greatest novels of the Second World War' The Times.

'A remarkable find' Antony Beevor.
'A masterpiece' Mail on Sunday. Stalingrad, November 1942. Lieutenant Breuer dreams of returning home for Christmas. But he and his fellow German soldiers will spend winter in a frozen hell – as snow, ice and relentless Soviet assaults reduce the once-mighty Sixth Army to a diseased and starving rabble. Breakout at Stalingrad is a stark and terrifying portrait of the horrors of war, and a profoundly humane depiction of comradeship in adversity.

The book itself has an extraordinary story behind it. Its author fought at Stalingrad and was imprisoned by the Soviets. In captivity, he wrote a novel based on his experiences, which the Soviets confiscated before releasing him. Gerlach resorted to hypnosis to remember his narrative, and in 1957 it was published as The Forsaken Army. Fifty-five years later Carsten Gansel, an academic, came across the original manuscript of Gerlach's novel in a Moscow archive. This first translation into English of Breakout at Stalingrad includes the story of Gansel's sensational discovery.©2018 Heinrich Gerlach, Carsten Gansel, Dr Peter Lewis (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Good Story

I enjoyed listening to the narratives. The only criticism is that they are using an English narrator to speak German accented English. The Germans sounded like English infantry.

Great Story, Valuable document

Most histories of WWII are told from the vantage point of the political and military leaders, strategies, and victories and losses. Outbreak might be the best view of Stalingrad from the ground, at least from those who fought on the German side. As such, it is a valuable document for understanding the mindset of the ordinary Wehrmacht soldier.

Outbreak is also a great novel. One listener complained that the announcer spoke in a British accent rather than English with a German accent. I would defend the choice of the narrator because the translator rendered the novel into British colloquial English of the 1940’s. That really is the best way to understand how the German soldiers spoke, assuming one does not speak German. Thus, if the soldiers spoke with a German accent it would sound like they were speaking in a second language. So I think the choice of both the translator and narrator was best as far as rendering how typical German soldiers commanded.