As the German Blitzkrieg brings the Soviet Union to its knees in 1942, a regiment of women aviators flies out at night in flimsy aircraft without parachutes or radios to harass the Wehrmacht troops. The Germans call them “Night Witches” and the best of them is Lilya Drachenko. From the other end of the world, photojournalist Alex Preston arrives to “get the story” for the American press and witnesses sacrifice, hardship, and desperate courage among the Soviet women that is foreign to her. So also are their politics. While the conservative journalist and the communist Lilya clash politically, Stalingrad, the most savage battle of the 20th century, brings them together, until enemy capture and the lethal Russian winter tears them apart again.

From bestselling and award-winning author Kathryn Lasky comes an explosive adventure following the teen girl fighter pilots who took on Hitler's army . . . and won. 16-year-old Valya knows what it feels like to fly. She's a pilot who's always felt more at home soaring through the sky than down on earth. But since the Germans surrounded Stalingrad, Valya's been forced to stay on the ground and watch her city crumble.When her mother is killed during the siege, Valya is left with one burning desire: to join up with her older sister, a member of the famous and feared Night Witches-a brigade of young female pilots. Using all her wits, Valya manages to get past the German blockade and find the Night Witches' base . . . and that's when the REAL danger starts. The women have been assigned a critical mission. If they succeed, they'll inflict serious damage on the Nazis. If they fail, they'll face death . . . or even worse horrors.Historical fiction master Lasky sheds light on the war's unsung heroes-daredevil girls who took to the skies to fight for their country-in an action-packed thrill ride that'll leave you electrified and breathless.

The acclaimed historian offers a radical reinterpretation of the WWII Battle of Stalingrad using eyewitness accounts and newly uncovered archival material. In this revelatory work of military history, Michael Jones provides fresh insight into the thinking of the Russian command and the mood of ordinary soldiers. The Russian 62nd Army began the campaign in utter demoralization yet turned the tables on the powerful German 6th Army. Jones explains this extraordinary performance using battle psychology, emphasizing the vital role of leadership, morale and motivation in a triumph that turned the course of the war. Soviet Colonel-General Anatoly Mereshko fought throughout the battle as staff officer to the commander, Chuikov. Much of the testimony he provides to Jones is entirely new—and will astonish a western audience. It is backed up by accounts of other key veterans as well as recently released war diary and combat journals. This new material shows that the standard narrative of the battle disguises how desperate the plight of the defenders really was. In place of those oft-repeated stories is a far more terrifying reality—one that reveals the Battle of Stalingrad as not only a victory of tactics, but also an astounding triumph of the human spirit.

'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.

This WWII memoir of a Nazi infantryman captured at Stalingrad offers a rare firsthand account of life inside Soviet POW camps. The Battle of Stalingrad has been studied and recalled in exhaustive detail ever since the Red Army trapped the German 6th Army in the ruined city in 1942. But most of these accounts finish at the end of the battle, with columns of tens of thousands of German soldiers disappearing into Soviet captivity. Their fate is rarely described. But in After Stalingrad, German infantryman Adelbert Holl vividly recounts his seven-year ordeal as a prisoner in the Soviet camps. As Holl moves from camp to camp across the Soviet Union, he provides an unsparing view of the prison system and its population of ex-soldiers. The Soviets treated German prisoners as slave laborers, working them exhaustively, in often appalling conditions. He describes the daily life in the camps: the crowding, the dirt, the cold, the ever-present threat of disease, the forced marches, and the indifference or outright cruelty of the guards.

In this post-apocalyptic world, you have a choice: survive as a slave or fight for your freedom. The Red Death pandemic wiped out most of the human population, and the world that remains is dangerous and unforgiving. Survivor Alex Clarke and her companions are rescued after a vicious attack and welcomed into the RaptureÕs Haven Camp. Although given medical treatment, food, shelter, and protection, Alex senses something sinister lurking beneath the campÕs friendly exterior. Camp medic Evelyn Bennett is instinctively drawn to Alex and warns her that the camp is a dangerous cult and the women are slaves. While planning to escape, their secret relationship is discovered. Escape is no longer possible. They must fight for their freedomÑor die trying.

In 1941, as Nazi hordes swept east into the Soviet Union, a desperte call went out for women to join the Russian air force. The result--three entire regiments of women pilots and bombers--was a phenomenon unmatched in World II. Through interviews with these courageous pilots, the author uncovers their story. Soon to be a major motion picture.