An Artilleryman in Stalingrad

In August 1942, Wigand Wster was a twenty-two-year-old officer in the German Wehrmacht. The short life expectancies of the Eastern Front made him a veteran commander even at that age. He led a battery in an artillery regiment as it approached Stalingrad for a World War IIdefining clash with the Soviet Red Army. For Wster, the preceding months had been marked by heat, dust, endless marches, and brief skirmishes with the enemybut mostly by an ongoing battle with his bullying battalion commander. Stalingrad would change everything. In this brutally honest account, Wster provides a glimpse into the Eastern Front rarely seen before. With frankness, humor, and perception, Wster takes the reader from the heady days of the German 1942 summer offensive into the icy hell of Stalingrads final hoursand finally into his Soviet captivity. Accounts of artillery on the Eastern Front are rare, and Wster was an especially keen observer of the hell of Stalingrad. The book has been supplemented with photos and maps by Jason Mark, who originally published it through his Australia-based company Leaping Horseman Books. This will be our third time reprinting one of Jasons publications. These titles are expensive hardcovers, with low production costs to us, and a built-in audience that knows the books but was unable to purchase a copy.