The second in a three-part series examining the Stalingrad campaign, one of the most decisive military operations in World War II, that set the stage for the ultimate defeat of the Third Reich. After failing to defeat the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Adolf Hitler planned a new campaign for the summer of 1942 that was intended to achieve a decisive victory: Operation Blue ( Case Blau ). In this new campaign, Hitler directed that one army group (Heeresgruppe A) would advance to seize the Soviet oilfelds in the Caucasus, while the other (Heeresgruppe B) pushed on to the Volga River. However instead of a rapid or complete victory, the German forces had to fight hard just to reach the outskirts of Stalingrad and then found themselves embroiled in a protracted urban battle amid the ruins of a devastated city on the Volga. Although hit hard by the initial German offensive, the Soviet Red Army was able to hold onto the city then mount a surprise winter counteroffensive known as Operation Uranus , which succeeded in encircling the German 6. Armee at Stalingrad. Despite a desperate German relief operation, the Red Army eventually crushed the 6. Armee and hurled the remnants of Heeresgruppe S d back in disorder.

This second volume in the Stalingrad trilogy begins with Vasily Chuikov's appointment to command the Soviet 62nd Army in Stalingrad and covers the initial German attempts to seize the city, in the period from 12 September to 23 November 1942. This volume discusses the fighting in the city in fascinating detail, focusing on key points such as the infamous Tractor Factory (site of some of the most brutal fighting). It also explores the strategic background to the launch of Soviet counter-offensive, Operation Uranus, which planned to punch through the overstretched enemy flanks and surround German forces in the Stalingrad region.