Mark, Jason D. Panzerkrieg. German Armoured Operations at Stalingrad. Volume 2

In this long-awaited second volume in a series examining German armoured operations at Stalingrad, the combat history of Panzer Regiment 2 is examined in detail. This regiment was one of the first armoured formations to be formed in the mid-1930s and took part in most of the campaigns that established the Panzerwaffe's reputation: in the Sudetenland, Poland, France, the Balkans and the Soviet Union. The regiment led many deep advances during Operation Barbarossa - at Verba, Monastyrishche, Pervomaisk, Voznesensk, Nikolayev and in the Kiev cauldron - and often found itself on the eastern side of a cauldron. Although victorious, all these encirclement battles took a terrible toll on the men and machines of the regiment. In the dramatic winter of 1941/42, the weakened regiment was deployed in company-sized detachments with various infantry divisions along the southern front. The regiment's finest hour came during the 1942 campaign, when it led the 16th Armoured Division from the Don to the Volga north of Stalingrad in a single day, a bold advance that sent shockwaves through the Soviet leadership and threatened the Red Army's hold on "Stalin's City". For almost three months afterwards, it played a crucial role in the defence of the 6th Army's northern flank while infantry units attempted to take the city completely. When the Soviet counter-offensive began on 19 November 1942, the regiment was pushed to the west to repel the armoured spearheads rushing towards the Kalach Bridge. After this failed mission, the remaining tanks were withdrawn into the developing encirclement, some were held in reserve for a possible breakout, others were used for localised counter-attacks to hold off the increasingly powerful Soviets. The regiment resisted until fuel, ammunition and morale were exhausted; a lucky few made it through, the majority survived the final days of the battle and made their way into captivity. Access to the casualty reports made it possible to analyse the life and death of the regiment in detail. The narrative is enriched by hundreds of rare photographs, painstakingly collected by the author from private collections and provided by veterans themselves.

One of the most famous army officers of the German Wehrmacht, Major Hyazinth von Strachwitz, served in Panzer Regiment 2, and although much has already been written about this highly decorated officer, his deeds are presented here in a new light and with new, previously unknown photos. Access to the files of the "Deutsche Dienststelle" (WASt) makes it possible to reconstruct the career and demise of Panzer Regiment 2 with unprecedented accuracy. The text is accompanied by a large number of rare and largely unknown photos, some of which come from official archives as well as private photo collections or albums of memories of veterans of the armoured regiment.