Death of the Leaping Horseman: 24 Panzer-Division in Stalingrad 12th August-20th November 1942

The gripping book about a panzer division and its battles in the shattered streets of Stalingrad. In Death of the Leaping Horseman: 24. Panzer-Division in Stalingrad, the untold story of 24. Panzer-Division s savage fighting on Stalingrad s outskirts and in the devastated ruins of the city itself is revealed in a detailed day-by-day account. Beginning in the heady days of the victorious march toward Stalingrad in August 1942, the book follows the Division into Stalingrad s suburbs as it is slowly and inexorably sucked into the fiery crucible that was Stalingrad. Panzer losses and casualties increased daily until finally, after three months of draining combat, the Division was reduced to a battlegroup consisting of a couple of panzers and a few hundred men. Woven throughout the text are gripping eyewitness accounts gathered from various sources: from regimental histories, from diaries, from letters and from interviews with the veterans themselves. The unemotional language of official war diaries is brutally contrasted by these accounts. The course of the Division's combat actions can be followed on 86 aerial photos and maps. All the maps and overlays for the aerial photos were specially commissioned for this book. Some maps were also sourced from divisional war diaries. The book contains 210 photos drawn from official archives, private collections and the veterans themselves, most of them never being seen before. The veterans' photos are particularly noteworthy for their uncompromising honesty in depicting the violent face of war. This book also contains a biography for every officer that served with the Division from June 1942 to January 1943 and contains details of their military careers such as promotions, decorations and transfers, and personal information such as date and place of birth, non-military interests and their eventual fates. Excellent appendices include extremely detailed orders of battle and listings of all officers associated with each unit, reg