November 1942: The Eastern Front The trilogy of three books set in the final months of the most vicious battle in history. Leutnant Hausser, a young experienced German infantry officer with the 76th Infantry Division is assigned with a handful of men to the south of Stalingrad. As the fighting heightens in the city, the officer and his men bolster the defences of their allies, the Romanians, on a relatively quiet part of the front. As the Germans strip their flanks and move units into the city in a desperate attempt to clinch victory, the Russian Red Army prepares a massive offensive designed to trap their enemy in Stalingrad. As the Russian offensive is launched, smashing through the flanks to the north and south of the freezing city, small units of survivors desperately try and escape the Russian onslaught. Not many will make it. The battle for the city will continue in the bitterest conditions, the trapped Axis forces struggling against cold, hunger and a vengeful enemy, hell-bent on their destruction. The German air force, the Luftwaffe, attempt to supply the city from the air. Failing to consider the distance, miserable conditions and roaming Russian fighters and anti-aircraft fire. Erich Von Manstein, the German Field Marshall is ordered to break through to the frozen city on the banks of the Volga River, the relief effort (Operation Winter Storm) struggling against Russian forces deployed between them and their goal. Leutnant Hausser and his small squad continue their battle for survival, the rations and ammunition cut, the weather unbearably miserable, their enemy becoming increasingly more powerful and a hunger gnawing at their stomachs. Russian food kitchens are moved near the front lines, ensuring their starving enemy can smell the hot meals provided for their soldiers. The Germans and their allies are down to 1000 calories a day, the city rationing providing limited bread, soup and horse flesh. Loudspeakers deployed across the front sound a clock ticking, a voice announcing that 'Every seven seconds a German soldier dies in Russia.' The loudspeakers play twenty four hours a day.