Island of Fire – The Battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory in Stalingrad - Jason D Mark

This review was submitted to the Canadian Army Journal.

Title: Island of Fire – The Battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory in Stalingrad

Author: Jason D Mark

ISBN: 978-0-253-35688-8

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Year: 2018

Hardcover

Pages: 641

Photos/Maps: Numerous

The Battle of Stalingrad and the effect that it had on the ongoing fighting on the Eastern Front has been exceptionally well documented. A majority of the books look at Stalingrad from the strategic and operational context; Jason Mark’s approach is different as he has taken the battle down to the tactical level and the Battalion, Company, Platoon and individual soldier perspective. By focussing on such a finite and defined area, Mark provides the reader with a very real sense of the minutia of the fighting and the mind-numbing sense of helplessness and savagery that gripped the combatants on each side.  

As with his other books, Mark has gathered a vast array of photographs from a variety of sources that, in many cases, have never been seen before. He has also created a series of maps that reflect the narrative at that point in the story. Unlike many books where the maps are centralized, these are readily accessible to the reader at the appropriate point in the narrative. Additionally, he has also found aerial reconnaissance photos from the period that he has used to develop the equivalent of today’s satellite imagery with locations marked to provide perspective.

The amount of research put into this work is phenomenal. Mark’s area of expertise is Eastern Front with an emphasis on the Stalingrad region. As with his other works, he has uncovered and included a plethora of information not found elsewhere that adds an intimacy to the narrative. What also stands out in this work is the balance between the German and Russian perspectives. Mark has not limited his focus to only the German side, which has traditionally been a shortfall in Eastern Front books, but has placed an emphasis on presenting the same level of detail from both the Russian and German views. Thus, while the reader is engaged with, for example, the German efforts to retake ‘Pavlov’s House’, a multi-story building held by a small band of Russian soldiers under Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, they are also able to read about the concurrent efforts of the Russians inside the building to retain it. This degree of detail is rare.

This book, while emphasizing the fighting for and in the region of the Barrikady Gun Factory does cover the battle of Stalingrad from start to finish. The focus is on the units engaged in the fighting in and around the Factory within the larger context of the Stalingrad operation. Broken out by day, the reader is plunged into the maelstrom along with the soldiers themselves. Rarely is a book able to convey the degree to which this small piece of hell, within the greater Stalingrad vortex, had become the crux of so many soldier’s lives.

This is a reprint of Mark’s original Leaping Horseman Publications book and the Stackpole printing, while good, is not to the original standard. Nevertheless, the quality of writing, research and presentation of Mark’s book remains. For anyone interested in Eastern Front operations with a view towards getting a deeper sense of the reality of the fighting and sacrifice made by the soldiers of both adversaries, this book is an absolute must.