The War Of The Rats

Product Information

Zaitsev's rate of success, and his known proficiency at training others, prompt the Germans to bring in their own "super" sniper and teacher, Heinz Thorvald. Thorvald's only assignment in Stalingrad is to kill Zaitsev. We follow Thorvald's efforts, and get more of an overview of the horror of Stalingrad from Nikki, the German Corporal who is charged with guiding and supporting him.

There are four main characters, two Russians and two Germans. The Russian snipers are certainly real. Vasily Zaytsev became famous during World War 2 in the Battle of Stalingrad, the bloodiest battle of the war. He was so successful as a sniper that he eventually started his own sniper school. Tania Chernova was one of his students and lover. The two Germans, not so real. One is a corporal named Nikki Mond, who I think is pure fiction, the other, Heinz Thorvald, is mentioned in Zaytsev's diaries as a main sniper in the German army that he had a duel with. There is no other record of him existing.The plot focuses on a 1942 battle between the Nazi Germans and the Soviets set in Stalingrad, Soviet Union. The battle is declared by Viktor Tabori to be " Rattenkrieg"; translated, War of the Rats. Colonel Heinz Thorvald was joined by Corporal Nikki Mond in his search to find and kill Vasily Zaytsev. Nikki acted as a spotter and general accomplice to Thorvald. a good candidate for the thriller of the summer award... gives a compelling and graphic sense of the heroism-filled nightmare called Stalingrad...A readable, gritty adventure story." --The New York Times

I loved the descriptions of the bombed-out Stalingrad, jagged and honeycombed and swarming with soldiers. The details of how the two armies worked - like the commissars who kept the Russian army toeing the Communist Party line, using newsletters, loudspeakers, and guns - also intrigued me. The reason I like science fiction and fantasy is that it tends to obey Eleanor Roosevelt's dictum - "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." - and chooses to discuss ideas above all else. 'War of the Rats' ought to at least succeed at the level of discussing an important event and fascinating people, but it doesn't even manage to do that well.A frighteningly realistic patchwork depicting the long siege that changed the course of the war. Based on a true story, the novel deftly captures an extraordinary time and place in history...[in a] vivid, authentic representation of men of unusual skill and focus in the midst of a barbarous war." --Richmond-Times Dispatch After listening to an audio version, I also enjoyed reading the print version of the Stalingrad sniper duel. The book ending interview on tape of one of the primary characters was a pleasant surprise and encouraged the print read. In the book Thorvald describes himself as a coward who hides behind the lines and steals the lives of others. He grew up as a trap shooter and was known as one of the best shooters in the German Army. The book did give a fairly good description of the type of warfare that was conducted in Stalingrad, and the author made a good attempt at describing the psychology of the two main characters and how they interacted with each other and their environment.