November 1942, Russia:
The Red Army closes the net around Stalingrad near Kalach, surrounding one of the most formidible armies on the planet, the German Sixth Army. One of the Wehrmacht's finest and strongest fighting units. As the German High Command desperately tries to re-establish the initiative and plan a relief effort to the beleagured city, the army inside Stalingrad is ordered to stand firm on the banks of the freezing Volga River.
The German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, mistakenly commit to supplying the city from the air, failing to realistically consider the distance, roaming Russian fighters, ground to air fire and the extreme temperatures.
As temperatures plummet and ammunition becomes rationed, the food and combustable material begin to run out forcing the desperate defenders to continue fighting in the most miserable and chilling conditions imaginable to man.
The story follows a small group of soldiers as they attempt to continue day to day in the most brutal and desperate of situations. The hope of rescue or potential victory is sustained only by cameraderie and the determination to survive.
Leutnant Hausser returns as the young squad leader with a past shrouded in mystery. A black Iron Cross hanging uncomfortably around his neck, concealed from all but the closest to him. With temperatures dropping to between minus 25 and 40 degrees Celsius, survival against a Red Army hellbent on revenge and the Sixth Army's destruction will continue as the men face a sustained challenge of survival on a day to day basis.
Across the frozen Russian Front from the suburbs of Leningrad in the north to the southern banks of the Black Sea in the Caucasus mountains, two facts are now emerging.......this merciless war will now not be over by Christmas, and the myth of German military invincibility had been cracked, if not finally shattered on the banks of the Volga.
Bloody Rattenkrieg is the sequel to 'Bloody Iced Bullet', the opening work in the series. The initial book is now available in US bookstores, in electronic format and paperback from Kindle.
Having studied and researched the weaponry, tactics, unit composition and strategy, the books are aimed at presenting the most realistic fictional account of events and human experience as possible.
All units and equipment are in accordance with historical research and are deployed as they were historically.
I would like to thank the Bundesarchiv, the German government's official photographic database for granting permission to use their images.
The writer aims to provide a thoroughly enjoyable and imaginative reading experience at an affordable price for the reader. All three works from the author's World War 2 Series concentrating on the Battle for Stalingrad have achieved Best Seller status on Amazon in the UK and many more stories are outlined.
Imagination is personal, free and to be cherished.
About the Author: As a boy, I used to write reports of the local football matches in my home town in northern Scotland, my favourite stories to write at the time being adventure and war and how the human condition adapts to the pressures of fate and unpredictability. Fascinated by history, I used to consume books at a frantic rate, reading personal accounts and historical works across all ages and becoming frustrated upon perusing articles that would compromise fact for common belief or to embellish a tale. My parents had always encouraged me to follow my interest, and this continued with my father occasionally enquiring if I had written anything, something I regret I had not done at the time. Although the pressures of buying property, running a business and having a career allowed me to develop plots and devise potential ideas for books, tales, twists of fate, etc. this was usually accomplished whilst sitting at traffic lights, awaking from a dream, waiting in a bar or the bane of my life, rush hour traffic. I did not realise at the time I was continually formulating stories in my mind, it was just an entertaining pastime to prevent boredom with the initial extracts of imagination then added to over time and usually when passing the same place. On long journeys, I would mentally start out with a plot and character, allowing that to grow and flourish in my mind...quite a useful diversion on say an eight hour car journey...by the time I reached the destination, a whole set of characters and actions had been formulated, sometimes even with terrain and weather. I would then write these whims down, unaware my sub-conscious seemed to be storing the colourful adventure, the key being the location I was at or even emotional state. A couple of years ago, my father unfortunately passed away and it was on the train to assist in the arrangements for the funeral that I considered what my father had encouraged me to do, the things he had been proud of that I had perhaps let slip. All the plots and stories began to pour back as I sat staring out into the French countryside, the silly twists that life throws at us, comical endings to situations and the 'itch I could never scratch', understanding fate's choices and the luck in life. I determined at that point that I would finally achieve what I had always dreamed of and write. At the end of the journey with the train pulling into Bezier...I had completed the first chapter of the first book, Bloody Iced Bullet.