Last Flight to Stalingrad

Journalist Werner Nehmann works for the German Third Reich’s Ministry of Propaganda. He is a bit of a court jester and a lady’s man—both traits that his boss Joseph Goebbels enjoys. Goebbels, eager to publicize the World War II battle for Stalingrad as the ultimate victory for Hitler, sends Nehmann to the front to interview Wolfram von Richthofen, whose air force is about to crush the Red Army. Nehmann meets Georg Messner, an aide to the air ace. They tangle with SS officer Kalb, whose vicious slaughter of civilians so revolts Nehmann that he devises a revenge of gruesome effect. Hurley, famous for his British crime fiction, offers this title as the fifth in his “Spoils of War” series about World War II (following Raid 42). Building toward a horrific climax as Nehmann and Kalb clash, Hurley traces the degradation of Hitler’s regime, where powerful insiders pushed far past the laws of warfare and common decency to please their beloved führer.