buffs are at last privy to eye-witness accounts from both Russian and German soldiers alike,many hitherto unpublished or even read by historians. When added to those stories yielded bythe trapped civilian sufferers, we have an astonishing panorama of hell itself.Throughout the siege, Soviet forces repeatedly tried to break through the German lines toreach the starving city, although the resolute Red Army was far from the victory-steamroller itbecame by year’s end. Trying to reach the besieged city with food and munitions, the Russianmilitary suffered huge casualties in the swampy and forested terrain surrounding the city’soutskirts. Nonetheless, a “Road of Life” across frozen Lake Ladoga was somehow maintainedallowing a thin tract of supplies to get through, especially at night. “TO BESIEGE a CITY”, detailsthe costly strategic and tactical mistakes that bled the armies on both sides throughout the firstyear of the siege.Prit Buttar’s previous OSPREY titles include the acclaimed “Battleground Prussia: The Assaulton German’s Eastern Front 1944-45”, “Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World WarII”, and most recently, “Meat Grinder: The Battles for the Rzhev Salient, 1942 -43.” Unknown toour WWII enthusiasts, other the three mentioned, he studied medicine at Oxford and Londonbefore joining the British Army as a doctor. He now writes from his home in rural Scotland
where he can indulge in his hobbies of wildlife preservation and Astro-photography.
