Stalingrad was one of the largest, bloodiest, and most famous battles in history as well as one of the major turning points of World War II.  For four winter months during the battle, German and Soviet forces fought over a single factory inside the city of Stalingrad.  Lavishly illustrated with photos and maps, Island of Fire presents a day-by-day—at times hour-by-hour—chronicle of that pitiless struggle as seen by both sides.  The book is unparalleled and exhaustive in its research, meticulous in its reconstruction of the action, and vivid in its retelling of the street-by-street, hand-to-hand fighting near the gun factory.