Adelbert Holl fought as an infantryman in the German 6th Army at Stalingrad during the protracted battle for the city. He was taken prisoner when the Germans surrendered and spent the next seven years in Soviet prison camps. In 1950 he was repatriated to Germany.

In two outstanding volumes of memoirs - Ais Infanterist in Stalingrad and Was Geschahnach Stalingrad? - he recorded his experiences as a soldier and a prisoner of war. Translator During many years working in several senior official positions in Berlin - including spells as provost marshal and British governor of Spandau prison - Tony Le Tissier accumulated a vast knowledge of the Second World War on the Eastern Front.

He has published a series of outstanding books on the subject including The Battle of Berlin 1945, Zhukov at the Oder, Race For the Reichstag, Berlin Battlefield Guide and The Siege of K strin 1945. He has also translated Prussian Apocalypse: The Fall of Danzig 1945, Soviet Conquest: Berlin 1945 and With Paulus at Stalingrad.