Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205088 in Books
• Published on: 1993-12-03
• Released on: 1993-12-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 544 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Astor ( The Last Nazi ) synthesizes interviews, diaries and correspondence in this evocative treatment of the Battle of the Bulge from a first-hand, front-line perspective. Through the testimony of German and U.S. participants, he re-creates the confusion and brutality of the war, the Germans' determination to break through at any cost, and the desperate American resistance that frustrated Hitler's last offensive. Many of Astor's interviewees, overrun by the German advance, became prisoners of war. Their accounts of their experiences in a collapsing Reich are the most original contribution of a work that, with its focus on the human aspects of the fighting in the Ardennes, brilliantly complements Charles MacDonald's A Time for Trumpets. Military Book Club main dual selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Vivid account of the Wehrmacht's final offensive, by Astor (The Last Nazi, 1985, etc.). Exhaustively researched, much of it narrated by participants, this is a chronicle in the style of the new military history, conveying an experience as well as a report on a military action. The immediacy and clarity of enlisted men's accounts form the core reality here, giving a palpable sense of infantry and tank warfare. Comparisons with George Feifer's Tennozan (p. 368) are inevitable, but Astor is less culturally concerned, more closely focused on this final, deadly spasm of Hitler's inspiration. The German leadership is unforgettable--flamboyant Otto Skorzeny (who arranged for Germans to masquerade as Americans); alcoholic Sepp Deitrich, Hitler's old buddy, now an incompetent general; and, above all, the cunning, sinister SS Lt. Col. Jochen Peiper, already associated with Russian front atrocities. Astor begins with a grim military comedy of errors: Deitrich's refusal to supplement radios with carrier pigeons, German soldiers who can't speak English, and a nightmare parachute drop in a gale. The Allies oblige, refusing to believe tanks can be used in the Ardennes, failing to grasp the reality when it's upon them, losing crucial information and bickering. The progress of Kampfgruppe Peiper is a black thread of terror running through the narrative. As its tanks grind forward, tiny US units sacrifice themselves. A cook covers the retreat of his unit with a machine gun, then is captured and killed; the SS massacres inconvenient prisoners; Pfc. Mel Biddle is sent on a mission during which he kills 17 Germans and takes out a machine gun with his M-1. Eventually, the 101st Airborne holes up in Bastogne and will not be dislodged, and Kampfgruppe Peiper meets a flaming G”tterd„mmerung, its men escaping on foot in the snow. Strong narrative, sound history, and a good read. (Photos and maps--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ingram
Men who fought the Battle of the Bulge describe how they fought to distinguish their comrades from Germans dressed in U.S. uniforms, the horror of Baraque de Fraiture, the Malmedy massacre, and other events. Reissue.

Customer Reviews

Blood Dimmed Tide
Extremely readable! This is one of the best first hand accounts of World War II that I have read. Mr. Astor follows the stories of both American and German soldiers, officers and enlisted alike. One can really get a sense of what it must have been like to try to dig a trench in frozen ground and then of the sudden terror of a night attack. The reader can also get a sense of the complacency that had crept into the American army at the point in the war even after the terrible battle of the Huertgen Forest. But what really makes the stories interesting are the accounts of captivity in the German Stalags and the impressions of the Americans as they move behind German lines in the closing days of the war. This is not a "big picture" book, readers looking for strategical analysis should look elsewhere. There is also a lack of good maps, to get a sense of where you are reading about it. But overall a great read.

Incredible!
Naturally, this book is an oral history of the Battle of the Bulge by the men who fought it. It follows them from induction into the Army; their training; to overseas; and then into battle. I was quite impressed by how unprepared the US troops were - I never realized that they were so thoroughly defeated (almost!).

The book describes in unbelievable detail in the words of the soldiers themselves the horror of war; the extreme cold; the hand to hand combat; the infiltration by the Germans into the American lines; being taken prisoner and its living conditions; and the turnaround where the US finally gained the upperhand in the battle.

The last chapter of the book regarding what they soldiers had learned and their reflections from today really bring the whole book together.

I recommend this book in conjunction with Peter Elstob's book, "Hitler's Last Offensive".

It's an oral history, not a detailed strategic discussion.
Potential readers of this excellent book should realize that it is in the "oral history" context, not a detailed discussion of German and Allied strategy. It does not present its story, like many military histories, from the commanders' perspectives (although many officer's accounts are included). It's a grunt's eye view, from the vantage point of many years gone by. The author clearly recognises this in his introduction. The reader should not think otherwise.

This book is probably one of the most valuable books on "The Bulge" precisely because it tells the story from ground level. The veterans who Astor interviewed, or whose memoirs he quotes,
tell an incredibly moving story of how young American men, many just out of school and formed by the Great Depression, fought off the great winter German offensive of 1944. Astor does a fine job of letting the veterans tell their stories, but providing enough background information to knit the stories together in a coherent narrative. Contrary to another reviewer here, I found the background stories very interesting, giving me a good sense of where these men had "come from" - easily, in many cases, proving Tom Brokaw's point.

"Boring", as another reviewer calls this, is not a word that I would use at all to describe this book. The soldiers' eyewitness accounts run the gamut from quiet determination and confidence, to apprehension, exhilaration, sheer terror, and even the boredom of barracks' life that many soldiers experience.

Granted, some of the accounts probably suffer from the intervening years, but isn't that always the case? Sometimes hindsight can be a good thing.

I might more accurately give this book a 4.5-star review for only one reason and that would be the lack of a better map. (The author's map in the paperback version is hard to read, but, really, maps of the Bulge area are not hard to find!)

Our WWII vets are fast disappearing, so this book is invaluable.

This book will take you "there", where others merely fly you over the territory!