Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge

Antony Beevor

Penguin Publishing Group, Nov 3, 2015 - History - 451 pages

The prizewinning historian and bestselling author of D-Day, Stalingrad, and The Battle of Arnhem reconstructs the Battle of the Bulge in this riveting new account
 
On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched his ‘last gamble’ in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes in Belgium, believing he could split the Allies by driving all the way to Antwerp and forcing the Canadians and the British out of the war. Although his generals were doubtful of success, younger officers and NCOs were desperate to believe that their homes and families could be saved from the vengeful Red Army approaching from the east. Many were exultant at the prospect of striking back.

The allies, taken by surprise, found themselves fighting two panzer armies. Belgian civilians abandoned their homes, justifiably afraid of German revenge. Panic spread even to Paris. While some American soldiers, overwhelmed by the German onslaught, fled or surrendered, others held on heroically, creating breakwaters which slowed the German advance.
 
The harsh winter conditions and the savagery of the battle became comparable to the Eastern Front. In fact the Ardennes became the Western Front’s counterpart to Stalingrad. There was terrible ferocity on both sides, driven by desperation and revenge, in which the normal rules of combat were breached. The Ardennes—involving more than a million men—would prove to be the battle which finally broke the back of the Wehrmacht.
 
In this deeply researched work, with striking insights into the major players on both sides, Antony Beevor gives us the definitive account of the Ardennes offensive which was to become the greatest battle of World War II.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ericlee - LibraryThing

The 1944 German offensive in the Ardennes forest “had brought the terrifying brutality of the eastern front to the west,” concludes Antony Beevor in this book. And “terrifying brutality” is an ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - MiaCulpa - LibraryThing

Antony Beevor is the finest World War II historian around and "Ardennes 1944", while not at the level of "The Battle for Spain" or "Stalingrad", is a very good account of the Battle of the Bulge, that ...

Contents

• Victory Fever: 1
• Antwerp and the German Frontier: 28
• Into the Winter of: 40
• The Hürtgen Forest: 56
• The Germans Prepare: 80
• Intelligence Failure: 98
• December: 111
• December: 134
• IO Monday 18 December: 157
• Preparing the Allied CounterOffensive: 300
• 2I The Double Surprise: 317
• CounterAttack: 332
• Flattening the Bulge: 350
• Conclusions: 363
• NOTES: 389
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY: 429

About the author

Antony Beevor is the bestselling author of D-Day: The Battle for Normandy, which received the Royal United Services' Institute Westminster Medal; The Battle for Spain, which received the La Vanguardia Prize; Paris After the Liberation 1944-1949; Stalingrad, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History, and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature; and The Fall of Berlin 1945, which received the first Longman-History Today Trustees' Award. He is the recipient of the 2014 Pritzker Military Museum & Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. Beevor lives in England.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge
• Author: Antony Beevor
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2015
• ISBN: 0670025313, 9780670025312
• Length: 451 pages
• Subjects: History / Military / United States; History / Modern / 20th Century / General; History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General