thorough coverage, but hard to follow, The maps are few and far between, and are more strategic than tactical, and Beevor jumps from one part of the battlefield to another, with no segways or warning. Some parts of the action are dealt with only in passing, while others are given very detailed attention. i learned some things but feel I could have learned much more if the writing and organization had been better. The detailed Order of Battle section, the chapter notes and the index are perhaps the most impressive parts of this book. ( )

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 aba...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJCVCXUBYhm/ ( )

This was the first book of this kind that I tried to consume as an audio book and it both worked and didn't work. It was surprisingly easy to listen to, but also very frustrating the times you wanted to stop and double check someone. By its very nature there is a lot of numbers and names and not being able to easily pause, ponder, look back means that you miss out on information. I don't think I will try this again.

The book itself seems well researched and informative. A lot of focus was about the relationship, or lack or relationship, between the generals on the allied side and then especially between Montgomery and the American generals. The all encompassing feeling seems to have been pride and any slight risk that the wrong person would be credited caused major concerns.

I would have liked to see a similar level of analysis of what happened on the German side though. Maybe there just are no sources for that.

In the war, battle, itself, well war sucks. War brings out the worst in people. Teenagers are sent to kill and maim which they at times do really well.

Hitler had this fantasy of the German army breaking through to the Atlantic coast, enveloping the northern part of the Allied forced, forcing them to give up and then crushing the rest. For this he weakened a lot of other fronts and sent his troops through the Ardennes forest, where the Allied forces were the weakest and had the weakest leadership with General Bradley sitting in a castle far away.

At first the Germans had success. They managed to gather most of the forces without the allied noticing anything and the attack came as a huge surprise. Then shortly afterwards the attack slowed down, due to lack of fuel, lack of air support, lack high quality and highly motivated troops prepared to die in a war already lost and more. That the breakthrough took too long gave the allied a chance to send in reserves and reinforcements and after two weeks the attack was stopped and pushed back.

Certain forces, initially German but later certain American forces as well, lost track of all kind of humanity in the process. They killed civilians and prisoners without any regret. Whether this happened or not seems to have depended a lot on the division's leadership. Kampfgrupp Peiper (part of 1st SS Panzer Division) lead by Joachim Peiper initiated the atrocities when he on the second day murdered 84 American prisoners in the so called Malmedy Massacre. Later, instead of controlling his forces, the American general Bradley approved of his forces taking no living prisoners, something that was a clear war crime.

Bradley takes a lot of implied criticism in the book. He made a series of mistakes and behaved childlike, but despite that, ended up with one more star as Eisenhower tried to hide Bradley's mistakes behind a promotion. Politics.

The other person taking a lot of criticism is Montgomery, the cautious British general/field marshal. His blunt, unfair and idiotic behaviour lead to a permanent fissure between the Americans and the British, and the author speculates that it might have been a key reason the Americans took the side against the British in the Suez Crisis 10 years later. Montgomery did a lot of things right militarily but by implying that he alone saved the Americans from disaster, it became too much for the Americans to swallow. Especially since it was American forces that had to do almost all the fighting, losing 80,000 men (wounded, captured, killed).

If you are interested in military history, this is an interesting book to read, but I would certainly recommend most of Antony Beevor's other books before this one. ( )

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 accurate description indeed of this month-long battle. Civilians were slaughtered in their scores — by both sides, though on the German side it was intentional. Prisoners of war were killed by both sides — though, to be fair, that began with the SS massacre of captured American soldiers early on. The everyday brutality of the Ardennes battle is shown in many individual episodes Beevor recounts. He describes an Allied soldier having hanged a German soldier’s corpse from a tree and lit a fire under it. Why do this? To defrost the frozen body so that he could remove the soldier’s boots. (German boots were apparently more water-resistant than the American ones.)

There are moments when it seems that the Germans might have had a chance. At one point hundreds of Luftwaffe planes take off — long after Allied commanders had written the German air force off as a fighting force. Elite SS Panzer divisions fight ferociously even in the final days of the battle. But in reality, there was never a moment, not even at the beginning of the offensive, when the Germans stood a chance of turning the tide of war. In fact, the main effect of Hitler’s decision to launch a last-ditch offensive in the west was to ease the Soviet offensive launched in January 1945, as so few troops were left to defend Germany’s eastern borders.

This is a detailed, authoritative account that works on all levels — from the high command down to individual soldiers and civilians. Probably the last book I will ever have to read about what Americans call “the battle of the bulge”. ( )

more like 3.75 ( )

On December 16, 1944, sixteen German divisions launched an offensive against American forces in the thinly-held Ardennes Forest region of the Western Front. The brainchild of Adolf Hitler, its goal was to disrupt the Allied campaign in the west by seizing the recently-cleared port of Antwerp, which was playing a vital role in supplying the American, British, and Canadian armies. Though the assault caught the Americans by surprise, many units posed a determined defense that slowed down the German advance, buying time for reinforcements to be rushed to the region. As a result of this response, the German offensive bogged down and was broken in less than two weeks, leaving a "bulge" in the lines that was gradually reduced over the following month before the campaign's end in late January 1945.

Thanks to its dramatic circumstances the Battle of the Bulge has never wanted for attention, particularly from American historians. One of the virtues of Antony Beevor's account of the campaign is his scope of coverage. Opening his book with the liberation of Paris, he takes his readers through the operations on the Western Front in the autumn of 1944 in order to show the circumstances that defined the battle. Here he gives particular attention to the battle of Hürtgen Forest, the frustrated American offensive which wore down several divisions of the American First Army that were transferred to the "quiet" Ardennes region to recover. The thinly held sector was thus especially vulnerable to a German assault, which Hitler was determined to launch in a last gamble to decide the war on his terms.

Key to the Germans' plan was the element of surprise. Beevor chronicles well their preparations for the offensive, including the deception efforts made to conceal their intentions. Though American intelligence detected signs of the build-up, the Germans were aided by Allied assumptions that a German offensive was simply too impractical to contemplate. While the Germans exploited this, Beevor underscores the strain the massive diversion of resources imposed on their war effort. With their men exhausted and their supplies limited, nearly every German commander regarded the effort as a waste of men and materiel in an attack with little chance of success.

The first ten days of the offensive form the heart of Beevor's book. He covers events in a series of chapters that provide a day-to-day chronicle of operations. Through these pages he emphasizes the difficult conditions facing the men on both sides, who battled exhaustion and the cold weather as well as each other. Beevor also gives attention to the experience of the civilians, most of whom had experienced the joy of liberation just a few months beforehand. Their lives were soon threatened not just by the fighting but by German security forces determined to exact revenge. Though his coverage here provides a degree of depth lacking from most accounts of the battle, it lacks the detail about the civilian experience Beevor provided in D-Day: The Battle for Normandy and would have benefited from additional development.

This is a minor complaint that shouldn't overshadow Beevor's achievement here, though. Overall his book provides its readers with a clear description of the events of the battle and the factors that shaped its outcome. Seasoned as it is with his often sharp judgment of the personalities in command on both sides, his book serves as an effective account of the campaign. It compliments nicely his superb history of the D-Day campaign and is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in this important episode in the history of the Second World War. ( )

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 fleeting moment in late December when the Germans surprised the Americans and regained some territory.

In my humble opinion what Beevor does better than other war historians is incorporating the little details that get lost in the broader war; General Patton's awful poetry, the frozen stiff German soldier with his arm out frozen, allowing American soldiers to shake his hand whenever they passed, and of course Kurt Vonnegut Jnr's capture during the battle, are just a few of the vignettes that give us more insight into the Battle of the Bulge than any dry recounting of the Ardennes offensive could. ( )

Mi reseña completa del libro aquí. ( )

During this most critical phase of World War II many troops abandoned their posts; however, enough Americans pushed back Hitler’s drive during the Battle of the Bulge. War time conditions are horrendous at best but the battle was made that much more desperate by the wintry conditions which approximated the Eastern front.

The prose moves the battle along swiftly. The author chronicles the allied internal debates about command while still poignantly describing the horrors of winter battles. Atrocities were committed on both sides and the account is punctuated by interesting tidbits throughout.

Excellent history of Hitler's gamble in December 1944 ,which we know as the "Battle of the Bulge". The author is very critical of Generals Bradley and Montgomery , showing them as "prima donnas" ,who were more worried about their public persona and were prone to take and give offence easily. Indeed the "heroes" of this battle were the ordinary foot soldiers who stopped and held up the German advance, while the Generals were in shock at the "intelligence failure". Beevor also points out the suffering of Belgian civilians during the battle. We also read that some Generals were encouraging their men to take no prisoners in retaliation for the German shootings at Malmedy. Very good reading. ( )

I always approach Antony Beevor's books expecting the same high standards:
Meticulous research / attention to detail/ well paced narrative/ impartiality and an ability to retain reader interest.
This book does not disappoint.Readers will find out all about this winner takes all phase of the war which reveals the strengths and weaknesses on b. A wonderful book!ooth sides and how close the allies came to losing before the Germans literally ran out of gas! ( )

Excellent summary and analysis for the largest battle fought by US troops in WW 2. Typical senior officer malaise; Bradley was out of touch, lounging in Luxembourg and spent most of his energy and thoughts on making certain that Montgomery would rerurn his loaned Army and whether he would be discredited for his failure to act. As a long time friend and colleague of Eisenhower, he need not worry. He got his army back and a fourth star. Montgomery was his usual arrogant and obnoxious self and was finally shunted to an appropriately secondary role for the remainder of the war.

Lots of maps, hooray! Having traveled these areas of battle recently, I am truly astonished that anyone, in 1944, could maneuver armies in this terrain. This landscape produced many fierce fire fights fought by both sides with determination by the American side and fanaticism by the Germans.

At the sharp end, there were many mistakes made but enough unit and tactical competence, assisted by horrendous terrain and weather to slow the Germans until they quite literally ran out of gas. ( )

A very readable and reasonable account of the last great German offensive of the war on the western front. With the use of maps and concise dialogue this is a story that is easy to follow although in places, you can find yourself searching to see where the various units are. A good narrative that is uncompromising about the failures of both sides and in deed in the egos and vested interests in the allied commanders too. Interesting and worth reading for those who like history but particularly for those that want to know about the western front, high leadership and the end of the war from an Allied point of view. ( )

I have been a fan of Beevor’s books for some time. While not exactly a series, he has done a succession of WW2 campaign histories. This is not one of his better efforts. This is perhaps the 20th book on the campaign I have read [not counting the dozen or so board games I played on the topic]. So I could mentally reference the things he left out. Essentially he has done excellent tactical and terrain feel, barely adequate strategic overview and omitted the operational level. The tactical descriptions were quite good and gave a feel for what WW2 combat was like [a succession of platoon to battalion encounters that linked into a larger whole]. He does make the classic error of taking allied claims of how many Tiger tanks they faced seriously. Men in combat are not good at identifying enemy equipment. This is more true in conscript armies and for a variety of reasons the inept US individual replacement system produced a lot of very untrained men at the forward edge of battle. Every German armored vehicle was a Tiger to them, every artillery piece an 88. He avoided the second error, but fell into the first. It’s a minor thing but it grates. It is the operational level that is truly lacking. He does quite good command criticism, pointing out that few of the corps through theater commanders had a good grasp of the realities of the situations of their forces or their opponents. However he never tells you what they thought they saw. I could incorporate by reference from prior readings but this will be VERY frustrating if this is your first or second book on this campaign. He clearly knows his topic so my guess is the text was overedited by someone who either didn’t know or care. Finally, he brings to light new material on how destructive the campaign was to the local Belgians as well as the tit for tat rounds of executions of prisoners triggered by Peiper’s casual massacres. ( )