Andrew Smith's Reviews > The Battle Of The Bulge. Hitler's Final Gamble In Western Europe

The Battle of the Bulge was (16/12/44 – 25/1/45) was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during WWII. It was also the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States and the third-deadliest campaign in American history. In fact it’s really inaccurate to call it a single battle as it was really a series of fights between German and largely inexperienced US troops, fought through the densely forested Ardennes region of Belgium.

This book covers of the context of the battle and walks through the significant events that took place during those terrible five weeks. The detail imparted also includes: troop movements, intelligence gathered, equipment and armoury deployed, condition and terrain. Aside from this there are quite a number of first person accounts of actions witnessed – some of these extremely harrowing. Incidents touched on include atrocities carried out by German troops, such as the Malmedy massacre, a war crime committed by soldiers of the Waffen-SS.

What comes across strongly is just how much confusion was caused to Allied troops, who were caught completely off-guard by the offensive. Also, very evident is the chaos, confusion, random luck (both good and bad) and sheer brutality of war. One surprise to me was the degree of antipathy senior American soldiers felt towards British Field Marshal Montgomery, who after the event tried to grab much of the glory even though he only really got seriously involved after the battle had been pretty much won.

I listened to an audio version, competently read by Mack Gordon. My only reservation here being that trying to keep tabs on what was a complex and confusing event was very difficult without a map to hand or a good working knowledge of both the area and the makeup of the various American units deployed. An easy one to remedy, perhaps, but tough when you’re largely listening to the book whilst walking your four-legged friend.

My thanks to Arcturus Digital Audio for providing a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.