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Patton at the Battle of the Bulge: How the General's Tanks Turned the Tide at Bastogne
December 1944. For the besieged American defenders of Bastogne, time was running out....
Hitler’s forces had pressed in on the small Belgian town in a desperate offensive designed to push back the Allies, starting the Battle of the Bulge. So far the U.S. soldiers had managed to repel waves of attackers and even a panzer onslaught. But as their ammunition dwindled, the weary paratroopers of the 101st Airborne could only hope for a miracle—a miracle in the form of General George S. Patton and his Third Army.
More than a hundred miles away, Patton, ordered to race his men to Bastogne, was already putting in motion the most crucial charge of his career. Tapped to spearhead his counterstrike against the Wehrmacht was the 4th Armored Division, a bloodied but experienced unit that had fought and slogged its way across France. But blazing a trail into Belgium meant going up against some of the best infantry and tank units in the German Army. Failure to reach Bastogne in time could result in the overrunning of the 101st—a catastrophic defeat that could turn the tide of the war and secure victory for the Nazis.
In Patton at the Battle of the Bulge, Army veteran and historian Leo Barron explores one of the most famous yet little told clashes of the war, a vitally important chapter in one of history’s most legendary battles.
Hitler’s forces had pressed in on the small Belgian town in a desperate offensive designed to push back the Allies, starting the Battle of the Bulge. So far the U.S. soldiers had managed to repel waves of attackers and even a panzer onslaught. But as their ammunition dwindled, the weary paratroopers of the 101st Airborne could only hope for a miracle—a miracle in the form of General George S. Patton and his Third Army.
More than a hundred miles away, Patton, ordered to race his men to Bastogne, was already putting in motion the most crucial charge of his career. Tapped to spearhead his counterstrike against the Wehrmacht was the 4th Armored Division, a bloodied but experienced unit that had fought and slogged its way across France. But blazing a trail into Belgium meant going up against some of the best infantry and tank units in the German Army. Failure to reach Bastogne in time could result in the overrunning of the 101st—a catastrophic defeat that could turn the tide of the war and secure victory for the Nazis.
In Patton at the Battle of the Bulge, Army veteran and historian Leo Barron explores one of the most famous yet little told clashes of the war, a vitally important chapter in one of history’s most legendary battles.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published October 28, 2014
57 people are currently reading
532 people want to read
About the author
Leo Barron
7 books30 followersLeo Barron works for General Dynamics as an instructor of military intelligence officers for the U.S. Army. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in history, and has served with the 101st Airborne. Barron has seen two tours of active duty in Iraq as an infantry and intelligence officer. His articles about Bastogne and other WWII-related military topics have appeared in Infantry Magazine, Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, WWII History Magazine, and WWII Magazine. His last book, No Silent Night: The Christmas Battle for Bastogne received an award from the Arizona Author's Association for Best Nonfiction in 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
December 28, 2014
This ia very well-written and researched book on those days during the Battle of the Bulge when Patton's Third Army (4th Armoured Division) broke through and relieved the siege at Bastogne. Many books have been written about Patton and the Battle of the Bulge, but this one did an excellent job in portraying how the common soldier (both American & German) fought on the ground. There is lot of information about the weaponry and tactics of both armies and of the dogged persistence of those brave men. The civilians who lived through these battles also get their say and it gives us a small insight into the conditions that people lived in during those days.
I definitely recommend this book to anybody intertested in military history and World War II.
I definitely recommend this book to anybody intertested in military history and World War II.
April 3, 2021
What I consider to be an exceptionally detailed account of Patton’s third army’s race to Bastogne/relief of a surrounded American division.
This is tanks plowing through massive German artillery fire. It is platoons and squads fighting desperately for the next mile of ground. It is German resistance giving absolutely everything they have to halt the third army’s headlong thrust to Bastogne to save their last desperate offensive. It is an accounting of Patton and his staff not letting the gas up to accomplish their mission.
This is their detailed stories of intense warfare taking place over a handful of days (sleep/rest was a rare commodity). If you’re a reader of WW2 that enjoys researched and detailed descriptions/actions/personnel/aftermath of a single event, you’ll certainly enjoy this book.
This is tanks plowing through massive German artillery fire. It is platoons and squads fighting desperately for the next mile of ground. It is German resistance giving absolutely everything they have to halt the third army’s headlong thrust to Bastogne to save their last desperate offensive. It is an accounting of Patton and his staff not letting the gas up to accomplish their mission.
This is their detailed stories of intense warfare taking place over a handful of days (sleep/rest was a rare commodity). If you’re a reader of WW2 that enjoys researched and detailed descriptions/actions/personnel/aftermath of a single event, you’ll certainly enjoy this book.
March 27, 2024
For a 3-star rating, this book is actually well-written and well-researched. However, I started reading the book because I wanted to read a book about General Patton at the Battle of the Bulge, and not a balanced account of how the battle went down. I thought this book would be more like Craig Symonds’ Nimitz at War, which examined General Nimitz’s state of mind while at war. This book, though interesting, is most certainly not what its title advertises.
If you want to read a thorough account of the Battle of the Bulge though, this is a pretty good read!
If you want to read a thorough account of the Battle of the Bulge though, this is a pretty good read!
January 2, 2025
Leo Barron gives a tremendous account the Ardennes campaign especially the siege of Bastogne. The US 4th armored division turning around and rescuing the besieged city is one of the impressive forms of feat ever displayed.
January 6, 2023
The story of the fight for a Belgian town during the Second World War is told in swift-moving fashion thanks to historian Leo Barron's Patton at the Battle of the Bulge: How the General's Tanks Turned the Tide at Bastogne. The book focuses on the U.S. Army's attempt to fight their way through the Wehrmacht defenders and end the siege of the 101st Airborne in Bastogne, Belgium in the last winter of the war.
To start out with, a little commentary on the title is in order. General George Patton is not a central player in the book in the sense that he frequently appears in it; while his Third Army has a massive role to play in the fighting, the heroic American officers underneath him receive the lion's share of paragraph space. Perhaps the decision to go with 'Patton' in the title was undertaken in order to attract more readership?
The attempt to relieve Bastogne was part of a broader effort to turn back the tide of attacking Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. That this was a last ditch effort by an increasingly desperate Wehrmacht is communicated well by Barron; that it also presented a real threat to the U.S. Army following their successes in France also comes through to readers.
The book essentially takes places in the days immediately before and immediately after Christmas 1944, with a massive amount of tank fighting and urban combat compressed into barely a week's time. As previously mentioned, a huge focus on Patton is passed over to look at the commanders fighting it out in Belgium (tiny Luxembourg also find itself caught in the crossfire of combat). Germany's Fallschirmjäger and Panzergrenadier played huge roles in fighting a defensive action within the broader context of a German offensive to blunt the Allies' momentum and cut off Allied control of the Antwerp port.
Colon Ludwig Heilmann is the main German antagonist during much of the Bulge fighting covered in these pages, ultimately seeing his Fallschirmjägers fall short in their effort to stop the U.S. Fourth Army's onslaught.
As readers are walked through an almost minute by minute recounting of the combat in late December 1944, Allied air superiority and America's Sherman tanks ultimately wear down the spirited German fighters. The ability of the P-47 Thunderbolt to terrorize German infantry and tank commanders lent a huge assist to the army during fights over Belgian towns whose names-like Tintange-might not be household ones at first but will become familiar to readers by the book's concluding chapters.
U.S. Colonel Creighton Abrams is a key figure in the fighting, and Jimmie Leach is another tank commander with an important role to play in the fight for control of Bastogne.
Fourth Army Division head Hugh Gaffey's number of appearances in the book rival those of Patton's, and his mastery of broad tactical maneuvers seemed to be a major advantage for the U.S. Army's ability to wrest the momentum away from the Wehrmacht. Barron does not delve deeply into the back stories of any of the colonels or generals whose battlefield decisions he scrutinizes, but their decision-making prowess under fire gives a good look into their character. The high quality of American military leadership during the Battle of Bulge is inescapable, and this-alongside the heads up work of U.S. intelligence-was presented as playing a positive role in the ultimate American victory.
Patton at the Battle of the Bulge is compact in its scope, but it is a great recounting of a furious week of clashes in 1944. A German Army reeling from defeats in the eastern, and, post D-Day, western theater as well, could ill afford a failure of its Christmastime offensive at the hands of the Americans. The desperation the German Army's efforts and the feelings of futility slowly creeping in are apparent thanks to the author's skillful handling of the subject matter.
This work is a fantastic tribute to the brave American commanders as well as the everyday infantry and artillerymen who turned a surprise assault through the Ardennes into a near knock out blow of their enemy. It is a great read and will be appreciated by those who enjoy reading about all things World War Two.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
To start out with, a little commentary on the title is in order. General George Patton is not a central player in the book in the sense that he frequently appears in it; while his Third Army has a massive role to play in the fighting, the heroic American officers underneath him receive the lion's share of paragraph space. Perhaps the decision to go with 'Patton' in the title was undertaken in order to attract more readership?
The attempt to relieve Bastogne was part of a broader effort to turn back the tide of attacking Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. That this was a last ditch effort by an increasingly desperate Wehrmacht is communicated well by Barron; that it also presented a real threat to the U.S. Army following their successes in France also comes through to readers.
The book essentially takes places in the days immediately before and immediately after Christmas 1944, with a massive amount of tank fighting and urban combat compressed into barely a week's time. As previously mentioned, a huge focus on Patton is passed over to look at the commanders fighting it out in Belgium (tiny Luxembourg also find itself caught in the crossfire of combat). Germany's Fallschirmjäger and Panzergrenadier played huge roles in fighting a defensive action within the broader context of a German offensive to blunt the Allies' momentum and cut off Allied control of the Antwerp port.
Colon Ludwig Heilmann is the main German antagonist during much of the Bulge fighting covered in these pages, ultimately seeing his Fallschirmjägers fall short in their effort to stop the U.S. Fourth Army's onslaught.
As readers are walked through an almost minute by minute recounting of the combat in late December 1944, Allied air superiority and America's Sherman tanks ultimately wear down the spirited German fighters. The ability of the P-47 Thunderbolt to terrorize German infantry and tank commanders lent a huge assist to the army during fights over Belgian towns whose names-like Tintange-might not be household ones at first but will become familiar to readers by the book's concluding chapters.
U.S. Colonel Creighton Abrams is a key figure in the fighting, and Jimmie Leach is another tank commander with an important role to play in the fight for control of Bastogne.
Fourth Army Division head Hugh Gaffey's number of appearances in the book rival those of Patton's, and his mastery of broad tactical maneuvers seemed to be a major advantage for the U.S. Army's ability to wrest the momentum away from the Wehrmacht. Barron does not delve deeply into the back stories of any of the colonels or generals whose battlefield decisions he scrutinizes, but their decision-making prowess under fire gives a good look into their character. The high quality of American military leadership during the Battle of Bulge is inescapable, and this-alongside the heads up work of U.S. intelligence-was presented as playing a positive role in the ultimate American victory.
Patton at the Battle of the Bulge is compact in its scope, but it is a great recounting of a furious week of clashes in 1944. A German Army reeling from defeats in the eastern, and, post D-Day, western theater as well, could ill afford a failure of its Christmastime offensive at the hands of the Americans. The desperation the German Army's efforts and the feelings of futility slowly creeping in are apparent thanks to the author's skillful handling of the subject matter.
This work is a fantastic tribute to the brave American commanders as well as the everyday infantry and artillerymen who turned a surprise assault through the Ardennes into a near knock out blow of their enemy. It is a great read and will be appreciated by those who enjoy reading about all things World War Two.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
November 27, 2016
This is another work on the European Theatre of World War Two that I enjoyed in the fall of 2016. In this instance I listened to this book in audiobook format. This book is more operational history and is what probably many who are interested in World War Two battles want to read and hear. It tells us the story of General Patton’s attempt to break the German military stronghold surrounding the US Army 101st Airborne Division in a town called Bastogne from the perspective of one of Patton’s favorite outfit: The Fourth Armored Division.
I love how the author told the story not with just one unit but various kinds of units such as Armored Battalions, infantry, artillery, the intelligence shop of the Third Army and even certain squadrons and wings of the Army Air Corps. It was impressive research. When I looked up who the author was after I finished the audio book I was quite amazed at how young the author was and the fact that he’s an Iraq War veteran. He has definitely master the historical and operational details of war from another generation. Yet with all his historical knowledge the book was never presented in a dry manner. Far from it: Barron shifts from various individual and their perspective of the fighting. You get the perspective of tank commanders, commanding officers of Battalions, pilots and the individual foot soldier. This alone made the book enjoyable but Barron manages to give blow by blow account going back and forth with the German side as well which makes this very impressive. The author focuses mainly on the German Fallschirmjäger units, which were German elite paratroopers. However by this time of the war German Fallschirmjäger were often mixed bag, some of which were composed of former Navy sailors and formerly wounded German Fallschirmjäger non-commissioned officers. One thing I learned from the book is how often the younger German recruits in these units were a lot more zealous than some of the other soldiers because they were much more impressionable by Nazi propaganda. Listening to this book the author gave readers the sense that one should respect the enemy for the fight they put up.
I really enjoyed how this book was operational history. I especially enjoyed the author’s deeper analysis on the different table of organization and equipment between the US Army and the German Army. It was neat to hear the breakdown of how units were organized. It was also neat to hear how different tanks and artillery shell work. What left a deep impression for me is how the German Army might have began with the concept of blitzkrieg with lighting combined arms strike but it was the Americans in the end of the War that perfected it. Small units in the US Army during the Battle of Bastogne were able to communicate much more effectively than their German counterpart did and were able to requests artillery, tank and even air support in ways that even bigger German units were unable to during the battle and for the entire war. I think the ability to coordinate combined arms in combat is one of America’s ability to succeed in pitched battles from World War two onward. I was also struck from listening to this audio book of how the German Army was still relying heavily on horses and rails when my impression has always been that the German Army was a lot more modernized and motorized.
Again an excellent work. Very enjoyable. The audio book is about thirteen hours long and is great to listen during long trips on the road which was when I listened to this during the Holiday Season.
I love how the author told the story not with just one unit but various kinds of units such as Armored Battalions, infantry, artillery, the intelligence shop of the Third Army and even certain squadrons and wings of the Army Air Corps. It was impressive research. When I looked up who the author was after I finished the audio book I was quite amazed at how young the author was and the fact that he’s an Iraq War veteran. He has definitely master the historical and operational details of war from another generation. Yet with all his historical knowledge the book was never presented in a dry manner. Far from it: Barron shifts from various individual and their perspective of the fighting. You get the perspective of tank commanders, commanding officers of Battalions, pilots and the individual foot soldier. This alone made the book enjoyable but Barron manages to give blow by blow account going back and forth with the German side as well which makes this very impressive. The author focuses mainly on the German Fallschirmjäger units, which were German elite paratroopers. However by this time of the war German Fallschirmjäger were often mixed bag, some of which were composed of former Navy sailors and formerly wounded German Fallschirmjäger non-commissioned officers. One thing I learned from the book is how often the younger German recruits in these units were a lot more zealous than some of the other soldiers because they were much more impressionable by Nazi propaganda. Listening to this book the author gave readers the sense that one should respect the enemy for the fight they put up.
I really enjoyed how this book was operational history. I especially enjoyed the author’s deeper analysis on the different table of organization and equipment between the US Army and the German Army. It was neat to hear the breakdown of how units were organized. It was also neat to hear how different tanks and artillery shell work. What left a deep impression for me is how the German Army might have began with the concept of blitzkrieg with lighting combined arms strike but it was the Americans in the end of the War that perfected it. Small units in the US Army during the Battle of Bastogne were able to communicate much more effectively than their German counterpart did and were able to requests artillery, tank and even air support in ways that even bigger German units were unable to during the battle and for the entire war. I think the ability to coordinate combined arms in combat is one of America’s ability to succeed in pitched battles from World War two onward. I was also struck from listening to this audio book of how the German Army was still relying heavily on horses and rails when my impression has always been that the German Army was a lot more modernized and motorized.
Again an excellent work. Very enjoyable. The audio book is about thirteen hours long and is great to listen during long trips on the road which was when I listened to this during the Holiday Season.
December 23, 2014
Well, if you're not into reading about blow-by-blow descriptions of war, this would not be a good read for you. On the other hand, if you do like reading about that, and can reasonably keep up with armored divisions, brigades,infantry units, artillery, etc., you'll enjoy this book. It's a good book about how George Patton's 4th Armored Division was the first to reach the besieged 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge (although surviving members of the 101st Airborne will insist that they did not need "rescuing"). It's very descriptive, a fast moving book that only discusses the 4th Armored's role in relieving Bastogne. I was a bit disappointed, though. I was expecting more about Patton himself, as the title of the book indicates. I already knew about the 4th Armored from a book that I'd read many years ago called "Patton's Best." I think Patton was mentioned, by name, less than half a dozen times in the book. Still, if you're a World War II affecionado I'm sure you'll enjoy the book. Minutely detailed and researched, the author discusses the various types of equipment that both the Germans and Americans were using and that was interesting in itself. I only give it three stars because, as I said, I was expecting more about Patton and not so much about the minutae of the battle. The fact that the 4th Armored could do what it did, in the short time that it did it, was somewhat of a miracle and a tribute to the American soldier. My dad fought in the Battle of the Bulge, never said anything about his experiences, but, thankfully, he lived through it...many Americans did not.
December 7, 2020
The title is a misnomer as Patton is barely mentioned and the book is only about the rescue of the 101st Airborne at Bastogne by his very able subordinates, not the Battle of the Bulge itself. It was a very detailed description of all the hardships and battles that preceded the rescue that finally ended the Battle of the Bulge. Still it was an interesting snapshot of 6 weeks of critical WWII history.
April 7, 2022
For WWII wonks only.
I got this free with my Audible memberships - so I listened rather than read. Mistake. This is a book that is better read than listened to.
Too much minutiae around troop configurations and their order of battle. If you don't know the difference between a platoon, company , division , brigade etc. you will be lost.
And you will need a map (or several) or you will be hopelessly confused as to who is where and why it is important.
This is about the battle of the bulge; or one element of that battle the southern "shoulder" and Patton's 3rd army's drive north to relieve the strategically important town of Bastogne where a substantial American force (including the 101st Airborne ) was surrounded.
If you don't know anything about this battle you probably should read a more general overview as opposed to this rather narrow portion of the overall engagement. (The chapters dealing with the Bulge in Rick Atkinson's excellent "The Guns at Last Light come to mind) .
Also despite the title Patton is barely featured in this book. He makes an appearance once or twice and there is a short bio early on but really this is not a book about Patton at all (again, there are excellent books about Patton for those who care to read up on him).
As someone who has read many books about the Western Front I was caught off guard about how little I knew about this element of the Battle of the Bulge. Too many histories make it seem like the Germans took the allies by surprise for a few days and then the allies just casually sallied north and crushed them. It wasn't a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination and this book does illuminate quite clearly just how desperate the fight was and how much blood was spilled.
I will probably buy the actual book and read it and I recommend you do too if interested in the story - just don't get the audio book. Trust me on that.
I got this free with my Audible memberships - so I listened rather than read. Mistake. This is a book that is better read than listened to.
Too much minutiae around troop configurations and their order of battle. If you don't know the difference between a platoon, company , division , brigade etc. you will be lost.
And you will need a map (or several) or you will be hopelessly confused as to who is where and why it is important.
This is about the battle of the bulge; or one element of that battle the southern "shoulder" and Patton's 3rd army's drive north to relieve the strategically important town of Bastogne where a substantial American force (including the 101st Airborne ) was surrounded.
If you don't know anything about this battle you probably should read a more general overview as opposed to this rather narrow portion of the overall engagement. (The chapters dealing with the Bulge in Rick Atkinson's excellent "The Guns at Last Light come to mind) .
Also despite the title Patton is barely featured in this book. He makes an appearance once or twice and there is a short bio early on but really this is not a book about Patton at all (again, there are excellent books about Patton for those who care to read up on him).
As someone who has read many books about the Western Front I was caught off guard about how little I knew about this element of the Battle of the Bulge. Too many histories make it seem like the Germans took the allies by surprise for a few days and then the allies just casually sallied north and crushed them. It wasn't a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination and this book does illuminate quite clearly just how desperate the fight was and how much blood was spilled.
I will probably buy the actual book and read it and I recommend you do too if interested in the story - just don't get the audio book. Trust me on that.
March 26, 2024
In “Patton at the Battle of the Bulge” Leo Barron tells the story of how the 3rd US Army, led by General George Patton, pivoted their axis of advance and fought their way to relieve the besieged 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne.
Spearheaded by the 4th Armored Division, the 3rd Army fought through heavy German defenses to relieve Bastogne.
Beginning Dec 19, 1944, Patton’s forces finally broke through to the 101st on Dec 26.
Their journey required them to smash through layers of German defenses established along the 3rd Army’s axis of advance.
Told in minute detail, this story begins with a summary of the German plan for the battle, the initial Allied response, and the fast response of 3rd Army to turn north and attack the south flank of the German advance.
Each battle to defeat the German defensive layers is told with the actions of each unit of the 4th Armored Division, sometimes down to platoon level, told.
This book did not tell the story of the battle is other area; this book stuck only to the 3rd Army and the 4th Armored Division fight to Bastogne.
It did, however, relate some important factors that contributed to the Allied response and the 3rd Army victory: Col. Oscar Koch, the 3rd Army G2 (intelligence officer) was the only Allied intelligence officer that did not believe the Germans were already defeated, and was the reason 3rd Army was able to react faster than the rest of the major Allied units; also, about halfway through their advance to Bastogne, the weather finally cleared and the 4th Armored Division was able to get close air support and airborne spotting for artillery fire. These developments were crucial to the 3rd Army’s success.
For a more full” account of the Battle of the Bulge, I would suggest Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45 by Peter Caddick-Adams. I think these 2 books together give a detailed account of the most crucial battle of the war on the Western front.
Spearheaded by the 4th Armored Division, the 3rd Army fought through heavy German defenses to relieve Bastogne.
Beginning Dec 19, 1944, Patton’s forces finally broke through to the 101st on Dec 26.
Their journey required them to smash through layers of German defenses established along the 3rd Army’s axis of advance.
Told in minute detail, this story begins with a summary of the German plan for the battle, the initial Allied response, and the fast response of 3rd Army to turn north and attack the south flank of the German advance.
Each battle to defeat the German defensive layers is told with the actions of each unit of the 4th Armored Division, sometimes down to platoon level, told.
This book did not tell the story of the battle is other area; this book stuck only to the 3rd Army and the 4th Armored Division fight to Bastogne.
It did, however, relate some important factors that contributed to the Allied response and the 3rd Army victory: Col. Oscar Koch, the 3rd Army G2 (intelligence officer) was the only Allied intelligence officer that did not believe the Germans were already defeated, and was the reason 3rd Army was able to react faster than the rest of the major Allied units; also, about halfway through their advance to Bastogne, the weather finally cleared and the 4th Armored Division was able to get close air support and airborne spotting for artillery fire. These developments were crucial to the 3rd Army’s success.
For a more full” account of the Battle of the Bulge, I would suggest Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45 by Peter Caddick-Adams. I think these 2 books together give a detailed account of the most crucial battle of the war on the Western front.
August 29, 2021
If you want to read a book about George Patton, this is not the book for you. He appears in about 5 paragraphs. If you want to learn how his subordinates in the 3rd Army pivoted north to save the American soldiers trapped in Bastogne during the battle of the Bulge, this is a great book. Early in the book the author has a bit too much detail, e.g. the exact coordinates for artillery fire; his maps are difficult to interpret. He stopped with the extraneous details and told a compelling story of bravery. Highly recommend. Kristi & Abby Tabby
October 23, 2021
Really disappointing. The book claims to be about Patton, yet he is not mentioned after chapter 2 (there are 10 chapters) This book is a collection of accounts of actions taken by Patton's subordinates, it is NOT about Patton at the Battle of the Bulge. While the anecdotal content and factual accounts make for an interesting mix, the text is greatly hindered by syntactic and grammatical errors. It could have used some more proofreading.
August 14, 2018
Expected it to be more of a strategic look at the battle, but was pleasantly surprised when this book took you to the foxhole and the interior of a tank from both sides of the battles. A fantastic read that was more like a fast paced novel than a history. I quickly found that I couldn’t put it down.
November 17, 2021
Ironically this isn’t a book so much about George Patton as it is…not. Great detail of the battles is why this book gets 3 stars from me instead of 2. It’s really mostly a matter of opinion. I wanted to read about Patton, his leadership and decisions leading up to and during this mission. This is not that book, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Just not what I was looking for.
January 15, 2022
I listened to the audio book. It is by far the best accounting of the Battle of the Bulge I have read so far. It details day by day and sometimes hour by hour battles from both sides for the several days battle.
I highly recommend this book.
I highly recommend this book.
August 20, 2022
Throughly researched and detailed book. Provides detailed account to the tactical level of battle - at times to a fault. If looking for tactical feel from battlefield this is a good read but can bog down at times if looking for bigger picture narrative.
January 16, 2023
Well researched but very little concerning what Patton actually brought to the war. His military genius is acknowledged but the reader is left to wonder what exactly was the scope of Patton’s expertise and insights. Great detail concerning German opposition. Overall, a good book.
January 27, 2023
Patton, and his march to alleviate the 101st Airborne, is a well known story for me. I've studied the Battle of the Bulge and Bastogne in depth. That being said, this book felt like it focused more around Patton's commanders and actions they took to reach Bastogne than on Patton himself.
August 13, 2023
#audible
Detailed account of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. In describing the actions of so many divisions and troops from both sides, the author gives a good feel for the magnitude of the fight.
Detailed account of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. In describing the actions of so many divisions and troops from both sides, the author gives a good feel for the magnitude of the fight.
November 18, 2019
Great book. Well written. I loved that the story was told from both sides. Very interesting and detailed accounts. I only wish I had bought the print version rather than the audible version.
April 9, 2021
Audible Audiobook
June 15, 2021
Good book looking at the soldiers on both the Allies and Axis sides of the battle.
January 12, 2022
When this narrative becomes sliced and diced, as is presented here, the desiccated remains seems strangely less compelling
February 12, 2022
Good book but there was very little in there about Patton
July 5, 2022
Detailed battlefield level account
Well written book that provides a company level and below view of the German advance and the 3rd Armys daring rescue.
Well written book that provides a company level and below view of the German advance and the 3rd Armys daring rescue.
July 17, 2022
Patton
Not easy to read did not flow well. Great story but difficult to follow. It was an average book. The
Not easy to read did not flow well. Great story but difficult to follow. It was an average book. The
December 29, 2022
Highly detailed account of event upto and surrounding the battle of the bulge during WWII.
Want to read
March 16, 2023154
March 26, 2023
Just okay.
May 25, 2023
Maybe add a start if you like Tanks and Military history. I wanted to learn about Patton and his role in this battle. Didn't learn much. Maybe you will feel differently. Enjoy!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews