The Battle of the Bulge The Photographic History of an American Triumph

by Bruning, John

• ISBN13: 9780760341261
• ISBN10: 0760341265
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-02
• Publisher: Zenith Press

Summary

Second only to D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge is the most famous and significant battle fought by American forces in Europe in World War II. The Bulge was a last-ditch, desperate gamble by Hitler in December 1944 that caught the Western Allies by surprise. Only the willingness of Americans to stand and die prevented the German breakthrough that might have prolonged the war and allowed the Soviet Red Army to seize even more of central Europe. The thirty-nine day battle involved nearly a million men from both sides and resulted in nineteen thousand American casualties-almost as many as in the eighty days of fighting in the D-Day invasion and Normandy hedgerows. An iconic battle that helped define the U.S. soldier of the era, the Bulge continues to capture the imagination of armchair historians who are fascinated by the scale of destruction and #x1C;what-ifs#x1D; of the campaign.

Author Biography

John R. Bruning has been a professional military historian and writer since 1990. He is the author of Crimson Sky: The Air Battle for Korea, Jungle Ace, Elusive Glory, Ship Strike Pacific, Luck of the Draw, The Devil's Sandbox: With the 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry at War in Iraq. He served as an embedded civilian historian with the 2/162 during Operation Southern Comfort, the post–Hurricane Katrina relief operation in New Orleans. Bruning also has numerous articles, documentaries, multimedia CD-ROM programs, flight simulators, and museum displays to his credit. He lives in Independence, Oregon.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part I—The Reich’s Last Hope

Chapter One—Hitler’s Deadly Gamble

Chapter Two—Shoestrings and Bootstraps

Chapter Three—Mud and Pillboxes

Chapter Four—Watch on the Rhine

Part II—The North Shoulder

Chapter Five—John Buford’s Ghost

Chapter Six—The Checkerboards’ Stand

Chapter Seven—North Shoulder Blues

Chapter Eight—Where Medals of Honor Grew

Chapter Nine—The Panther Killers

Chapter Ten—Blue Spaders at the Hot Corner

Part III—The Center Fails

Chapter Eleven—A Noose for a War Criminal

Chapter Twelve—The Guardsmen and the SS

Part IV—Breakthrough

Chapter Thirteen—The Roads to Shönberg

Chapter Fourteen—Incident at Poteau

Chapter Fifteen—The Lucky Seventh

Chapter Sixteen—The Keystone of Skyline Drive

Chapter Seventeen—When the Odds Were Fifteen to One

Chapter Eighteen—Old Crock and Fritz

Chapter Nineteen—Roosevelt’s Highest-paid Butchers

Chapter Twenty—The Price of Over-caution

Bibliography

Index