Corps Commanders of the Bulge

by Winton, Harold R.; Showalter, Dennis

• ISBN13: 9780700615087
• ISBN10: 0700615083
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-03-16
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas

Summary

If the Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last gasp, it was also America's proving ground--the largest single action fought by the U.S. Army in World War II. Taking a new approach to an old story, Harold Winton widens our field of vision by showing how victory in this legendary campaign was built upon the remarkable resurrection of our truncated interwar army, an overhaul that produced the effective commanders crucial to G1 success in beating back the Ardennes counteroffensive launched by Hitler's forces. Winton's is the first study of the Bulge to examine leadership at the largely neglected level of corps command. Focusing on the decisions and actions of six Army corps commanders--Leonard Gerow, Troy Middleton, Matthew Ridgway, John Millikin, Manton Eddy, and J. Lawton Collins--he recreates their role in this epic struggle through a mosaic of narratives that take the commanders from the pre-war training grounds of America to the crucible of war in the icy-cold killing fields of Belgium and Luxembourg. Winton introduces the story of each phase of the Bulge with a theater-level overview of the major decisions and events that shaped the corps battles and, for the first time, fully integrates the crucial role of airpower into our understanding of how events unfolded on the ground. Unlike most accounts of the Ardennes that chronicle only the periods of German and American initiative, Winton's study describes an intervening middle phase in which the initiative was fiercely contested by both sides and the outcome uncertain. His inclusion of the principal American and German commanders adds yet another valuable layer to this rich tapestry of narrative and analysis. Ultimately, Winton arguesthat the flexibility of the corps structure and the competence of the men who commanded the six American corps that fought in the Bulge contributed significantly to the ultimate victory. Chronicling the human drama of commanding large numbers of soldiers in battle, he has produced an artful blend of combat narrative, collective biography, and institutional history that contributes significantly to the broader understanding of World War II as a whole.

Author Biography

Harold R. Winton is professor of military history and theory at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Air University.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Toward an American philosophy of command	p. 13
The making of six corps commanders	p. 31
The coming of the Bulge	p. 68
German initiative in action
The Germans attack, the allies react	p. 101
V corps halts the German Schwerpunkt	p. 112
VIII corps slows the flood	p. 137
XVIII (airborne) corps stands in the breach	p. 172
III, XII, and VII corps prepare for battle	p. 187
Initiative in flux
The struggle for initiative : tension in the allied camp	p. 203
III, VIII, and XII corps fight for initiative in the south	p. 216
XVIII (airborne), VII, and V corps fight for initiative in the north	p. 250
American initiative in action
Closing the Bulge : more tension in the allied camp	p. 287
VII, XVIII (airborne), and V corps close the Bulge from the north	p. 294
VIII, III, and XII corps close the Bulge from the south	p. 314
Conclusions and epilogue	p. 337
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.