Hitler's Last Offensive

by Elstob, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780850529845
• ISBN10: 0850529840
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Pen & Sword

Summary

This is the full story of the Battle of the Ardennes. In the last weeks of 1944 the German armies in the West, after a continuous retreat since the Battle of Normandy five months earlier were regrouping in what they thought was to be the last battle in defence of the Fatherland. But Hitler had other plans - to mount an offensive through the Ardennes that would deal such a blow to the Western Allies that they would be willing to negotiate a separate peace. This is the offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge. Could Hitler's gamble have succeeded? Could he have reached his objective, the port of Antwerp? Peter Elstob unfolds the whole panorama of the 'last offensive' which was one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War, garnished with many acts of individual heroism and many errors of judgement by the firebrand General George Patton, the superb German generals and others. Paradoxically, all it ensured was that the Russians would reach Berlin first. Selling Points * With the Allies and the Red Army encircling the Fatherland, the Battle of the Ardennes was Hitler's last chance to win a decisive victory and sue for peace in the West. * The Battle of the Ardennes encompasses the Battle of the Bulge. * Reveals how close the brilliantly led German army, with its superior Tiger tanks, came to realising the Fuhrer's objectives. * First Published by Secker & Warburg 1971. Author Details Peter Elstob was born in London and educated in the US. He served in the Royal Tank Regiment from 1940-1946 and is the author of Bastogne: The Road Block and The Battle of the Reichswald as well as his superb novel of tank warfare, Warriors for the Working Day, which has sold over a quarter of a million copies.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD	xiii
Part One BACKGROUND AND PREPARATIONS
1 In Hitler's Dark Forest	3	(13)
2 The German Plan	16	(8)
3 Allies and Rivals	24	(10)
4 The Opposing Forces	34	(17)
5 The Northern Attack Plan	51	(16)
Part Two BLITZKREIG
6 The Initial Assault	67	(11)
7 The Southern Attack	78	(10)
8 'Defend In Place'	88	(12)
9 The Approach to Bastogne	100	(10)
10 The Our is Crossed	110	(9)
11 The Trap is Set ...	119	(9)
12 ...And Sprung!	128	(12)
13 The Breakthrough	140	(14)
14 Bastogne is Reached	154	(12)
15 Destruction of a Division	166
16 Twenty-five Miles in Two Days	119	(71)
17 The Shoulders Hold	190	(15)
18 Command Decisions	205	(14)
19 Bastogne In Danger	219	(11)
20 High Water Mark for Battlegroup Peiper	230	(13)
21 St Vith Falls-Bastogne Holds	243	(19)
22 The Defence Hardens	262	(13)
23 Critical Hours for First US Army	275	(12)
24 More Than Man Can Bear	287	(18)
Part Three THE ROLES ARE REVERSED
25 Turn of the Tide	305	(15)
26 The Advance is Checked	320	(18)
27 Counter-offensive	338	(11)
28 Last Desperate German Effort	349	(16)
29 A Summing Up	365	(26)
THE ORDER OF BATTLE	391	(1)
SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY	392	(3)
INDEX	395