audiobook Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge by Antony Beevor in History

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. i'd gotten used to hearing personal stories from Hitler and the Wehrmacht and SS point of view with books like The Fall of Berlin 1945By Aiex Halomore of what I expected from Antony Beevor's writing. He is extremely detailed on military matters without going too deeply into a shot-by-shot coverage. The scope in this book is much more compressed than any other of his I've read; with at least 1/3rd of the chapters covering individual days between December 21stish to December 26th; before resuming the usual thematic scheme rather than strict chronological coverage.i'd gotten used to hearing personal stories from Hitler and the Wehrmacht and SS point of view with books like The Fall of Berlin 1945; and was slightly disappointed that there was a lot less of that in this book. Instead; there's a focus on a great deal of US generals and commanders; sometimes with highly similar or unremarkable names; and almost no pictures of them among the picture-sections to be able to distinguish between them. Meanwhile; Wehrmacht and SS generals Sepp Dietrich; Hasso von Manteuffel; Model; Kokott; and Peiper all get pictures.Unfortunately; (perhaps as a result of the highly compressed nature of the offensive) there is a lot of repetition and overlap in several of the chapters; including some pseudo-spoilers about the fates of certain regiments and divisions being completely wiped out; only to have them show up a hundred pages later fresh into battle. Descriptions of certain army groups and movements start to blur together and it becomes impossible to keep track of what's happening. At least the SS and Wehrmacht divisions are fewer in number or have nicknames attached to them like "Führer Begleit"; "Hitler Jugend"; "Das Reich"; "Hohenstaufen"; while the same handful of German divisions are constantly in use; like the 3rd Panzergrenadiers; the 26th and 560th Volksgrenadiers; and the 2nd SS Panzer division.Some situations seem to not be given the appropriate coverage or tone by the author; such as the incident with Montgomery's assuming direct control over US armies in the northern shoulder and the ensuing backlash; which is treated as just another series of events by the author; yet is later described as being somehow the most catastrophic incident to the Allies; which some people believed would've caused the Western Allies to completely split apart.Another minor issue I have is with the map placement. Since so many chapters go over individual days; you are always having to go back several dozen; then several hundred pages to find the maps; separated by location and sometimes by different army movements. The worst part is some of the maps cover events unfolding over a period of 5 or more days; and are placed right at the beginning of a chapter well before you're even aware of what the map is depicting. There are two such maps devoted solely to the encirclement and destruction of a single US division which is here and gone in the first half of the chapter; and then only one map covering the Kampfgruppe Peiper advance and the locations of places like Stavelot and St Vith; which is then referred to dozens of times for the next 200 pagesMuch more than his other books; this is one where you have to pay lots of attention and most likely take notes since you're unlikely to read through it all in one session0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Beevor delivers another excellent history on WWII!By Andy GlassBeevor delivers another excellent history on WWII! I've always been a fan of WWII history and this one particularly interested me because I had an uncle who was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. Antony Beevor delivers the story with an outstanding mix of the human side of the events - commanders; infantry and civilians - and the tactics of the battle. And without bogging things down in an academic study of the strategy. He brings the story to life through the people on the ground; what the commanders were dealing with; what it was like to be in a bunker during a shelling and how the civilian population dealt with the ever shifting lines. After reading this book; I was better able to appreciate what my uncle's experience must have been like. I've read several of Beevor's books and he always delivers!2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Good ReadBy HaggarI enjoyed this book very much and I have over the past years read several accounts of the "Battle of the Bulge". The anecdotal information along with the personal observations of so many of the participants really brought out the human dimension. I agree with some other reviewers that the inclusion of more maps would have been helpful. The battlefield was huge and the action difficult to follow without more detailed maps.I did find two errors that surprised me. First of all; it is extremely grating when a renown military historian such as Anthony Beevor still refers to Patton's pistols as "pearl handled". As any historian of World War II knows; or at least should know; the pistol grips were ivory. If you want to know Patton's opinion of "pearl handled" pistols go watch George C. Scott in the 1970 movie "Patton".The second error was a bit more egregious. In Chapter 7; entitled "Intelligence Failure" Mr. Beevor states; "A German spoiling attach before Christmas was also considered to be quite likely; but hardly anybody expected it to come from the Eifel and through the Ardennes; even though the Germans had used this route in 1870; 1914 and 1940."Actually; the Germans (or more specifically the Prussians) did not come through the Ardennes in 1870. During that war both the Germans and the French were very careful not to infringe on Belgian neutrality. The German invasion came south of Luxembourg.The Germans did come through the Ardennes in 1914. They sent two field armies into the Ardennes where they were met by two French armies. The main German invasion came through Belgium north of the Ardennes when the Germans launched a three-army assault in an attempt to turn the Franco-British left flank. And of course the armies that fought in those early August battles in the Ardennes were non-mechanized infantry.The only time the Germans made the primary assault on France through the Ardennes was 1940 and in that instance the battle took place in May and the Ardennes itself was undefended. The French sought to stop the German advance on the Marne after the German mechanized units were clear of the Ardennes itself. And that battle was fought in the warm weather of May with the Germans having clear air superiority.The December 1944 battle in the Ardennes saw the US Army in position on the eastern border of the forest ensuring that the battle would take place in the rough terrain and limited road network of the Ardennes. It was winter and the Allies had overwhelming air superiority. Given those parameters and the eventual outcome of the battle it would seem that the intelligence estimate that such an assault made no military sense was correct.