Hitler’s Winter

The Battle of the Bulge is one of the most famous episodes of World War II. Hitler's dramatic counterattack caught the Allies off guard in what became the largest and bloodiest battle fought by US forces during the war.This new study examines the battle from the German perspective, detailing the build-up of forces and the plan behind the attack before going on to tell the story of the campaign from the point of view of the forces involved, from the ordinary German soldier through to the high command.Author Anthony Tucker-Jones is a highly regarded and well-recognized historian with a strong media presence.Anthony Tucker-Jones started his career writing for Jane's Defence Weekly and Jane's Intelligence Review. He has written a number of books on aspects of World War II and regularly appears on Sky News, ITV, Channel Four, BBC Television, BBC Radio and the History Channel.'What a brilliant book this is. a terrific narrative of Hitler's Ardennes offensive of December 1944 - superb storytelling that achieves a skilful balance between drama and detail.' - James Holland The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive in the West. Launched in the depths of winter to neutralize the overwhelming Allied air superiority, three German armies attacked through the Ardennes, the weakest part of the American lines, with the aim of splitting the Allied armies and seizing the vital port of Antwerp within a week. It was a tall order, as the Panzers had to get across the Our, Amblève, Ourthe and Meuse rivers, and the desperate battle became a race against time and the elements, which the Germans would eventually lose. But Hitler's dramatic counterattack did succeed in catching the Allies off guard in what became the largest and bloodiest battle fought by US forces during the war. In this book, Anthony Tucker-Jones tells the story of the battle from the German point of view, from the experiences of the infantrymen and panzer crewmen fighting on the ground in the Ardennes to the operational decisions of senior commanders such as SS-Oberstgruppenführer Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich and General Hasso von Manteuffel that did so much to decide the fate of the offensive. Drawing on new research, Hitler's Winter provides a fresh perspective on one of the most famous battles of World War II.Based on new research, Hitler's Winter tells the story of the Battle of the Bulge from the German perspective.Foreword by Professor Peter Caddick-Adams Prologue: The Pied Piper List of Maps List of Illustrations PART ONE: A DARING PLAN 1. Scarface 2. Big or Small Solution 3. The Holy Grail 4. How Many Rivers? PART TWO: SCRAPING THE BARREL 5. People's Grenadiers 6. Exhausted Panzers 7. Unleash the Tigers PART THREE: WHERE'S THE LUFTWAFFE? 8. Fighter not a Bomber 9. The Big Blow 10. 'Stubble-hoppers' PART FOUR: INTO BATTLE 11. Peiper Leads the Charge 12. Krauts Speaking English 13. The Losheim Gap 14. Falcon Takes Flight PART FIVE: RACE AGAINST TIME 15. Victory at St Vith 16. Stalled at Bastogne 17. Clear Skies PART SIX: HERE COME THE AMERICANS 18. Almost to the Meuse 19. American Counter-attack PART SEVEN: TOO LATE TO HELP 20. Rockets to Antwerp 21. Battle of the Airfields 22. Alsace Diversion PART EIGHT: COMPLETE FAILURE 23. Back Where They Started 24. Where Did It All Go Wrong? Appendix Notes and References Bibliography Index Anthony Tucker-Jones's study of these battles is timely and important.What a brilliant book this is. a terrific narrative of Hitler's Ardennes offensive of December 1944 - superb storytelling that achieves a skilful balance between drama and detail.Tucker-Jones has delivered another gem. Hitler's Winter takes the reader on a breath-taking ride from the "other side of the hill" and is a must-read compendium to the vast corpus of Allied accounts of the Battle of the Bulge. Simply stunning.Anthony Tucker-Jones offers a fresh insight into the Battle of the Bulge that few historians have matched. Although several books have been written about the Ardennes from the German perspective, very few authors have captured the spirit of the conflict through the eyes of the combatants themselves.An excellent themed analysis of why the objectives set by Hitler could never be achieved.For those who want to fully understand the Battle of the Bulge, then this is a 'must read'.