Hitler's Ardennes Offensive: The German View of the Battle of the Bulge

by Danny S. Parker

This book discusses the German view of the Battle of the Bulge.

Genres: History, World War II, Military Fiction, Germany

296 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1997

About the author

Danny Parker is a life-long World War II historian with a strong focus on the Battle of the Bulge and it's major participants. He is a former research consultant the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff on the Battle of the Bulge. He has published numerous articles and books on the subject and has designed three simulation games on the Ardennes campaign. In addition to his study of World War II Mr. Parker is interested in Zen, low-energy housing and good coffee.

Reviews

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The work begins with transcripts of interviews of two German commanders at the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. These transcripts are then followed with a detail look at German operations in the Ardennes.

[Drpsychorat · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book from the German officer perspective. Much detail and thoughtful consideration of the attack which was doomed to fail from the start.

[Luka Novak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book composed of transcripts of interviews conducted by US Army in the years after WW2. As such it shows how Germans saw the battle and offers insight into German perspective and assessments. Because material are interviews of German generals by US Army it's built on the basis of knowing how battle unfolded and the interviews are just filling the blanks and attempt to look at known event from German perspective. Germans were required to provide details on specific events more than narrate the battle.

As such reader is required to have same, or at least similar, knowledge of the battle to be able to follow the book. Interviewee would talk about how on certain day certain division tried to take certain village (or some other geographical feature) and why it failed. So if you, the reader, don't know about this particular fight then entire section is not only hard to follow but you'll miss the point.

In a way this is both the strength and weakness of the book. Strength because it provides details about something you are familiar with and weakness because you may not have the general knowledge beforehand. So don't pick up this book to learn about the offensive itself, pick it up if you need more detailed knowledge about it.