Fought 65 years ago this December, the Battle of the Bulge still ranks as the single largest battle ever fought by the United States Army. More men, vehicles, supplies, equipment, aircraft, and effort went into this thirty-day battle than into any other in American history. It was larger than Gettysburg, larger than the Gulf War, larger than the landings in Normandy that ignited the fuse that carried the army halfway across Europe to the blood-stained snow of the Ardennes.
Thirty-one American divisions—fully a third of the U.S. Army raised during World War II—saw action in this battle. As a result, it was a quintessentially American moment. It was also a test: could this conscript army from a pacifistic democracy defeat the best remaining men and machines a totalitarian government could produce?
The story of the Bulge is the story of panic, fear, and physical misery. It is the story of how a generation of draftees, National Guardsmen, and a small core of regular officers and NCOs faced those three elements as snow piled around their foxholes and the incessant drumming of artillery splintered the woods that gave them shelter. It is the story of men, frozen and hurting, far from home with little hope of seeing it again until the killing finally ended.
The most complete and awe-inspiring illustrated history on the infamous battle, The Battle of the Bulge: The Photographic History of an American Triumph places readers in the frozen foxholes, haunting forests, and devastated villages of the Ardennes during the winter of 1944/1945. Making use of over 500 gripping photographs, many never before published, author John Bruning tells the story of the Bulge with insightful detail, replaying the thrusts and volleys of both the Allied and German forces during the tumultuous battle.
The Battle of the Bulge is a fitting tribute to the men who braved the weather, and the odds, in order to stem the tide of the German war machine.
