Patton at the Battle of the Bulge
How the General's Tanks Turned the Tide at Bastogne
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
In Patton at the Battle of the Bulge, Army veteran and historian Leo Barron explores one of the most famous yet little-told clashes of WWII, a vitally important chapter in one of history’s most legendary battles. Includes photographs!
“Barron captures the fiery general’s command presence and the pivotal commitment of his Third Army tanks to relieve the embattled crossroads town of Bastogne.”—Michael E. Haskew, Author of West Point 1915: Eisenhower, Bradley, and the Class the Stars Fell On
December 1944. For the besieged American defenders of Bastogne, time was running out. Hitler’s forces had pressed in on the small Belgian town in a desperate offensive designed to push back the Allies. The U.S. soldiers had managed to repel repeated attacks, but as their ammunition dwindled, the weary paratroopers of the 101st Airborne could only hope for a miracle.
More than a hundred miles away, General George S. Patton was putting in motion the most crucial charge of his career. Tapped to spearhead the counterstrike was the 4th Armored Division, a hard-fighting unit that had slogged its way across France. But blazing a trail into Belgium meant going up against some of the best infantry and tank units in the German Army. And failure to reach Bastogne in time could result in the overrunning of the 101st and turn the tide of the war against the Allies.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barron completes the story of his previous book, No Silent Night: The Christmas Battle for Bastogne (2012), by describing the U.S. Army armored forces' attack to break into the surrounded city of Bastogne, Belgium, during WWII's Battle of the Bulge. Despite its title, the book is not about the famous American general; it focuses on the privates, sergeants, and junior officers fighting against fierce German resistance on the snow-covered forest roads of Belgium, en route to rescuing surrounded paratroopers in Bastogne. The attack by the U.S. 4th Armored Division was the first counterstroke aimed at defeating Hitler's final offensive of WWII, and deserves the attention this focused work gives it. Barron's meticulous research uncovered information from archival records and conducted interviews with surviving German and American veterans, as well as Belgian civilians. Using these sources, he provides a detailed, hour-by-hour account of the five days of fierce combat, fought in harsh weather, that led to the liberation of the besieged forces in Bastogne. This excellent soldier's-eye-view account of the challenges of tactical combat in WWII is a solid addition to the military history of the war. Maps.
