Hitler’s Ardennes Offensive, The German View of the Battle of the Bulge

The author has collected together and sensitively edited the 
thoughts and recollections of the key German Leaders. This 
exposes attitudes and capabilities of the German commanders 
and military leaders. In the process it does much to 
demonstrated why the Germans failed in the Battle of the Bulge 
and in the war. Extremely interesting and informative.

NAME: Hitler's Ardennes Offensive, The German View of the Battle 
of the Bulge
FILE: R2418
AUTHOR:  edited by Danny S Parker
PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword
BINDING: soft back 
PAGES:  264
PRICE: £12.99
GENRE: Non Fiction
SUBJECT: WWII, World War 2, World War II, Second World War, counter 
offensive, last throw of the dice, Waffen SS, massacres, war crimes, 
Antwerp, Allied advance on Germany
ISBN: 978-1-84832-909-0
IMAGE: B2418.jpg
BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/j7gxnw6
LINKS: Current Discount Offers http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/sale 
DESCRIPTION:  The author has collected together and sensitively edited 
the thoughts and recollections of the key German Leaders. This exposes 
attitudes and capabilities of the German commanders and military 
leaders. In the process it does much to demonstrated why the Germans 
failed in the Battle of the Bulge and in the war. Extremely interesting 
and informative.

The Battle of the Bulge encapsulates WWII in Europe and the reasons 
for German failure. There have been many alternative history theories 
that claim the Germans came close to halting the Allies on the West 
Front. The simple reality is that they launched everything they had 
in an attempt to reach Antwerp and cut off fuel and ammunition, food, 
and general supplies to the advancing Allied armies, but the offensive 
was halted and thrown back. Looking at what actually happened, the 
conclusion is that the Germans never stood a chance. They struck a 
section of the Allies advance that was staffed by untried and under-
trained US soldiers at a time when the weather was with them, 
grounding Allied air power. Even then, the US troops fought with 
determination and were reinforced, halting the Germans long before 
they could threaten Antwerp and close the port. Then the weather 
cleared and Allied ground attack aircraft flew in as large waves of 
bombers and rocket firing ground attack fighters, breaking the pockets 
of German armour with the Allies once more advancing. Had the Germans 
reached their objective it is very uncertain that it would have 
achieved the result they assumed. It would certainly have slowed the 
Allied advance on Germany and allowed the Russians to penetrate further 
into Germany, but the Allies would have still been able to bring up 
supplies from further South. They would also have been able to use 
their large transport air fleets to fly in supplies. As the Germans 
had committed everything they had, there was nothing else left to 
sustain them in holding Antwerp, much less any ability to drive the 
Allied armies back to Normandy. The Germans did not fully understand 
the agreement amongst the Allies to achieve unconditional surrender of 
Germany and the hope that reverses on the Western Front might persuade 
Britain and the US to join Germany in fighting the Russians were a 
useless fiction. What this new book does brilliantly is to expose the 
fantasies, and cynicism across the German High Command and the 
increasing disconnect from reality. In any war, every army contains 
leaders with strong ego-generated conflicts, but the Germans had turned 
this into an art form. The corrosive environment saw individuals 
fighting each other and contending for Hitler's ear and that was the 
way Hitler had always liked to have it. Some of the political soldiers 
demonstrated very poor military abilities and those with the best 
capabilities frequently did not have support from the Nazi elite.