HITLER’S WINTER
THE GERMAN BATTLE OF THE BULGE
BY ANTHONY TUCKER-JONES
OSPREY PUBLISHING
ISBN 978 1 4728 4739 3
H/B. 320PP. £20
2022
HITLER’S WINTER
THE EAST AFRICA CAMPAIGN 1914-18
THE FL AMETHROWER
THE KUBAN 1943
DESERT FOXES
Hitler did not have a good Christmas Day 1944. His big offensive, Wacht am Rhein was grinding to a halt. The rebuilt Panzer Armies and infantry were to smash through American lines in the Ardennes, cross the Meuse then, on to take Antwerp disrupting the Allies’ resupply chains. The story has been oft told - congested snowy roads, exhausted German foodstocks, ammunition and fuel, abandoned vehicles - this book presenting the German angle. All the battles are here: the Losheim Gap, La Gleize where Battlegroup Peiper stalled, Malmedy and the massacre of US POWs, St Vith, and the crucial road nexus of Bastogne. And the exploits: the dash to sieze river bridges and road junctions ahead of the main panzer columns: Skorzeny’s commandoes disguised as GIs and his ersatz M10 Panthers causing confusion behind US lines; panzer aces Barkmann and Bachmann’s panthers, in separate actions, knocking out Shermans. There are chapters on the Volksgrenadiers totalling a third of the infantry, late war weapons – Tiger IIs, tank destroyers and StuGs, the Luftwaffe’s jet aircraft, the V1 and V2 bombardments of Antwerp. There is account of the ill-starred Operation Hawk parachute drop to capture vital crossroads where everything went wrong, the Luftwaffe’s too-late Operation Baseplate strike on Allied airfields, and Northwind the diversionary Alsace operation as the Ardennes advance faltered. December 26, unable to reach the Meuse, Hitler began the withdrawal, advancing US armies eliminating the Bulge. This is an easy-read wide ranging narrative. Recommended. Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the sample www.ospreypublishing.com