[.ca] A Blood-Dimmed Tide: The Battle of the Bulge by the Men ... (ISBN 0440215749)

It's an oral history, not a detailed strategic discussion.:
Potential readers of this excellent book should realize that it is in the "oral history" context, not a detailed discussion of German and Allied strategy. It does not present its story, like many military histories, from the commanders' perspectives (although many officer's accounts are included). It's a grunt's eye view, from the vantage point of many years gone by. The author clearly recognises this in his introduction. The reader should not think otherwise. This book is probably one of the most valuable books on "The Bulge" precisely because it tells the story from ground level. The veterans who Astor interviewed, or whose memoirs he quotes, tell an incredibly moving story of how young American men, many just out of school and formed by the Great Depression, fought off the great winter German offensive of 1944. Astor does a fine job of letting the veterans tell their stories, but providing enough background information to knit the stories together in a coherent narrative. Contrary to another reviewer here, I found the background stories very interesting, giving me a good sense of where these men had "come from" - easily, in many cases, proving Tom Brokaw's point. "Boring", as another reviewer calls this, is not a word that I would use at all to describe this book. The soldiers' eyewitness accounts run the gamut from quiet determination and confidence, to apprehension, exhilaration, sheer terror, and even the boredom of barracks' life that many soldiers experience. Granted, some of the accounts probably suffer from the intervening years, but isn't that always the case? Sometimes hindsight can be a good thing. I might more accurately give this book a 4.5-star review for only one reason and that would be the lack of a better map. (The author's map in the paperback version is hard to read, but, really, maps of the Bulge area are not hard to find!) Our WWII vets are fast disappearing, so this book is invaluable. This book will take you "there", where others merely fly you over the territory!

Incredible!:
Naturally, this book is an oral history of the Battle of the Bulge by the men who fought it. It follows them from induction into the Army; their training; to overseas; and then into battle. I was quite impressed by how unprepared the US troops were - I never realized that they were so thoroughly defeated (almost!). The book describes in unbelievable detail in the words of the soldiers themselves the horror of war; the extreme cold; the hand to hand combat; the infiltration by the Germans into the American lines; being taken prisoner and its living conditions; and the turnaround where the US finally gained the upperhand in the battle. The last chapter of the book regarding what they soldiers had learned and their reflections from today really bring the whole book together. I recommend this book in conjunction with Peter Elstob's book, "Hitler's Last Offensive".

Crack of bullets and squeal of tank treads:
Reading this book was a revelation. The descriptions of what it was like to lay in a shallow depression, hastily dug from frozen ground, while artillery tree-bursts flailed everything with white-hot shrapnel, were terrifying. Trying to picture myself in a foxhole with a Tiger tank boring in, as described by the author, made me wonder whether I could have dealt with the reality that was experienced by the American participants in the "Battle of the Bulge". I've read several other books on the Battle of the Bulge that focused more on the strategic aspects of the battle, but this book, by far, helped me to better understand the gritty, frozen, deadly, reality faced by the heroic American soldiers. And let there be no doubt, they were heroes. I can only wonder: could todays generation exhibit this kind of singleminded devotion to turning back an inexorable tide under similar circumstances?

Blood Dimmed Tide:
Extremely readable! This is one of the best first hand accounts of World War II that I have read. Mr. Astor follows the stories of both American and German soldiers, officers and enlisted alike. One can really get a sense of what it must have been like to try to dig a trench in frozen ground and then of the sudden terror of a night attack. The reader can also get a sense of the complacency that had crept into the American army at the point in the war even after the terrible battle of the Huertgen Forest. But what really makes the stories interesting are the accounts of captivity in the German Stalags and the impressions of the Americans as they move behind German lines in the closing days of the war. This is not a "big picture" book, readers looking for strategical analysis should look elsewhere. There is also a lack of good maps, to get a sense of where you are reading about it. But overall a great read.

A Blood Dimmed Tide:
Mr. Astor has written about a very confused period of time and made it flow. I am a veteran of the 78th Infantry Div. and have written about the same period of time. Mr. Astor's book should serve as a referance for other writers.