Hitler's last gamble, the Battle of the Bulge, was intended to push the Allied invaders of Normandy all the way back to the beaches. The plan nearly succeeded and almost certainly would have were it not for one small Belgian town and its tenacious American defenders, who held back a tenfold larger German force while awaiting the arrival of General George Patton's mighty Third Army.
In this dramatic account of the 1944–45 winter of war in Bastogne, historian Peter Schrijvers offers the first full story of the German assault on the strategically located town. From the December stampede of American and Panzer divisions racing to reach Bastogne first, through the bloody eight-day siege from land and air, and through three more weeks of unrelenting fighting even after the siege was broken, events at Bastogne hastened the long-awaited end of WWII. Schrijvers draws on diaries, memoirs, and other fresh sources to illuminate the experiences not only of Bastogne's three thousand citizens and their American defenders, but also of German soldiers and commanders desperate for victory.
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“With a British accent and a tone of stoicism and empathy, John Lee narrates this account of the Battle of the Bulge…Lee delivers the many personal, vivid, and sometimes grisly accounts with building dramatic tension to the point where the listener will breathe a sigh of relief and cheer when General Patton’s reinforcements finally arrive.”
— AudioFile
“A fast-paced story…Schrijvers does an admirable job of weaving personal accounts into the larger picture of Bastogne’s horrors.”
— Wall Street JournalUsing fresh sources and deft writing, Peter Schrijvers develops a panoramic and compelling boots-on-the-ground illumination of one of the Bulge's most epic battles.
— Patrick K. O'Donnell, author of Dog Company“A lively account of the fighting.”
— Foreign Affairs“A pulse-pounding story…the first thorough treatment of the famous battle for Bastogne.”
— Journal of Military History“Well researched and written at a good pace, this is an excellent account of an epic and brutal struggle.”
— Military History Monthly (UK)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Peter Schrijvers studied US military and diplomatic history at Ohio State University in Columbus and is currently a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Peter is the author of five books on World War II. A native of Belgium, he has spent several decades researching the American, German, and Belgian dimensions of the battle.
John Lee is the winner of numerous Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. He has twice won acclaim as AudioFile’s Best Voice in Fiction & Classics. He also narrates video games, does voice-over work, and writes plays. He is an accomplished stage actor and has written and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit. He played Alydon in the 1963–64 Doctor Who serial The Daleks.