Introduction

Casemate Publishers have a formidable release of book titles both their own publications and those of others. This offering is one of their own titles looking at 'Ardennes 1944 the Battele of the Bulge' and is part of the Casemate Illustrated series of titles.

Review

The book has been written by Yves Buffetaut. The book is presented and printed in portrait style. This is a soft backed book of 128 pages of good quality glossy paper. The cover consists of a stiff card that has been folded over making the cover more substantial. The gloss finish to the pages means that the photographs are very well presented to the viewer.

The contents of this release are:
Timeline of Events
Ardennes the First Day
Peiper Advances, Saint Vith Resists
McAuliffe, Patton and Eisenhower
The Role of Tactics
The British Counterattack
Afterword
Further Reading
Index

This is another offering from Yves Buffetaut and I have to say that I am beginning to be a big fan of his writing style and approach to subjects. The book looking at the Battle of the Bulge is a great approach to this area of conflict by providing the details in bite sized chunks and stimulating thought on the part of the reader.

The title by its own admission tackles the subject of how the Germans lost by covering the events of what happened that ultimately lead to their demise. I can hear the calls along the lines of limited resource, no fuel, burnt out troops; thoughts that are not entirely right as the author goes on to explain.

One aspect of the Battle of the bulge that has always captured my attention and imagination is the of sending German troops forward wearing American uniforms to cause disruption at the rear of American lines. There is also the German armour in some cases being disguised as American armour; an area that is of particular interest to me. This title does cover that aspect, but does not dig too deeply due to it not being the purpose of the title.

The major players as regards the men at the top are covered to varying degrees; an area that I was pleased to see covered. The title also provides a good number of graphics that side views on many of the vehicles that saw action during this battle. These graphics I found of limited interest beyond camouflage and would have liked to see more photographs in their place.

The actions of both the German, American and to a lesser degree British forces is covered very well with the author getting the information over well. The battles within the battle have been covered in a limited way due to the constraints of the book itself and as said previously the author is not trying to cover the battles in depth, but does cover how these actions affected the German advance to their target areas and the ultimate failure of those goals.

The photographs have been well chosen as regards getting across the troops and the machines that fought in the fights that this battle entailed. The images show not just the men and machines that took part and in many cases lost everything, but the innocents are also pictured showing men, woman and also children paying the price of man’s inhumanity to man.

Due to the way the author has approached this title I was very pleased to see a list of further titles that may be of interest. These recommended titles are not titles printed by Casemate or written by the author of this title and as such I see this as a very welcome addition.

Conclusion

I found this another great title from Yves Buffetaut that covers a specific element of World War 2 that is of particular interest to me. The photographs are of a high quality and cover a broad spectrum in their content. The text being easy to read means you get given a good over view of the events and that may encourage you to look at further books covering the battle or elements of it in greater detail.