Ardennes - Battle of the Bulge by Cole

[gfgrant8443]

Ardennes - Battle of the Bulge by Hugh Cole

I found this to be a good reference book although it relies heavily on quotes from other books it has lots of pictures and some very detailed maps. I got my copy of this book from Barnes and Noble on-line. They have an excellent network of used book stores that have books for reasonable prices.

[connie]

A few times when researching, my links to possible answers to a question led me to sections of this book on line. So today I decided I should nail this down.

Here's a link that takes you to a list of chapters that can be opened one at a time: ehistory.osu.edu/osu/books/ardennes/

I know that the searches that took me to sections of this book in the past led me to somewhere on the site of the US Center for Military History. So there are ways to view sections of the book there somehow without downloading. But today I ran into a spot there where you can download the PDF version: history.army.mil/html/books/007/7-8-1/index.html

If you're looking for a Kindle version or a real book you can hold in your hand, Good Reads has links to various sellers: www.goodreads.com/book/show/5105211-the-ardennes

Just found a direct link to pages that relate to the 106th:
www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Ardennes/USA-E-Ardennes-7.html

E-copies of this book are everywhere. Here's the Wikipedia link:
en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ardennes:_Battle_of_the_Bulge/Chapter_VII

[connie]

Thinking of Floyd, I began an online search for G company of the 424th. One link took me to a page in Hugh Cole's book. I'll get to the specific citing, but first I went back in the link to figure out where this book was found. Once again I was at the Ohio State University online book section of their e-history site (mentioned in the above link but worth repeating):
The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge by Hugh M. Cole
US Army Center for Military History
ehistory.osu.edu/osu/books/ardennes/

The mention of G Company of the 424th that led me to this book again was on page 159, but going to the last paragraph or so on page 158 gives you a little more context of this discussion of action on the 17th of December. ehistory.osu.edu/osu/books/ardennes/pageview.cfm?page=0158 (Note that pages can be turned by going to the bottom of a page and clicking on previous or next). In the still greater context these pages are found in the section of the book entitled " Breakthrough on the Schnee Eifel."

In a few lines the book covers what must have seemed like an eternity for the men of G company...

[floydragsdale]

Hi Connie[:

I remember that day very well (17 Dec.) Most of us (G Co. men), at least in our area, stayed in our foxholes, or in bunkers most of the day because of the deadly 88 artillery fire. Now & then an American fighter plane flew under the soupy weather & then a Soldier had an opportunity to run from one spot to another without being fired at by German 88 artillery fire.

Floyd

[connie]

What a horrifying day... The timeline for your being in that spot had not yet sunk into my brain. I assume that the deadly incident with the sniper in the tree came prior to the 17th...?


Connie

[floydragsdale]

Hi Connie:

The “sniper in the tree” incident happened Dec. 16th, 44. A tree was directly behind our mortar position and up that tree there was a person (sniper, spotter or ?). The gunner (Willard Keeber) and I didn’t know that he was there.

One of our riflemen noticed him and thought that the man in the tree was a spotter for our gun.

Several days later it was determined the man up that tree was sending signals to the German forces.

We never knew if he was a local civilian, or a German Soldier, however, it sure gave us something to think about and never forget.

Floyd

[connie]

Back to the book...

I've copied this live discussion of real memories of G Company's experiences on the 16th and 17th of December 1944 to the 424th discussions. You can link in to that from here: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/3569/thread

[connie]

Ardennes Battle of the Bulge by Hugh M. Cole. (1965)

updating notes on this book:



View the Whole book on Line by clicking on one chapter at time in the interactive index history.army.mil/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_CONT.HTM

Amazon link with hardcover, paperback, and kindle options: www.amazon.com/Ardennes-Battle-Hugh-M-Cole/dp/B000X6YXLS

Review on paperback link:
During most of the eleven months between D-day and V–E day in Europe, the U.S. Army was carrying on highly successful offensive operations. As a consequence, the American soldier was buoyed with success, imbued with the idea that his enemy could not strike him a really heavy counterblow, and sustained by the conviction that the war was nearly won.

Then, unbelievably, and under the goad of Hitler's fanaticism, the German Army launched its powerful counteroffensive in the Ardennes in December 1944 with the design of knifing through the Allied armies and forcing a negotiated peace. The mettle of the American soldier was tested in the fires of adversity and the quality of his response earned for him the rightto stand shoulder to shoulder with his forebears of Valley Forge, Fredericksburg, and the Marne.

This is the story of how the Germans planned and executed their offensive. It is the story of how the high command, American and British, reacted to defeat the German plan once the reality of a German offensive was accepted. But most of all it is the story of the American fighting man and the manner in which he fought a myriad of small defensive battles until the torrent of the German attack was slowed and diverted, its force dissipated and finally spent.

It is the story of squads, platoons, companies, and even conglomerate scratch groups that fought with courage, withfortitude, with sheer obstinacy, often without information or communications or the knowledge of the whereabouts of friends. In less than a fortnightthe enemy was stopped and the Americans were preparing to resume the offensive. While Bastogne has become the symbol of this obstinate, gallant,and successful defense, this work appropriately emphasizes the crucial significance of early American success in containing the attack by holding firmly on its northern and southern shoulders and by upsetting the enemy timetable at St. Vith and a dozen lesser known but important and decisive battlefields.

The hard fighting that preceded the Battle of the Bulge has been recounted in two volumes, The Siegfried Line Campaign, and Dr. Cole's own earlier work, The Lorraine Campaign. Events after it will be related in The Last Offensive, now in preparation. Two other volumes in this subseries, The Supreme Command and Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume II, are useful supplements to the Ardennes volume.This volume deals with the crucial period of the campaign conducted in the Belgian Ardennes and Luxembourg, generally known as the Battleof the Bulge. Although the German planning described herein antedates the opening gun by several weeks, the story of the combat operations begins on 16 December 1944. By 3 January 1945 the German counteroffensive was at an end, and on that date the Allies commenced an attack that would take them across the Rhine and into Germany. The last phase of operations in the Ardennes, therefore, is properly part and parcel of the final Allied offensive in Europe, and so the course of battle beginning on 3 January 1945 is described in another and final volume of this subseries.The problem of the level of treatment is always difficult in the organization and writing of the general staff type of history, which is the design ofthis volume. In describing a war of movement, the solution usually has been to concentrate on tactical units smaller than those normally treated when the war of position obtains.

Also cited in this thread: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/2867/thread