(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Snow and Steel will be a huge reassessment of Hitler's last great throw of the dice: 'The Battle of the Bulge', the battle for the Ardennes 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. This is an utterly fascinating five weeks when for a time it looked like Hitler had outflanked the allied armies pushing toward the Rhine and might just throw them back to the Normandy beaches. It is also the context for the catastrophic events at Bastogne depicted so graphically in Band of Brothers.

What a mammoth book - around 900 pages of slow and deliberate dissection of the history of this most famous battle.

I was nearly put off by the opening section - a pre-history of the months of preparation, and does mention Normandy and Africa is a passing fashion. The psychological war that was going on between Germany and the US is covered as well as some of the external factors that would be important in the coming months. While all this was important, it was a little heavy and took nearly a quarter of the book.

The following 400 pages contain details of the battle - and these sections were by far the best reading for me. The amount of research and understand the author has for this subject is astounding. The battlefield was described to the reader by both first-hand and secondary accounts and makes for fascinating reading. I found it to be one of the best sections of ANY book on WW2 (and I have read a few!) that I have come across.

The final part of the book is post-operations - thoughts written by the author - including political and cultural impacts at the time of writing - and also includes an index and bibliography.

If you are keen on WW2 history books, this one is a must read. But be warned - do not approach it lightly.


Paul
ARH

This book goes into the detail planning that Hitler had for what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The author takes you through the history behind the area, the troops, and the equipment. He also goes over some of the lack of resources that were plaguing the Germans at this time. It was not fuel but who to get it to the front. Part of their problem was that they were still using donkeys, and horses to bring in supplies. When the Allies were trucks. Also even though the Germans had some superior weapons, they did not have enough men to train the new men in who to use them and then the next problem they began using old men and boys in their Army. Add in that some of the Generals that were picked to led had never led an attack before so if they did met resistance they had no idea how to fight without using the majority if their force. All of this would add to their problems. The author also breaks down the American side and gives you a detailed description of units and their rolls. He also shows you that at the very beginning that 106th did not surrender like everyone thinks, yes small groups did, but others fought as well as other units on the front and because of these units fighting most of them until they ran out of ammo they were able to help delay the Germans in order for the Allies to bring in the resting troops. You can also see were the leaders for the Allies us were sleeping. About the only one that was thinking that maybe something was amiss was Patton’ intelligence Officer Koch, who kept up to date maps of the Western front. Even after Patton was turned away by Marshall he told Koch to work up a plan. So Patton was ready as was Gavin the commander of the 82nd. I know this because my father fought with the 82nd in WWII and he fought in St. Vith area during this battle. The author also goes into how the press picked up the story of Bastogne and the commander saying “Nuts” to the Germans when asked to surrender. Because of this all of the deeds by other units and there were plenty got over looked. In 1981 a platoon from the 39th received the Presidential Unit citation for extraordinary Heroism. That was just one there were other but you see what I am saying. This is a well-researched booked and from the other books that I have read about this battle the best so far. A very good book.