Battle: The Story of the Bulge

John Toland's "Battle: The Story of the Bulge" is an incredibly well written account of those day's of terror and valor witnessed by the people involved. It was one of the American soldier's finest and worst moments. Toland holds noting back in his realistic retelling of the story of men and women who fought, suffered, died, and survived a battle during one of Europe's worst winter's. He also imparts how the Belgians managed to survive the maelstrom of a war raging around them. " Battle" is the finest account of the "Bulge" the battle that shorten the war with Hitler's Germany.

BATTLE, The Story of The Bulge by John Toland (1959, First Edition)Battle, by John Toland, was the third in a trilogy of books on WWII’s Battle of the Bulge I recently read. The first was an excellent little book, The Damned Engineers, 1970, by Janice Holt Giles, followed by The Bitter Woods, 1969, by John S. D. Eisenhower. Availability of Toland’s BATTLE is limited and I happened to receive a 1st edition published in 1959.The Damned Engineers is limited in scope to mainly the heroic exploits of the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion around Malmedy and Trois Points. Toland and J. S. D. Eisenhower present a comprehensive portrait of the Battle of The Bulge, the last great German offensive between December 1944 and January 1945. I am happy that I read all three books and now feel I have a relatively complete understanding of the epic battle. Eisenhower’s book presents a good background of events and key figures, whereas Toland gives the reader practically none. Both authors present vignettes of key individuals and small groups of soldiers and civilians that are needed to personalize the bloody conflict. Eisenhower’s BITTER WOODS gives better and more comprehensive details to the conflict between British General Montgomery and Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower, but my edition of Toland’s book was published while Eisenhower was still President, and if the General were to give the gory details to any historian, it is understandable that he’d given them to his historian son. The end stages of the battle (generally the last three weeks of Jan. 1945) are hardly covered in any detail in Bitter Woods – it’s as though Eisenhower ran out of steam or his publisher made him cut the volume drastically and they were taken from the final chapters. Toland captures these weeks vividly and paints a dramatic picture of how the battle served to evolve the American soldier into a mature, and vicious, group of veterans. At the same time, the retreating Wehrmacht was pounded and ground down in retreat by US artillery, air forces and bitter winter weather into a defeated force, thereafter generally incapable of effective combat.For students of WWII, I heartily recommend all three books.JHE, 6/29/2014

There are many fine books about the Battle of the Bulge. This is arguably the very best of them all. Some of the books are like an "after-action" report, dealing with the battle in such military detail that, while historically vital, they are difficult to read for enjoyment. Other books focus on one aspect of the battle only, for example, on the experience of one small unit, and so do not give the reader the "big picture" of this vast, sprawling, intensely complex campaign. By contrast, John Toland's "Battle" gives the big picture, historically detailed but in an amazingly interesting and human manner. If you can only read one book about the battle of the Ardennes, this is the one you should choose. Toland is both a fine historian and a magnificent story teller. He ranks with Walter Lord, Stephen Ambrose, and other great story tellers who have created superb books about the Second World War. Highly recommended!

I recently added this abridged edition of John Toland's BATTLE: STORY OF THE BULGE to my collection. The last time I had this book in my hands was when I repeatedly borrowed it, several decades ago, from the children's section of my home town's public library. THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE is not much different than its longer adult version. Less verbiage and some of the quotations are not as descriptive as the full version, but THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE is by no means a children's book. I have a vast collection of Battle of the Bulge and Ardennes Offensive books, and Toland's THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE remains one of the most readable of those bound volumes. This was the first book about the Battle of the Bulge that I read following having seen the 1965 movie BATTLE OF THE BULGE at a school summer movie program. I initially borrowed the book to read about, what I subsequently discovered were fictional, characters of Kiley and Hessler complete with King Tiger tanks charging a fuel depot. What I came away with instead was a better understanding of the multitude of engagements that took place during the last major German military offensive in the West.

I appreciated the extensive research and individual interviews that John Tolland did to prepare to write the book. That preparation and presentation in the book was appreciated by me, as well as I am sure, many authors who followed by writing their books of the battle. I had 1st read Charles MacDonald's "A Time for Trumpets:..." on the battle. Rounded it out more recently with "Alamo in the Ardennes". I only wish Mr. Tolland had included more maps for clarification.

First of all, I like Toland's style of writing. He gives the account of the campaign in the Ardennes without getting bogged down in minute detail while making the reader feel like he/she were there through actions of personnel on the ground intermixed in the story. It is, in my opinion, an excellent account of the Bulge for anyone interested in the campaign even though written over fifty years ago.

The one complaint being that if you're listening on CD (as I was) you often feel like you'd like to have a map to look at, there's a lot of town references that are hard to get a feel on without a map. Toland is exceptional, I would put him more in the anecdotal/Hastings camp but that's not a bad camp to be in for this story. His Last 100 Days is also awesome.