A Blood-Dimmed Tide: The Battle of the Bulge by the Men Who Fought It

by Gerald Astor

Book Overview

A furious, all-or-nothing German winter counterattack caught the Allies by surprise. Their lines shattered, American soldiers fought with guns and guts and bayonets to slow down the onslaught; fought to separate their comrades from Germans dressed in U.S. uniforms; fought to survive the horrors of such battle sites as Baraque de Fraiture, Elsenborn Ridge, or the infamous Malmedy massacre of unarmed POWs. When it was over, the Allies had suffered 81,000...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556112815
• ISBN13: 9781556112812
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Length: 532 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

It's an oral history, not a detailed strategic discussion.

Potential readers of this excellent book should realize that it is in the "oral history" context, not a detailed discussion of German and Allied strategy. It does not present its story, like many military histories, from the commanders' perspectives (although many officer's accounts are included). It's a grunt's eye view, from the vantage point of many years gone by. The author clearly recognises this in his introduction. The reader should not think otherwise.This book is probably one of the most valuable books on "The Bulge" precisely because it tells the story from ground level. The veterans who Astor interviewed, or whose memoirs he quotes,tell an incredibly moving story of how young American men, many just out of school and formed by the Great Depression, fought off the great winter German offensive of 1944. Astor does a fine job of letting the veterans tell their stories, but providing enough background information to knit the stories together in a coherent narrative. Contrary to another reviewer here, I found the background stories very interesting, giving me a good sense of where these men had "come from" - easily, in many cases, proving Tom Brokaw's point. "Boring", as another reviewer calls this, is not a word that I would use at all to describe this book. The soldiers' eyewitness accounts run the gamut from quiet determination and confidence, to apprehension, exhilaration, sheer terror, and even the boredom of barracks' life that many soldiers experience. Granted, some of the accounts probably suffer from the intervening years, but isn't that always the case? Sometimes hindsight can be a good thing.I might more accurately give this book a 4.5-star review for only one reason and that would be the lack of a better map. (The author's map in the paperback version is hard to read, but, really, maps of the Bulge area are not hard to find!)Our WWII vets are fast disappearing, so this book is invaluable.This book will take you "there", where others merely fly you over the territory!

Crack of bullets and squeal of tank treads

Reading this book was a revelation. The descriptions of what it was like to lay in a shallow depression, hastily dug from frozen ground, while artillery tree-bursts flailed everything with white-hot shrapnel, were terrifying. Trying to picture myself in a foxhole with a Tiger tank boring in, as described by the author, made me wonder whether I could have dealt with the reality that was experienced by the American participants in the "Battle of the Bulge".I've read several other books on the Battle of the Bulge that focused more on the strategic aspects of the battle, but this book, by far, helped me to better understand the gritty, frozen, deadly, reality faced by the heroic American soldiers. And let there be no doubt, they were heroes. I can only wonder: could todays generation exhibit this kind of singleminded devotion to turning back an inexorable tide under similar circumstances?

C'Mon it's only 5 bucks!

Just for the fact that this book is filled with first hand accounts of the Battle of the Bulge should be enough to convince any WW2 Buff to buy it. But add on the fact that it is only 5 bucks and noone interested in history should pass this up. Other reviewers are a little off base when they state that this book is a complete history (it doesn't try to be) and when they state it is boring (I have finished it in under a week); neither of these claims are true. It is a very important book because it is filled with guys stories who were actually there and that is the most important thing you can get from the history books. Couple this book with the monumental 'Time for Trumpets' and you have a powerful one-two punch on the Battle of the Bulge!

Very good read

At first the book started off slowly, with a bit too much pre-war background about some of the men featured. But things got rolling real fast, and it became immensively interesting. It is certainly no textbook with analyses of strategies and tactics. Rather, it is basic storytelling, backed up with great detail.

An Outstanding work of military history

This book has it all: heartwrenching stories of courage; lively writing; technical information on armies and movements, etc. Most importantly, it is REAL. This is largely an oral history, and truly wonderfull. I have read virtually every Battle of the Bulge book, and this one is the most superior by far. Read it