The Battered Bastards of Bastogne: The 101st Airborne and the Battle of the Bulge, December 19,1944-January 17,1945

by George Koskimaki

Book Overview

The Battered Bastards of Bastogne is the product of contributions by 530 soldiers who were on the ground or in the air over Bastogne. They lived and made this history and much of it is told in their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0891418946
• ISBN13: 9780891418948
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Length: 568 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.9" x 0.9" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

The Battered Bastards of Bastogne by George Koskimaki

This is an extensive dissertation of the Bastogne painstakingly recreated in a someone dysfunctional fashion. Dysfunctional as the author chooses to run chronologically backwards and forward every couple of pages. It recreates the battle via editorial comments and letters and stories from the vets themselves. I found reading the smaller print (vets stories) easier than trying to follow the flow of the book. If you want to know what happened in the battle for Bastogne you'll get it here. You need to enjoy hopping, skipping and jumping to and fro.

"All hell broke loose and we met the enemy head on".

PFC Donald J. Rich "The bazooka section had not set up yet when someone yelled' There comes a German tank!' I grabbed my bazooka and told one man to come with me. We ran up the street and into a house. I told the man with me to take the bazooka and stay at a window. I went into the next room to watch and told him to wait till the tank went by and then fire at it. He must have stuck his head up before the tank went by because the tanker fired into the house and blew a hole about three or four feet in diameter. I went rolling across the floor. I jumped up to see how my buddy made out. He came staggering out of the room. I rushed him to the medics. I never knew if he had serious wounds or if he made it. I ran back to the house to retrieve the bazooka. It was bent, with the barrel opening sealed. Someone else got that tank father on." George E. Koskimaki, Division Signals Company, 101st Airborne. continues with his awesome series on the actions of the 101st through their only words. His research and interviews with 530 airborne soldiers of the Sceaming Eagles who fought at Bastogne makes for a unforgetable and amazing work! I salute you George. This is a great and new "classic". A must read for World War Two historians and readers.

Chaos at Bastogne

This third book in Koskimaki's series relating the personal experiences of the men of the 101st Airborne Division continues with the same strong style of his previous books. The main interest in these books is that Koskimaki drew on the personal reminiscences and action reports of the men who were there. It gives a great sense of just how chaotic the battle would have been for the troops. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the "worms eye" view of the battle for Bastogne and learned from the book, I do have a couple of caveats. First, this book is not for people who are not familiar with the battle as the connecting narrative between the personal accounts is weak and the author sometimes drops some very interesting and important threads. Second, unlike the previous two books where Koskimaki contributes a lot of his own accounts to the mix, he shows up very little in this one which leaves a slightly clinical touch to the book. Those two reservations aside, I highly recommend this and the other two books by Koskimaki about the 101st Airborne during World War II. They provide a much different view than people get from the very good narrative found in "Band of Brothers."

Interested in Military History?

Are you interested in true military stories and/or a military collector of World War II - this book is for you. If you are really interested in the history of this country during WWII - you will not be disappointed.