The Battered Bastards of Bastogne PDF Download

Author: George Koskimaki
Publisher: Presidio Press
ISBN: 9780891418948
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
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 own words.The material contributed by these men of the 101st Airborne Division, the Armor, Tank Destroyer, Army Air Force, and others is tailored meticulously by the author and placed on the historical framework known to most students of the Battle of the Bulge.Pieces of a nearly 60 year old jigsaw puzzle come together in this book, when memoirs related by one soldier fit with those of another unit or group pursuing the battle from another nearby piece of terrain.

Author: George Koskimaki
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480406651
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 933

View

Book Description
“Fleshes out in vivid detail the entire story of the Screaming Eagles’ valiant struggle . . . This is must reading for any student of World War II history” (Kepler’s Military History). 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 own words. The material contributed by these men of the 101st Airborne Division, the Armor, Tank Destroyer, Army Air Force , and others is tailored meticulously by the author and placed on the historical framework known to most students of the Battle of the Bulge. Pieces of a nearly 60-year-old jigsaw puzzle come together in this book, when memoirs from one soldier fit with those of another unit or group pursuing the battle from another nearby piece of terrain.

Author: Jerome Corsi
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 1595555226
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

View

Book Description
Jerome Corsi’s newest opus, No Greater Valor, examines the Siege of Bastogne—one of the most heroic victories of WWII—with a focus on the surprising faith of the Americans who fought there. In December of 1944, an outmanned, outgunned, and surrounded US force fought Hitler’s overwhelming Panzer divisions to a miraculous standstill at Bastogne. The underdogs had saved the war for the Allies. It was nothing short of miraculous. Corsi’s analysis is based on a record of oral histories along with original field maps used by field commanders, battle orders, and other documentation made at the time of the military command. With a perspective gleaned from newspapers, periodicals, and newsreels of the day, Corsi paints a riveting portrait of one of the most important battles in world history.

Author: Peter Schrijvers
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300179022
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 341

View

Book Description
A new telling of the brutal siege of Bastogne, where vastly outnumbered American forces held off a savage German onslaught and sealed the fate of the Third Reich Hitler's last gamble, the Battle of the Bulge, was intended to push the Allied invaders of Normandy all the way back to the beaches. The plan nearly succeeded, and almost certainly would have, were it not for one small Belgian town and its tenacious American defenders who held back a tenfold larger German force while awaiting the arrival of General George Patton's mighty Third Army. In this dramatic account of the 1944-45 winter of war in Bastogne, historian Peter Schrijvers offers the first full story of the German assault on the strategically located town. From the December stampede of American and Panzer divisions racing to reach Bastogne first, through the bloody eight-day siege from land and air, and through three more weeks of unrelenting fighting even after the siege was broken, events at Bastogne hastened the long-awaited end of WWII. Schrijvers draws on diaries, memoirs, and other fresh sources to illuminate the experiences not only of Bastogne's 3,000 citizens and their American defenders, but also of German soldiers and commanders desperate for victory. The costs of war are here made real, uncovered in the stories of those who perished and those who emerged from battle to find the world forever changed.

Author: Insightful History
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
In the frozen winter forests of Belgium in 1944, Adolf Hitler unleashed his last, desperate gamble to turn the tide of World War II. Through the Ardennes region, a massive offensive was launched - the Battle of the Bulge - designed to shatter the Allied forces and force a negotiated peace with the battered Nazi regime. At the epicenter of this dramatic turning point in the war was the small Belgian town of Bastogne. When the German Blitzkrieg encircled and besieged its vital crossroads, the outnumbered and battered American units dug in for one of history's most heroic and punishing defenses. In "The bulge Of Bastogne: The Battered Bastion," the full, gripping story of this pivotal engagement unfolds through the author's masterful narrative. From the stunning opening German armored onslaught to the tenacious defense of the surrounded "Battered Bastards of Bastogne," no detail is omitted. Experience the horror of the weeklong bombardment that pounded Bastogne into rubble. Follow the ferocious house-to-house fighting and desperate attacks by Hitler's SS Panzer divisions. And witness the legendary stand that denied Hitler's forces their critical objective, buying time for the heroic relief efforts spearheaded by Patton's Third Army.

Author: 101st Airborne Division Association. General Anthony C. McAuliffe New York-New Jersey Chapter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 8

View

Book Description

Author: Martin King
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493029088
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

View

Book Description
A brutal siege. A forgotten heroine. A war-torn romance. And a historian determined to uncover the truth. Untold millions who saw and read Band of Brothers can finally know the whole story of what happened to American soldiers and civilians in Bastogne during that arduous Winter of 1944/45. In the television version of Band of Brothers, a passing reference is made to an African nurse assisting in an aid station in Bastogne. When military historian Martin King watched the episode, he had to know who that woman was; thus began a multi-year odyssey that revealed the horror of a town under siege as well as an improbable love story between a white Army medic, Jack Prior, and his black nurse, Augusta Chiwy, as they saved countless lives while under constant bombardment. Based on the recent discovery of Prior's diary as well as an exhaustive and occasionally futile search for Augusta herself, King was at last able to bring belated recognition of Augusta's incredible story by both the U.S. Army and Belgian government shortly before she died. This is not only a little-known story of the Battle of the Bulge, but also the author's own relentless mission to locate Augusta and bestow upon her the honors she so richly deserved.

Author: Vincent J. Speranza
Publisher: Vincent J. Speranza
ISBN: 9781941165515
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

View

Book Description
On 22 December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, with the Germans surrounding the Belgian town of Bastogne, a German messenger brought a message from his commander to Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, acting commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, demanding his surrender. McAuliffe's response was simply, "Nuts!"Manning a foxhole on the perimeter around Bastogne was nineteen-year-old Army private Vince Speranza, a machine gunner with the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. This is Vince's story of the Battle of the Bulge and his life before and after the battle.Vince shares his memories from early childhood through his service in World War II and his life up until now as he stands on the verge of turning 90--a story you will long remember. Vince will be in Bastogne, at his original foxhole, on the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, drinking Airborne Beer, which his actions many years ago inspired.

Author: Antony Beevor
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698411498
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

View

Book Description
The prizewinning historian and bestselling author of D-Day, Stalingrad, and The Battle of Arnhem reconstructs the Battle of the Bulge in this riveting new account On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched his ‘last gamble’ in the snow-covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes in Belgium, believing he could split the Allies by driving all the way to Antwerp and forcing the Canadians and the British out of the war. Although his generals were doubtful of success, younger officers and NCOs were desperate to believe that their homes and families could be saved from the vengeful Red Army approaching from the east. Many were exultant at the prospect of striking back. The allies, taken by surprise, found themselves fighting two panzer armies. Belgian civilians abandoned their homes, justifiably afraid of German revenge. Panic spread even to Paris. While some American soldiers, overwhelmed by the German onslaught, fled or surrendered, others held on heroically, creating breakwaters which slowed the German advance. The harsh winter conditions and the savagery of the battle became comparable to the Eastern Front. In fact the Ardennes became the Western Front’s counterpart to Stalingrad. There was terrible ferocity on both sides, driven by desperation and revenge, in which the normal rules of combat were breached. The Ardennes—involving more than a million men—would prove to be the battle which finally broke the back of the Wehrmacht. In this deeply researched work, with striking insights into the major players on both sides, Antony Beevor gives us the definitive account of the Ardennes offensive which was to become the greatest battle of World War II.

Author: Charles River Editors
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781517070144
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

View

Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting written by generals and soldiers on both sides *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "They've got us surrounded - the poor bastards." - American army medic in Bastogne, December 20th, 1944 After the successful amphibious invasion on D-Day in June 1944, the Allies began racing east toward Germany and liberating France along the way. The Allies had landed along a 50 mile stretch of French coast, and despite suffering 8,000 casualties on D-Day, over 100,000 still began the march across the western portion of the continent. By the end of August 1944, the German Army in France was shattered, with 200,000 killed or wounded and a further 200,000 captured. However, Adolf Hitler reacted to the news of invasion with glee, figuring it would give the Germans a chance to destroy the Allied armies that had water to their backs. As he put it, "The news couldn't be better. We have them where we can destroy them." While that sounds delusional in retrospect, it was Hitler's belief that by splitting the Allied march across Europe in their drive toward Germany, he could cause the collapse of the enemy armies and cut off their supply lines. Part of Hitler's confidence came as a result of underestimating American resolve, but with the Soviets racing toward Berlin from the east, this final offensive would truly be the last gasp of the German war machine, and the month long campaign was fought over a large area of the Ardennes Forest, through France, Belgium and parts of Luxembourg. From an Allied point of view, the operations were commonly referred to as the Ardennes Offensive, while the German code phrase for the operation was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine"), with the initial breakout going under the name of "Operation Mist." Today, Americans know it best as the Battle of the Bulge. Bastogne would become a legendary linchpin in the defense against the Ardennes Offensive, in part for its strategic importance but also because of the almost superhuman effort made to protect it. Seven important roads converged with the town of Bastogne, and the Germans, on their way to Antwerp, recognized its importance as a hub, but with the weather obscuring the military map and intelligence at an unusually low rate of abundance or reliability, no Americans on the ground, from private to general, knew precisely what was about to happen, or in what way it would manifest itself. Three officers, Colonel S.L.A. Marshall, Captain John G. Westover and Lieutenant A. Joseph Webber, collaborated to put it quite succinctly in the Washington Infantry Journal when they described Bastogne as "a series of small, dramatic military actions related more by circumstances beyond the control of the defensive forces involved than by the design of a single commander..." In an astonishing feat of planning, logistics and discipline, Patton's army redirected 133,000 vehicles, 62,000 tons of supplies, and the vehicles and men covered a combined distance of 1.5 million miles. To his superiors' amazement, Patton was poised to reach Bastogne and attack the Germans on December 22, and on December 21, he told Bradley, "Brad, this time the Kraut's stuck his head in the meat grinder, and I've got hold of the handle." Of course, for Patton's Third Army to relieve the siege, the men had to hold out a few days, which they were able to do because supplies were parachuted in and the Germans eschewed frontal assaults. In the end, Patton's army reached Bastogne in 4 days and lifted the siege, even he used superlatives to describe the action at Bastogne, calling it "the most brilliant operation we have thus far performed, and it is in my opinion the outstanding achievement of the war. This is my biggest battle."