I learned about the Battle of the Bulge, the German counter-offensive of December 1944, differently from how many Americans get their information. The successful stand of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne has been widely written about, and was filmed in a realistic fictional manner in the Band of Brothers series. Studies of George S. Patton's campaigns examine the way he turned his Third Army north, from Lorraine, to strike the flank of the German advance and relieve Bastogne. But while these elements of the campaign are the best-known ones, I first learned about the more northerly fighting around Elsenborn Ridge.
My primary source was the masterly memoir Company Commander, by Charles B. MacDonald. His unit was Company I, of the 23rd Infantry Regiment, in the American 2nd Infantry Division. He earned a Silver Star on December 17, 1944, for the defense he and his men made (in conjunction with the rest of their battalion) against heavy German attacks made by the 277. Volksgrenadier and 12. SS-Panzer Divisions. This effort made possible the withdrawal of the rest of the 2nd ID, and associated elements of the 99th ID, into the joined farming villages of Krinkelt and Rocherath. It further gave time for the 1st ID to assume positions around the Bütgenbach Estate, and for the 30th ID to defend near Stavelot and Stoumont. Other parts of the 99th ID also made defensive contributions in the first days of the German offensive, which further aided the American side in containing a German operation that expected to cleanly break through the American lines on its first day.
Mac Donald's account is full of exciting reading, but he was one man, at one point, in a large campaign. A similar level of excitement is found in the many personal accounts in John Toland's Battle: The Story of the Bulge, but it covers the entire course of the Ardennes fighting, and this limits how much attention can be given to each part. I was 11 or 12 when I found Company Commander, circa 1982, and it was soon after that I was able to read a library copy of Toland's work. Toland included especially good detail about Krinkelt and Rocherath, from 2nd ID veterans, and reading about this at such a young age left images forever burned into my imagination.
In later years I was able to acquire some expensive, highly-specialized books about the Ardennes. Jean-Paul Pallud's Battle of the Bulge: Then and Now, provided thorough photographic coverage of the campaign, and the English translations of Munin-Verlag Waffen-SS unit histories told of the fighting at Krinkelt-Rocherath, Bütgenbach, Stavelot, and Stoumont from the German perspective (I was fortunate enough to be able to serve as a proofreader for Hubert Meyer's History of the 12. SS-PD, and for a portion of the Rudolf Lehmann/Ralf Tiemann History of the 1. SS-PD).
All of this reading allowed me to develop a good understanding of the early stages of the northen sector of the Battle of the Bulge. I've retained my interest up to the present, and I became aware some years ago that Dutch researcher Hans Wijers shared it. In the late 1990s, he self-published six volumes on the battle, combining accounts he collected from veterans and civilians with material from unit histories and after-action reports. Recently, Stackpole Books reissued four of these in two omnibus volumes titled Battle of the Bulge. Volume One comprises The Loshiem Gap and Holding the Line, while Volume Two includes Hell at Bütgenbach and Seize the Bridges (hopefully, Wijers's remaining titles, on the Schnee Eiffel and the defense of St. Vith, will be collected in a future Volume Three).
The Loshiem Gap covers the largely-successful American defense of the area around Loshiem, to the south of Krinkelt-Rocherath and north of the Schnee Eiffel. The 99th ID was able to hold out here against heavy attacks made by low-quality German infantry, until a retreat could be made in organized fashion to defensive positions farther west. This helped create a fatal delay to the overall course of the German offensive. Holding the Line tells of Krinkelt-Rocherath, and how the 9th and 38th Infantry Regiments of the 2nd ID were able to withdraw from their own attack area to assume defensive positions there. The actions of MacDonald's battalion are put into the context of the overall course of operations. Hell at Bütgenbach is by far the shortest work, as it describes the successful defense of the Bütgenbach Estate by the 26th IR of the 1st ID, against elements of the 12. SS-PD which were not at Krinkelt-Rocherath, or that had been rerouted from there. Kampfgruppe Peiper of the 1. SS-PD figures into the last chapters of The Losheim Gap, but its operations are described more fully in Seize the Bridges. This last, and longest, work follows the battlegroup from its breakthrough of the American defenses until it had to abandon its heavy weapons at Stoumont a week later. Also included is a chapter on Otto Skorzeny's Panzer Brigade 150 and its failed attack on Malmedy.
These were all decisive engagements which blunted the attack of the 6. Panzerarmee, and thus doomed the Ardennes Offensive to failure. I have gone to some effort to give the background on the bigger picture of the Battle of the Bulge, because none of Wijers's works do so. They look at their particular portion of the battle with a tight focus. This means that these works aren't suitable for beginners to the study of this campaign. Beginners will be lost amid all the details, especially of the many small towns and villages of the region. The maps are inadequate, to the point that I made use of Gerd J. Gust Cuppens fascinating book Massacre a Malmedy? to trace the routes of various units. Cuppens' volume is very difficult to find, and a more realistic alternative for most readers is Michael Reynold's works The Devil's Adjutant and Men of Steel, both of which have extensive sections on the 6. Panzerarmee in the Ardennes.
Wijers' Battle of the Bulge books are, instead, of most use to those who have read extensively on the battle, but want to learn what the men at the sharp end experienced. Most of the documentary material has not appeared elsewhere, and what has is often presented in greater length. The source material is roughly 2/3 American. One published source, Michael Schadewitz's The Meuse First and Then Antwerpt, provided a substantial amount of the German content. Since this is a rare book in English, translated from a far-scarcer German original, few readers of these Stackpole editions of Wijers will be familiar with it. Perhaps this will generate some sales for Schadewitz's fine study of the 150. Panzer Brigade.
In sum, The Battle of the Bulge, Volumes One and Two, are a fine supplement to the body of literature on this famous campaign. They'll be less useful as introductory works, but those who enjoy personal accounts may find them a gateway towards further study. At worst, they provide some exciting, if confusing reading. I'm just glad that such specialized books, created as a labor of love, are now widely and easily available.
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