Customer Reviews

BATTLE OF THE BULGE (Images of War)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a collector of almost every book available on the Battle of the Bulge, I added this soft cover volume to my library. In many ways this could be considered the "bargain" version of much heavier books such as THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE: THEN AND NOW.

There is no new material here. Included is a decent selection of photographs, but I regret I have seen them all before in other books. One curious aspect of some of the photos is that some of them bear, what appear to be, military censor scribbles on the pictures. Some village names are scribbled out, as are the faces of American POWs being marched into captivity. Unfortunately there is no narrative explaining where these particular photographs (or their duplicate negatives) originated. What editor or censor saw fit to cross out information, scratch out faces and road signs? This would have made for interesting reading in knowing that we are looking at the same copies of censored photos originally submitted to newspapers and other publications.

Considering the number of journalists and combat photographers in the European Theater at the time, it is amazing that so many aspects of the Bulge were never photographed. Maybe in the heat of battle no one thought to snap a picture of a tank here and burned out hulk there. Of course, serious amateur historians like myself pour over maps and photographs for more info about the many "high water marks" of the battle. The problem is that back then no one could have known what was the high tide, low tide, or spearhead of the offensive. Many still disagree. Indeed, several years ago I authored an article on the German 2nd Panzer Division's push toward Dinant. A US Army veteran, who fought bravely at Elsenborn Ridge, wrote me a letter to impress on me that Elsenborn Ridge was the location of the German spearhead.

It is difficult to predict significant moments in history in advance.

Still IMAGES OF WAR: BATTLE OF THE BULGE is a good book and I keep it nearby when reading (or re-reading) other text-heavy books on the Ardennes Offensive. If you are really intersted in photographs of the Battle of the Bulge, I recommend you pick up THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE: THEN AND NOW or the Goldstein, Dillon and Wenger book NUTS! THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE. THE STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS.

As a pictorial history, this book provides a very good perspective on the fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 1944 - Jan. 1945. The included photos cover almost every aspect of the battle, such as bridge defenses, artillery emplacements, soldiers in the field, house to house fighting, and, of course, many tanks and tank destroyers.

There are often two to three pictures to a page and the photos themselves are very well reproduced, especially given that this is a paperback. Each picture is also contained to one page, always a sign of good editing. With only a few exceptions, the photos are published for the first time in this volume. Each picture includes a well-written paragraph of text, often anecdotal, describing the context of the photo.

Overall though the text is light on the history of the battle itself and you will not understand what happened in this battle or its importance by reading this book. It is, however, an excellent pictorial supplement to one of the many available books analyzing the entire battle.

There are several imperfections that prevent a five-star rating, including numerous typos, misspellings, and misstatements or exaggerations. Also, the photos are primarily from the American point of view with a smattering of German photos and even fewer still depicting the British.

The photos also include several pictures of soldiers killed in action, primarily Germans. There are two photos that both clearly show a dead American soldier. (These are unusual since such depictions were highly censored by the American Army.) One, sadly, is of a commander of a tank destroyer unit, who has fallen beside his vehicle but his comrades are too actively engaged in the fighting to stop and bury him. I trust he got the hero's burial he deserved.

What Mr. Rawson has done is publish a semi-interesting collection of pictures, most of which have been published before, and that's about it. His captions are grossly inaccurate and poorly written. He has several pictures of M5 Stuart Light Tanks which he constantly refers to as "Grant" tanks. The Grant was the British version of the M3 Medium Tank. He must like the name Grant, because he also calls a photo of a disabled German tank destroyer a "Grant"! He also calls the M10 Tank Destroyer a "Hellcat", which was actually the name of the M18 Tank Destroyer. Those are just a few of the many examples of inaccuracies I noticed on my first pass through the book. The list goes on far too long to include in this review, but include things such as more misidentified vehicles, incorrect descriptions of where certain units were engaged, photos from places and times that were not part of the battle, etc.

The problem with these types of mistakes is that the author loses all credibility. How can you trust any of his descriptions of the photos if he makes such obvious errors on so many? The shot of some US soldiers sneaking through the woods could be GI's from the 2nd Infantry Division, as the caption says, but how can you know for sure when just a page before he describes a picture of an M10 Tank Destroyer as a "105mm howitzer"? On top of this, his text contains excessively poor grammar, with run-on sentences and poor (or completely absent) punctuation.

Mr. Rawson has obviously not checked his facts, and that makes for a very poor historical work. The prose written at a 5th grade level (my apologies to any 5th graders who take offense) makes it just a bad book in general. I wouldn't waste my money on this. In fact, mine is going back to Amazon tomorrow.

The book has a lot of informative pictures of the event that had happened in the battle. Personally, there are a lot of new pictures that I have not seen before. What captured my attention was the photo of the dead soldiers from both side. In most similar book, such photo are censored off to prevent grief to the living relative of the soldier. But it is a good reminder of the horror of war where love one are lost.

Andy Rawson's Battle of the Bulge is another volume in the Images of War series. As such, it has all the virtues of the other titles in this well conceived set of books. Battle of the Bulge has very little text (all volumes in the Images of War series assume some familiarity with the given subject) and a wealth of excellent photographs.

Rawson has assembled several of the Images of War books--and with good reason: He has the ability to select photographs that are informative and moving. Many of the photos here are not new, but that does not seem to matter as you look at these images. The weary, simple expressions on the faces of the soldiers, the look of resignation as men work on frozen machinery, and the worry on a German officer's face all say much about the awful drama.

If you're a serious WWII ETO buff and have sixty-odd dollars laying around, pick up Pallud's BATTLE OF THE BULGE: THEN AND NOW. It is the definitive Bulge photo-history. If you're counting your pennies like some of us, Andy Rawson's IMAGE OF WAR: BATTLE OF THE BULGE will do. And it's $35.00 less expensive!

Drawn from the National Archives, Rawson's book showcases over 230 fairly well-captioned photographs and maps on the crucial December 1944 battle. The illustrations are divided into chapters on "Assault," "Breakthrough," "St. Vith and Bastogne," "Reinforcements Shore Up the Line" and so on.

As might be expected given the source of the photographs, almost all the pix are of American servicemen/units. I would have liked a more balanced presentation with additional photos showing the German side. Photo reproduction ranges from good to poor; a number of shots being washed out, out of focus, etc. (I've seen this in other 'Images of War' titles so something seems amiss at the publisher). Likewise there are a few caption goofs and gaffes.

In short, IMAGES OF WAR: BATTLE OF THE BULGE is a concise if one-sided photo-guide to the Bulge. Even with the uneven photo reproduction though, at $24.99 it's worth a look. Recommended with some reservations.