Customer Reviews

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

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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."

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.

The publication of Stephen Ambrose's richly detailed histories, Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" and the runaway HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers," have all conspired to make the history of the second world war not only accessible, but also interesting to the general public. Having whetted our appetities for more information on the War to End All Wars, many sought out other works about the generals and men who fought for country's survival. However, not all books on the subject are the same, as is evidenced by this tome.

Koskimaki is sort of an informal historian of the 501st and in other volumes about the war relates many of the personal experiences of the men from D-Day to the surrender of Germany. However, he is not a professional writer and this book shows it. It is long on the eyewitness accounts of those who were actually there, but the material is presented in a haphazard fashion, using direct quote paragraphs with little or no narrative thread running in between to keep the reader grounded in the story. In other words, it reads like a History Channel documentary on the subject, with personal memories of the soldiers woven in around footage, which provides the thread of narrative. But in a book there is no footage; narrative must be presented by the writer and Koskimaki presents little, if any, causing the reader to become hopelessly bogged down and unable to see the forest for the trees. After awhile, one returns to someone such as Ambrose to find out what they missed while Koskimaki was bombarded us with eyewitness accounts. Looking for a good book on the subject? Then pick-up one by Ambrose, Atkinson or any other well versed historian. Looking for fill-in facts to complete the story? Then pick up this book. But only after.

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.

the battle of the bulge is interesting for several reasons. coming through the ardennes was history repeating itself. the way germany pulled it off was near genius. the way the airboorne and artillery worked togetehr was fascinating. one big factor kind of overlooked in all stories about the german military is the field marshalls and generals beleaved hitler was losing his grip on reality

Really enjoyed this book. These men are all heros. I found the style which this is written to be exciting. Thanks to the author for all the work that went into this work.

All three of George Koskimaki's books are first rate historical tributes to the brave men of the 101st AB during World War II. I believe one has to understand these books were written by a paratrooper for his brother paratroopers that lived, ate, slept, fought and died with him during that time...just as much as they were written for future generations and military history readers. In saying this, you will not receive a book written in novel format by a military historian. This is oral history by the author and his fellow paratroopers, specifically on their experiences and the actions of their division. This is not a thorough history of all actions by all army groups during D-Day, Operation Market Garden ( Holland Drop ) and the Bulge ( Bastogne ).
If your a WWII paratrooper enthusiast, or for anyone interested in more detail on the 101st combat actions during WWII, these books are a great addition to your library. The historical importance of first hand accounts is worth the price of the book alone.