Customer Reviews

The Battle of the Bulge: The Photographic History of an American Triumph

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

 

 

This is a beautiful book with great photos and superb area color maps. There are some photos in this book that I have not found in any other references. This book is light on narrative and heavy with photos. If you are just beginning to build your Battle of the Bulge/Ardennes library, this is a good book for you.

The reason I gave this book only three stars is that I expected a little more based on the size of the volume. Not including the end notes and attribution, this book has almost 280 pages. Of those 280 pages, the first 50 are consumed with non Battle of the Bulge campaign photos such as the Normandy Invasion, Falaise, and the dash through France. As such, almost 20 percent of this nice looking oversized book is devoted to something other than the Ardennes Offensive. Admittedly every history book and photo essay requires some sort of introduction, but 50 pages is excessive. I would rather have 45 additional photo pages and maps of the Ardennes.

Another issue is that there were non Battle of the Bulge photos sprinkled throughout the rest of the book. I have no issue with military leadership profile photos or equipment images that were photographed outside of the Ardennes if there are no viable photographs available from the battle itself. This a fairly common practice in order-of-battle books. Unfortunately the "Battle of the Bulge" section of this book includes some high quality black and white images from other unrelated battles or of German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Great photos, but they have no place in this volume. It seems as if they were inserted as photographic fluff to increase the page count.

I did enjoy the maps. The color maps are scattered throughout the book and cover various stages of the campaign. The campaign maps are generalized major unit movements -- primarily regiment and division -- for the northern and southern shoulders, the center, Bastogne, Elsenborn Ridge, and the tip of the Bulge.

In summary THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY is a very nice looking book printed on high quality glossy paper. Despite my criticisms it is volume worth owning. I am probably somewhat jaded in my assessment of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY when I compare it to other photo-heavy books in my collection such as the superb THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE: THEN AND NOW. I have yet to find a photo book that can surpass the THEN AND NOW series.

Historian John R Bruning, Jr. provides the reader with this outstanding work detailing The Battle of the Bulge campaign. Literally hundreds upon hundreds of stills (some in color) coupled with Bruning's excellent narrative make up The Battle of the Bulge: The Photographic History of an American Triumph.

I first was impressed by Bruning's writing style. His sidebar narrative seems effortless, is easy to read and mostly dead-on accurate. Clearly Bruning researched the topic at length, and above all utilizing creditable and reputable Bulge sources. Furthermore, since The Bulge campaign is mulit-faceted and mostly cluttered in jumbled confusion a proper timeline is simply not possible. Bruning tackles this hurdle by (correctly) focusing instead on individual units per given chapter. Furthermore, what makes this book more impressive is the numerous high quality maps detailing individual unit actions. Indeed, the maps alone are worth the price of admission.

Yet what makes Bruning's account so unusual -- and so extraordinary -- is that rarely does a professional photographer intercede in a military campaign by the sheer force of history. The U.S. Army Corps photographers, journalist and correspondents were caught up in the German Ardennes push like everyone else. And doing what photographers do best, accordingly, thousands of still photos, memorable fractions of a single second, forever isolated from time for all time, were taken under battlefield conditions. Thanks to Bruning, several hundred are now available for historians to consider, study and re-examine.

And what photos they are. Stills of shattered German and American armor are strewn throughout. Captured German stills depicting the speed of the attack, showing the stripping of American dead of boots, are blended with stills showing small bands of exhausted American soldiers fighting at unnamed crossroads, narrow valleys or numbered bridges, and slowing the German impetus. You can now see the faces of those who waged die-hard one man stands against Tigers; machine gunners manning ice covered weapons; and draftee soldiers, their fingers numbed by freezing temperatures, standing knee deep in snow, weary to the bone, their eyes haunted. These are the soldiers captured in each exposure, and I believe are as gripping as Alexander Gardner's photos of the dead at Antietam.

What you will find in Bruning's The Battle of the Bulge is a minute-by-minute pictorial account of the most desperate military slugfest waged in Central Europe during World War II. Simply put, there is not another book on the shelf like this -- not even close. It should be required reading for all students of history and researchers of The Bulge campaign.

Joseph A Springer (Author)

The Battle of the Bulge the Photographic History of an American Triumph

By John Bruning

The old cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words more than adequately describes the Battle of the Bulge the Photographic History of an American Triumph. The book is only 288 pages but it is pretty intense. The book has many photos I have never seen before. One haunting photo is that of a dead German soldier holding a picture of his wife as he lies dying in the snow
I have read books about the Battle of the Bulge what I like about this book is it graphical illustration of the battle thru extensive pictures and maps. The maps alone are worth the price of the book. The maps have icons for the different units as well a map key to tell you what they mean. Looking at the maps you begin to realize the futility of Hitler's attack plan. He did not have enough fuel for his troops. The key to his mobility were the roads and bridges which were destroyed by the Americans. Reading this book you can understand much better why Bastogne with its five roads was so important to the German attack.

I learned many things in the book. Hitler believed that American troops took there orders directly from Franklin Roosevelt. He believed that because he micromanaged his German troops, Hitler assumed Roosevelt did the same to the American troops. The Germans did not believe American troops were good fighters and that they were going to be easily run over. The terrain of the attack favored the defender not the attacking Germans and where ever possible American Troops tried to restrict the advances of the Germans

It is pretty detailed book and has outstanding narration to go along with the pictures and maps. I have taken an interest in this battle because my Uncle Clyde, (97 and still with us), was captured on Dec 17, 1944 by the Germans another friend George Wiedmiller served there as well. If you want to see why the greatest generation earned the name take a look at this fine book

MAJ (ret) Eric Shuler NJARNG

This book succeeds on many levels, having been equally devoured by my father-in-law, a WWII veteran (second-in-command on an LST), and myself, a novice to WWII military history. It speaks to those who were there, and those who never knew.

Gripping, spare prose and photographs speak volumes about the massive scale of destruction of this conflict and the toll it took on those who fought it. In turns horrifying, moving and inspiring, both words and pictures chronicle the seemingly intractable battle that led to the downfall of the Third Reich.

I'Il be back for more from this author.

the narrative in the book is excellent. much easier to read and understand the battle than any of the definitive books on the battle of the bulge

I purchased this book as I was interested in finding out about my father's division in the Battle of the Bulge.

I was very disappointed to see his division wasn't in the index. I was about to return it to Amazon.

But I read the other three reviews and decided to give it a go.

I am very happy that I did.

This book is about the German offensive and the US forces that held the German offensive to its minimum.
It is not about the counterattack launched by Allied forces in Jan 1945.

The photos are amazing and graphic. They do take you to what the average GI was facing.
Bruning writes an impressive narrative. He takes about each assault and gives it some perspective.

The men he writes about are heroes and deserve to be lauded as such.
These men fought against overwhelming forces.
Holding the Germans to the fewest yards was the goal and one achieved by some very brave man.
I now understand why the holding of this offensive, and the opening of the road to Bastogne was a major lift to the psyche of the average GI.
The Americans knew they were going to win, if only through grit and determination.

For me, it gave me a background as to what the start of the Battle of the Bulge was like.
It was 2 weeks of hell.