The Ghost Front: The Ardennes Before the Battle of the Bulge [Hardcover]

Charles Whiting (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2002

While much has been written about the Battle of the Bulge—Hitler’s gigantic counteroffensive in the Ardennes Forest—the question of exactly how Germany was able to secretly mass its strategic reserves opposite the U.S. front remains as shrouded in mystery today as it was at the time. In December 1944, the snow-covered Ardennes was so quiet it was termed by Allied planners "the Ghost Front." The U.S. placed its greenest units among the wooded hills, along with combat-shattered units. But beneath trees just miles away, the Germans were stealthily massing two full Panzer armies and 300,000 assault troops. Week after week, Hitler poured the cream of the Wehrmacht into the "quiet" sector, for a surprise attack designed to shatter the American front. And while the Germans were eventually defeated in the Bulge, the preparations for the attack marked a victory for German stealth, deception, and organization. Charles Whiting, one of the best-selling historians of the war, examines how the Allies could have anticipated the attack had they not been lulled into a false sense of security. He also delves into the controversy over whether George Patton had received advance word of the offensive but failed to warn the frontline divisions. This question and many others are at last answered in Ghost Front.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fast-paced tale...The best account this reviewer has read of the Germans' intelligence gathering, security, and deception plans." -- On Point: The Journal of Army History Fall 2003

"As always, recommended." -- Library Journal

"The author loves a good war story and tells one well." -- Choice

"Whiting must be the world's most prolific military writer." -- Soldier

"Whiting's special gift is to carry the reader along....He can be simultaneously dramatic and objective." -- Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Charles Whiting served with a reconnaisance outfit in WWII and has since become one of the premier historians of the war. Among his many best-selling works are Patton, The Last Assault, and Death on a Distant Frontier. He currently lives in York, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1 edition (April 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306811480
• ISBN-13: 978-0306811487
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Underwhelming, July 5, 2002

By 

Edward DeVere (Franklin, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ghost Front: The Ardennes Before the Battle of the Bulge (Hardcover)

I thought I would get an explanation of why the Allied air forces could not discern the buildup in the Ardennes. But Whiting does not offer an explanation. Instead he focuses on the mismash of intelligence failures. But, you don't get to know any of the characters very well. Plus, from a writing perspective, Whiting has to many long, disconnected subclauses that are difficult to comprehend. Finally, he repeats himself often. Don't pay full price for this book. It is not essential to your WWII collection!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Un-intelligence - all the pieces but no picture, July 13, 2002

By 

Mannie Liscum (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ghost Front: The Ardennes Before the Battle of the Bulge (Hardcover)

Charles Whiting's book, Ghost Front: The Ardennes Before the Battle of the Bulge" is an interesting, if brief, examination of the Allied failure to see the German Ardennes offensive of 1944 coming before it happened. Other reviews have stated that Whiting provides no real insight as to why this happened, and in the end analysis there is some truth in that - many of the facts surrounding this huge intelligence faux pas remain obscured and possibly lost forever to time. However, in contrast to some other reviews I found Whiting's explanations of the events quite compelling and enlightening. Granted no single fault was found with Allied intelligence to place blame on, but that was why the Bulge occurred - no single event, but rather a series of events lead up to the Ardennes offensive and the German surprise. Whiting in my opinion does a decent job introducing many of the significant intelligence characters of the period, both Allied and Nazi. I found the stories of the German counter-intelligence ploys most interesting and enlightening, as these are sides of the story not often told. While there is certainly enough new material here to keep one interested I tend to agree with previous reviews that Whiting's style is a bit difficult at first, but I got used to it. I read the book over a three-day period (mainly while traveling for a business trip) and can say that in the end I really enjoyed the book. Yet, it's shortness (~160 pages) made it not quite worth full market price when all the criticisms discussed above are taken into account. I would however not dissuade readers from taking a look at other works by Whiting.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars From www.wargamer.com, July 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ghost Front: The Ardennes Before the Battle of the Bulge (Hardcover)

I hear www.wargamer.com will soon have a full review of this title. They also have many other reviews, previews and analysis articles of military history.

Ghost Front is a fascinating, if somewhat esoteric, view of the events that led up to the Battle of the Bulge. The intelligence failure of the Allies, or more precise, the pure blindness they suffered from, caused tens of thousands of needless casualties on both sides of the line.

Charles Whiting does a good job of portraying information that is not easily found in other sources, but his grammatical style has errors and doesn't flow very well in places, making reading this book less enjoyable than it should be.