Customer Reviews

The Other Battle of the Bulge: Operation Northwind

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

 

 

Reading the other posts about this book compels me to say a few things about the author. Charles Whiting is a popular, readable and prolific writer of WWII stories, but he is not a historian in any way, shape or form. If you have read more than one of his books you will recognize the following:

1) lack of any kind of endnotes and few footnotes: where is this material coming from?
2) quotes from interviews with the author, which are not in any way anotated at the end of the book
3) praise of the common US soldier but uniformly harsh criticism of all senior U.S. leadership, especially Eisenhower
4) comparisons with Vietnam which, while occasionally interesting (he points out that William Westmorland fought in the Huertgen Forest without learning its lessons) usually border on the ridiculous
5) plagarism from his own works, including entire chapters, some of which have not even been re-written, but simply included whole in different books
6) where are the @&*#&! maps?

This book, like his "Ardennes: The Secret War" posits that Operation Nordwind was a bigger threat than the Battle of the Bulge to the Allies because it nearly defeated the Alliance politically at a time when they had already won the war militarily. It is an interesting conjecture, but it is tainted by the half-hidden glee that Whiting seems to feel over any disaster involving American troops and particularly their leadership. Everything he writes is written through that distoring lens. In any endeavour, if you want to find fault, you will, and in war this is particularly easy. Eisenhower was an armchair warrior and a true mediocrity as a strategist, but he was a superb military politician, maybe the only man who could have kept such a contentious alliance together until final victory. He deserves credit for holding it all together.

I have read five of Whiting's books and found most of them to be very entertaining, especially because he tends to focus on American disasters which naturally have not gotten much press since the war, and thus have not been written about extensively. He puts books together like a novel, and is far from a 'dry' writer. But his scholarship would not have met the standards of my high school history teacher, much less those of a true historian. He seems to write about what interest him only, is careless with his statistics and dates, includes facts that suit his opinions, states his opinions as facts, and constantly recycles his own material. You could probably file his books under 'historical fiction' before you could file them under 'history.'

Whiting seems to have copied most of the information for his book, from unit histories. At the same time he failed to cross-check his sources leaving a book that is full of inaccurate accounts of the battle. His final statement linking the war in Vietnam and the battle for Strasbourg was the most ridiculous thing I had ever read. If you know nothing about the battle, then it could be a good starting point. Just don't believe everything you read in it.

I found the book to be difficult to follow given the dearth of maps and the style of writing. I have read many battle histories but I found this book difficult to enjoy. I particularly disliked the author's social commentary throughout the book and found unsubstantiated his criticism of Eisenhower. I agree with an earlier review of this book, if you know nothing of the battle, then read this book. In hindsight, I should have looked elsewhere.

In the battle of Hatten and Rittershoffen over 5000 German and American soldiers were killed wounded or missing. Over 100 destroyed tanks of both sides littered the battlefield within and surrounding the utterly pulverized villages on the Northern Alsatian Plain along the upper Rhine River during the 12 day tank-infantry battle. This battle between the U.S 14th Armored,79th Infantry and 42nd Infantry Divisions and the German 21st Panzer, 25th Panzer Grenadier, 7th Parachute, and 47th Volks Grenadier Divisions should be the subject of exhaustive research because its received little attention from historians thus far. Dan Kneeland Grafton, Ma.

Mr. Whiting has the 79th infantry entering the war in europe in Aug. of 1944. Actually, the 79TH was one of the units that captured Cherbourg. This occured on June 26TH. On August 19TH the 79TH was in Mantes-Gassicourt.A major battle was fought here the result of which was a victory which allowed the americans to drive all the way to the Belgium border.

A detailed account of the Northwind battle. Not well known but significant. It gave details down to the battalion level and helped me track the movements of my uncle who was in one of the units involved. Thank you

By New Year's Eve 1944 the German Army seemed to be finished but the Wehrmact had one last surprise, Operation Nordwind. Hitler personlly planned this great offensive to help turn the tide against the allies and divert pressure from the bulge. 8 German Divisions smashed against the thinly held American lines in Alsace- Lorraine in France. Although seemingly small in scale compared to other great German offensives (42 Divisions invaded Poland, 136 France, 150 Russia, 65 Operation Blau culminating in Stalingrad, 36 OP: Zitadelle "battle of Kursk", 22 Autumn Mist "battle of the bulge") in the war. This offensive was actually one of the most important in WWII. Finally this important struggle gets its due. The Americans were forced to retreat under the onslaught. This book captures the political pressure by the French on the Americans to resist the invasion and save their country once more. The alliance nearly fragmented under the weight of the German assault as the Allies argue how best to stop the devastating offensive. The author does a masterfull job of capturing the battle from the big picture to the small details. The outcome was far from certain and the Americans were hard pressed to meet this German threat. The author also successfully argues that this battle was more important than the bulge because of the political pressures that nearly ended allied relations. But the Americans rise to the occasion and defeat Operation Nordwind and save the Franco-American alliance in the process. The US 7th Army and 1st French Army battle the Nazi's and knock them out of France once and for all. A month after the battle began the offensive had been stopped at a great cost. 16,000 Americans gave their lives and 32,000 French also perished defending their country. But the 19th German Army was defeated and the allies could focus on finishing off Germany. Hitler's true last great gamble nearly succeeded and if it had the war might have turned out differently. Fortunately it failed and the Allies won the war. This is a good book and a must have for any true WWII collection.

Volume 7 of the very impressive Casemate "West Wall" series, The Other Battle Of The Bulge: Operation Northwind by World War II military expert and author Charles Whiting is a serious, informed and informative examination of an often neglected yet crucial struggle that took place during the closing days of World War II European Theatre. It was called Operation Northwind, and planned by Hitler personally to attack the American line of the Alsace-Lorraine region with eight German divisions (three of them elite SS), and thereby forcing the Americans to retreat. For a time, it seemed the Franco-American alliance would be broken under the impact of the German assault, and the ultimate triumph of the Allies came only at a heavy cost in blood and lives. A solid, serious, sober account, The Other Battle Of The Bulge is very highly recommended reading for the military buff, and an indispensable addition to Military History reference collections.