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A Time for Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge

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On December 16, 1944, elements of four German armies -- 14 infantry and five panzer divisions in all -- attacked part of the American First Army along an 80-mile front along Germany's border with Belgium and Luxembourg. The sudden and unexpected counteroffensive hit the Americans in an area the Allies thought would be a nice, quiet sector for combat-weary divisions to rest and refit while green divisions fresh from the States could be acclimated to life on the line: the dark and deep forests of the Ardennes. Planned and ordered by Adolf Hitler himself, this massive onslaught was launched with one objective in mind: penetrate the American lines, pass through the "impassable" Ardennes Forest, cross the Meuse River, and capture the vital port of Antwerp. At the very least, the Allied supply situation would deteriorate enough to slow the Anglo-American advance to the Reich's industrial heartland by a matter of months and buy time for Hitler and his tottering empire. At the very best, a German victory would split the Grand Alliance in three, trap the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group on the northern sector of the front, and the Fuhrer could attempt to convince the Soviets that further fighting was useless now that the Western Allies had been defeated at the Reich's very doorstep.

For a few snowy, foggy, and bitterly cold days, things seemed to be going Hitler's way. Caught off-guard by the sheer size of the counteroffensive, hampered by bad weather which prevented Allied air power to provide ground support to the tankers and infantrymen along the front, confused and misdirected by a small number of English-speaking German commandos wearing American uniforms, and, at some points along the 80-mile "Ghost Front," isolated, outnumbered, and forced to surrender, GIs fought a seemingly losing battle against hundreds of thousands of German soldiers. But even when some units panicked or were overrun, many American soldiers -- sometimes in dribs and drabs -- stood fast and delayed the enemy, giving Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Supreme Commander, and his generals valuable time to plan a riposte and turn what seemed to be a disaster into a strategic opportunity. And sure enough, after a month's of heavy fighting in the awful cold of a European winter, the German counteroffensive was slowed, halted, and gradually pushed back to where it had started.

The late Charles B. MacDonald, one of America's premier military historians and himself a company commander in the Ardennes campaign, captures the chaos, misery, bravery, and drama of the U.S. Army's largest battle in history in A Time For Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge. The author of such acclaimed works as Company Commander and The Mighty Endeavor, MacDonald uses his skills as a writer and his knowledge of the infantryman's combat experiences to paint a vivid picture of Hitler's last gamble to gain even a temporary victory in the West and the efforts of over 600,000 U.S. and several thousand British troops to contain the salient or "bulge" that gave the Ardennes counteroffensive its popular moniker.

A Time for Trumpets not only covers the well-known episodes of the small teams of German soldiers wearing American uniforms (they actually did very little material damage, but their very existence caused jumpy GI's to quiz each other about baseball teams, state capitals, even popular singers and bandleaders), the heroic stand of the 101st Airborne at Bastogne and the infamous Malmedy massacre, but delves into the Allies' biggest intelligence failure of the war and the bitter recrimination between British and American commanders when Eisenhower placed the northern half of the "bulge" under the command of Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery. Attention to detail is also given to the German high command's reluctance to execute Hitler's plan by the letter, knowing in their professional soldiers' hearts and minds that the Nazi dictator was overreaching.

Despite the complexity of the battle, A Time For Trumpets is highly readable and engrossing. There are helpful maps and many pages of photos to help the casual reader keep his or her bearings in this sprawling month-long battle, and the various appendices are valuable tools that illustrate the composition of a standard U.S. infantry regiment and the various Orders of Battle for the Allied and German forces engaged in the Battle of the Bulge.

This is considered one of the four great books on the Battle of the Bulge. The others are John Toland's Battle, Hugh Cole's official US Army History: The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge and John Eisenhower's The Bitter Woods. I have read all but Hugh Cole's book and will review each of them.

If one wants to know what was happening at the individual soldier's level, this is the book. Charles B. MacDonald fought in the Battle of the Bulge as a company commander and wrote his personal account of the European Theater of War, Company Commander. He knows what it was like to fight in that bitter cold battle with units widely spread out. MacDonald was at the critical Elsenborn Ridge in the North and helped prevent the Germans from spreading and enlarging the Bulge.

His book takes you into action with the sometimes ragtag groups of units that fought overwhelming forces. In some cases platoons of around 20 men fought battalions of 500 and larger.

This detail requires the reader to really look at the many included maps to keep track of this battle that stretched almost 80 miles from north to south. While the other books mentioned above have details of individual soldiers fighting, this is the most extensive. It is about twice the size of John Toland's book.

MacDonald builds on and cites the earlier books by Toland and Eisenhower. Because his book came out around the 40th anniversary of the Bulge he was able to incorporate the information released on the German Enigma intercepts. While this information builds on how the Germans conducted the deception that led to the Bulge, it does not greatly change anything previously known. It is interesting, though. What did the intelligence officers really know?

Because MacDonald concentrated on the soldier level so much he does not concentrate as much on the senior leadership level as Eisenhower. He does have some telling comments on the issue of Field Marshall Montgomery's belief that he should take control of the entire ground battle from General Eisenhower, the overall commander. MacDonald generally demolishes Montgomery's arguments.

MacDonald also does not spend much time on the strategic context, before or after the battle.

If you are looking for the best book on the Battle of Bulge that gives you the view of the battle from the soldiers' level and someone who was there, A Time for Trumpets is the best book.

While MacDonald is no Ambrose when it comes to personal stories and oral histories of the individuals who fought in the great battle, he nevertheless lends organization to explaining what happened during the chaos of the Battle of the Bulge. He divides the German offensive into three geographical areas and discusses in great detail the chronology of events in each sector. This book uses many maps depicting local areas under discussion. While the descriptions are well worthwhile and do not bog down, MacDonald tends to emphasize the REMF's decisions and commands rather than those in the foxhole. As a company commander during the bulge himself, Mac still is able to lend acute authenticity to this retelling of the Bulge, sprinkled somewhat with Ambrose-esque vignettes of local action. One should read this book first, and THEN go on to read "A Blood Dimmed Tide" as this book gives an excellent overview of the entire event.

One of the most impressive aspects of Charles B. MacDonald's terrific book on the Battle of the Bulge is the fact that it so vividly and accurately addresses each sector of the battle cohesively and coherently, without confusing the reader with a jumble of confusing different events at a particular time so that one is unable to thread together what was happening along a timeline in a specific place without undue difficulty. This said, it's also the only criticism I have of what's otherwise a wonderful, well-written, exciting, and thoroughly researched work. Although this may sound contradictory, it really is not.

Unlike "Battle" by John Toland or "Citizen Soldiers" by Stephen Ambrose, one sometimes loses the overall perspective these books provide in concentrating on a particular location without understanding other concurrent events and activities. SO, while I enjoyed the fact that his approach allows greater understanding of particular events in their entirety, I was occasionally frustrated in trying to figure out (without flipping through other sections) what was also going on at the time. I hasten to add that this is an unavoidable situation; one can't have it both ways at once. So while it does detract slightly from the book's overall account of the Battle of the Bulge in total, I appreciate and love the final work the author has given us.

Therefore I want to emphasize what a unique book this is, and what an outstanding job MacDonald has done in depicting the on-the scene descriptions of various units in action. Of course, given the fact that he was a field commander on the scene as the battle progressed, he indeed has a unique contribution to offer in way of eye-witness testimony as well as wonderful natural access to others who were there as well. He uses these resources along with a gripping ability to tell the story in a well-written and entertaining way that makes the book unforgettable.

Using "A Time For Trumpets" along with Toland's "Battle", Ambrose's "Citizen Soldiers", and John Eisenhower's "The Bitter Woods", the serious reader can much better appreciate and understand, at almost every level, how the madness of that several week period unfolded in mid-December 1944 during the worst winter weather of some fifty years in Europe. Hitler's strike with 1400 tanks and over a quarter million troops into the heart of the Ardennes at the Allies single weakest point came with complete surprise, and stunned, re-awakened and alarmed an overconfident, over-extended, and under-supported Allied command structure who thought they already had practically whipped the German Wehrmacht into submission. This is a terrific book and a wonderfully written and documented work of modern war history, and I recommend it to anyone who really wants to understand what unfolded in those fateful weeks in France.

Charles B. MacDonald's presentation of the Battle of the Bulge is certainly a thorough journey. Mr. MacDonald had first hand experience having served in the US Army in the Ardennes, and you feel that in this work. He should be applauded for his completeness of subject, certainly this work accomplishes that. From a purely historical perspective this is a great piece of work, yet from the perspective of historical reading for pure pleasure this book fails horribly. Certainly the book has content but MacDonald has the ability to easily lose the train of thought, moving back and forth between American and German units within one apparent stream of thought, when in reality multiple trains of thought were intended. In some places (e.g., his discussion of the leaderships and their responses) the book reads extremely well, but in most the task of reading is exactly that - a TASK! On content I recommend this book, on pleasure I cannot. While John Toland ("Battle") gives praise to MacDonald's work as the basis of content, he did not praise it as a "good read" - I see why not. Trumpet's would be a great read together with Toland's "Battle"; Battle for pleasure, Trumpets for content!

The Battle of the Bulge provides the basis for a lot of the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of American soldiers in combat, specifically in the Second World War. Champions and detractors have expended a lot of ink in the debate over whether American reactions were slow, if Allied countermoves were appropriate, and so on. MacDonald starts from the premise that this was a great American victory, so you know exactly where his bias is. His research is so thorough and his first-hand accounts of the battle are so compelling however, that by the end of the book you're a believer as well. MacDonald also has a talent for writing from the infantryman's point of view, rather than from the cammander's (his first book "Company Commander", a memoir of his experiences in northern France and the Bulge is superb). In style, scope and depth, this book compares favorably with "Six Armies in Normandy" by John Keegan or "Decision in Normandy" by Carlo D'Este. It's also a good companion volume to "Ordeal and Triumph", Ladislas Farrago's bio of Patton and "The Bitter Woods" by John D. Eisenhower (sic?). The readability of this book is unsurpassed. It is a monumental work (over 800 pages), but I guarantee it's a quick read. Some great moments: descriptions of the defense of the "fortified hedghogs" around St. Vith, Houffalize and Bastogne, depictions of the retreat (from both British and American sources), and some of the high level dialogue between Monty, Patton, Hodges, Bradley and Eisenhower.

I purchased this book in 1985 at the bookstore in the German Reichstag of all places. I was attending college in Germany and needed a good reference work on the battle prior to visiting Bastogne. This book more than fit the bill and prepared me well as my train traveled from Aachen along the Meuse to Namur, Liege, Libramont and finally to Bastogne.

One of the most interesting aspects of this particular work is that you quickly learn that the German timetable for success was disrupted right from the start. The American combat infantryman put up a serious fight from start to finish. MacDonald's accounts of indiviual American efforts, especially those of the CCR's is particularly informative.

Overall, just a great and interesting read.

Charles MacDonald, a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and later an official historian for the U.S Army, wrote "A Time for Trumpets" as the comprehensive account of that battle. MacDonald covers the battle from the foxhole to the highest headquarters on the Allied and German sides.

In late 1944, Hitler's armies were in retreat across Western Europe, only able to consolidate a defensive line at the German frontier thanks to the fact that Eisenhower's Allied Expeditionary Force had outrun its own supplies. Hitler gambled much of his remaining military resources on a lightning counter-offensive through the difficult terrain of the Ardennes to cripple the Allied armies and restore the military balance in the West.

As MacDonald recounts, the Allies had been lulled into dangerous complacency in the Ardennes sector and were taken badly by surprise. MacDonald's theme is how individual American units, often at great odds, nevertheless stood their ground and slowly fought the German offensive to a standstill, and eventually retook the area known as the Bulge. While famous units such as the 101st Airborne Division get their due, MacDonald does a superb job of capturing the action from the perspective of a variety of participants on both sides as the battle unfolded. Of note are the accounts from the green and unlucky 106th Infantry Division, many of whose small units fought surprisingly well despite being bypassed and cut-off in the opening hours of the German offensive. MacDonald also captures the fierce infighting at the Allied Command level, as Eisenhower's efforts to stem the tide in the Ardennes triggered a crisis of command among Allied leaders.

At over six hundred pages, MacDonald's account is not only exhaustive but verges on exhausting. The dedicated reader will be rewarded with an excellent account of the battle that holds up extremely well despite its 1984 publication date.

This book is a monumental work! Macdonald takes the biggest battle in American History and actually makes it understandable! Unlike many historians he writes in a down to earth, descriptive manner that never bores or tires. I finished this 700 pg book in just over 2 weeks, because I could not put it down! Should you buy it? Well if you are looking for a book on this battle, there is no better one out there! Macdonald was actually there as well which adds something to the book that Toland or Eisenhower couldn't in their versions. It is well covered with maps as well which makes all the difference in a book on a battle (here is a suggestion: take all the small maps in the book; xerox them; cut them out and tape into one large map that you have in your left hand as you read-I promise it helps!). I don't want to bore you further with a long review so I will add in conclusion that this is one book you will not be sorry you bought! Couple this one with Astor's 'Blood Dimmed Tide' and you have a powerful one-two punch on the Bloody Battle of the Bulge...

I first read this book when it was published several years ago. Last December, my wife and I had the chance to spend several days in "the Bulge." Before we went, we reread the book so we could have a feel for things. Once on the ground in Belgium, the book served us as a "tour guide" of the Battle. From the Elseborn Ridge in the north, to Bastogne in the south, we were able to use the book to give us a handy perspective of where we were and what had happened. It brought the ground to life.