The Ghost Front: The Ardennes Before the Battle of the Bulge (Hardcover)

by Charles Whiting (Author) "At the end of August 1944, it was decided by the survivors of the SS divisions in France that they would attempt to break out..." (more)
Key Phrases: jeep teams, old hare, correspondence with author, Ghost Front, Siegfried Line, First Army (more...)

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

Product Description
A unique look at the calm before the storm--how the Germans were able to take the Americans by surprise at the Battle of the Bulge.

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 The Ghost Front.

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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: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,419,664 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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

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.

2 of 2 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

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!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Canadian, July 17, 2002

By A Customer

This old British author loses all credibilty after reading just two of his books. Whiting is so overtly pro British and so anti-American and has literally no objectivity whatsoever. Whiting not only repeats paragraph after paragraph in a series of books on say, the subject of the battles for the Huertgen Forest or on any battle he has written more than one book and, the editors/publishers continue to ignore the fact that two or three of Whiting's books on any battle are identical. Whiting also plagiarizes the works of other authors on a consistent basis. Whiting's books on WWII are simply a long and boring whine against the U.S., have little, if any, substance except where this old man blatantly copies other credible authors.

Why publishers continue to publish this old fraud's work is the question and, any reader who has read more than one of Whiting's books would, no doubt, never be gullible enough to waste a Canadian or American dollar on Whiting's mostly nasty anti American, anti Canadian pulp fiction.