A Blood-Dimmed Tide: The Battle of the Bulge by the Men Who Fought It

Astor ( The Last Nazi ) synthesizes interviews, diaries and correspondence in this evocative treatment of the Battle of the Bulge from a first-hand, front-line perspective. Through the testimony of German and U.S. participants, he re-creates the confusion and brutality of the war, the Germans' determination to break through at any cost, and the desperate American resistance that frustrated Hitler's last offensive. Many of Astor's interviewees, overrun by the German advance, became prisoners of war. Their accounts of their experiences in a collapsing Reich are the most original contribution of a work that, with its focus on the human aspects of the fighting in the Ardennes, brilliantly complements Charles MacDonald's A Time for Trumpets. Military Book Club main dual selection. (July)