Well over 2,000 total pages ... INTRODUCTION The Germans called it the “Operation Watch on the Rhine.” The French named it the “Battle of the Ardennes.” And the Western Allies termed it the “Ardennes Counteroffensive.” But because of the way the map of Western Europe looked at the height of the battle, it became known to history as the “Battle of the Bulge.” It was the winter of 1944–1945, months before the war in Europe would end. Despite the protestations of his generals, Adolf Hitler decided on one final attempt to turn World War II in favor of his German Third Reich. For this, he ordered resources diverted from other battle fronts—including his losing campaign against the Russians in the east. The Allies were caught of guard, as Hitler had hoped. Thousands of U.S. troops were surrounded at one point. In the end, the Allies committed enough troops that the tired, ill-equipped German army was overwhelmed. Indeed, the Battle of the Bulge was an important turning point in the war in the Allies’ favor, but it was not without its cost. The Battle of the Bulge is considered one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. CONTENTS 1. Introduction: The Battle of the Bulge Loomed Large 70 Winters Ago 2. BATTLE OF THE BULGE: THE ARDENNES CAMPAIGN - A Working Bibliography of MHI Sources 3. The U.S. Army in World War II: The European Theater of Operations The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge 4. U.S. Army in Action Bastogne - The First Eight Days 5. The Campaigns of World War II Ardennes-Alsace (75th Anniversary) 6. The Last Offensive 7. THE ROLE OF AIR POWER IN THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE 8. Missed Opportunity: Reducing the Bulge 9. THE FAILURE OF GERMAN LOGISTICS DURING THE ARDENNES OFFENSIVE OF 1944 10. BEGINNING OF THE END: THE LEADERSHIP OF SS OBERSTURMBANNFÜHRER JOCHEN PEIPER

Consists primarily of biographies of soldiers.

Jochen Peiper was a Colonel in the Waffen SS. One of the wars more divisive men who was accused and convicted of more than 900 murders yet he walked free after only a few years in prison, why? This book covers his whole life, from his humble beginnings in Berlin to his rise to full Colonel in the SS, and his participation in numerous campaigns in Europe and the Eastern Front. The story leads to the war crimes trial held in Dachau in 1946, the results of that trial, and the use of coercion and dubious interrogation methods leading up to it. Many guilty men walked free and many innocent men remained in jail. Others who were clearly guilty and named were never prosecuted at all. Rules were dismissed and what was supposed to be a shining example of justice became an embarrassing mess. If Peiper and his men were guilty of the crimes convicted of, why were the sentences never carried out? Thoroughly researched using original archived documents and other material this book sheds new light on an old story.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON MEDAL FOR MILITARY HISTORY SHORTLISTED FOR THE GILDER LEHRMAN PRIZE FOR MILITARY HISTORY 'A masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the shade' Saul David, The Times A bold new approach to the Second World War from one of Britain's foremost military historians Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins to recast the way in which we view the Second World War and its origins and aftermath. He argues that this was the 'great imperial war', a violent end to almost a century of global imperial expansion which reached its peak in the ambitions of Italy, Germany and Japan in the 1930s and early 1940s, before descending into the largest and costliest war in human history and the end, after 1945, of all territorial empires. How war on a huge scale was fought, supplied, paid for, supported by mass mobilization and morally justified forms the heart of this new account. Above all, Overy explains the bitter cost for those involved in fighting, and the exceptional level of crime and atrocity that marked these imperial projects, the war and its aftermath. This war was as deadly for civilians as it was for the military, a war to the death over the future of the global order. Blood and Ruins is a masterpiece from of one of the most renowned historians of the Second World War, which will compel us to view the war in novel and unfamiliar ways. Thought-provoking, original and challenging, Blood and Ruins sets out to understand the war anew.

Many indeed, are the biographies of Winston Churchill, one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century. But what was that influence and how did he use it in the furtherance of his and his country’s ambitions? For the first time, Professor William Nestor has delved into the life and actions of Churchill to examine just how skillfully he manipulated events to placed him in positions of power. His thirst for power stirred political controversy wherever he intruded. Those who had to deal directly with him either loved or hated him. His enemies condemned him for being an egoist, publicity hound, double-dealer, and Machiavellian, accusations that his friends and even he himself could not deny. He could only serve Britain as a statesman and a reformer because he was a wily politician who won sixteen of twenty-one elections that he contested between 1899 and 1955. The House of Commons was Churchill's political temple where he exalted in the speeches and harangues on the floor and the backroom horse-trading and camaraderie. Most of his life he was a Cassandra, warning against the threats of Communism, Nazism, and nuclear Armageddon. With his ability to think beyond mental boxes and connect far-flung dots, he clearly foretold events to which virtually everyone else was oblivious. Yet he was certainly not always right and was at times spectacularly wrong. This is the first book that explores how Churchill understood and asserted the art of power, mostly through hundreds of his own insights expressed through his speeches and writings.

The 50th Anniversary Volume provides the clearest view yet of the 11th. This volume includes a history of each individual unit of the Thunderbolts, all-new photos and biographies, plus unit insignias.

Highlights the key decisions and events of World War II in Europe from Allied and Axis perspectives.

WINNER OF THE TEMPLER MEDAL BOOK PRIZE 2020 A SPECTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES AND DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 'A stunning achievement' Max Hastings, Sunday Times Part Two of Daniel Todman's epic history of the Second World War opens with one of the greatest disasters in British military history - the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Unlike the aftermath of Dunkirk, there was no redeeming narrative available here - Britain had been defeated by a far smaller Japanese force in her grandly proclaimed, invincible Asian 'fortress'. The unique skill of Daniel Todman's history lies in its never losing sight of the inter-connectedness of the British experience. The agony of Singapore, for example, is seen through the eyes of its inhabitants, of its defenders, of Churchill's Cabinet and of ordinary people at home. Each stage of the war, from the nadir of early 1942 to the great series of victories in 1944-5 and on to Indian independence, is described both as it was understood at the time and in the light of the very latest historical research. Britain's War is a triumph of narrative, empathy and research, as gripping in its handling of individual witnesses to the war - those doomed to struggle with bombing, rationing, exhausting work and above all the absence of millions of family members - as of the gigantic military, social, technological and economic forces that swept the conflict along. It is the definitive account of a drama which reshaped our country. 'I cannot recommend this history highly enough' Keith Lowe, Literary Review