A fascinating photographic trip through the site of the last great battle of World War II. Most Americans are patriotic, their interest in World War Two having been stimulated by such movies as Saving Private Ryan. Hundreds of thousands are the descendants of men who saw service in the Battle of the Bulge. This battle still holds the record for the highest number of American troops engaged in any single pitched battle in the history of the United States Army. Americans of the postwar generations are taking an interest in what their fathers and grandfathers did during the war. Those whose relatives served in the Ardennes often visit Belgium and Luxembourg in an attempt to learn more about those now legendary days of World War Two. This guidebook serves as a memorial to those who served. It will enable those who didn’t to learn something about the hardship endured by a previous generation in the name of freedom.

No other conflict has sparked the imagination or interest of so many people worldwide as World War Two. Most Americans are patriotic, their interest in World War Two having been stimulated by such movies as ''Saving Private Ryan''. Hundreds of thousands are the descendants of men who saw service in the Battle of the Bulge. This battle still holds the record for the highest number of American troops engaged in any single pitched battle in the history of the United States Army. Americans of the post-war generations are taking an interest in what their fathers and grandfathers did during the War. Those whose relatives served in the Ardennes often visit Belgium and Luxembourg in an attempt to learn more about those now legendary days of World War Two. This guidebook serves as a memorial to those who served. It will enable those who didn't, to learn something about the hardship endured by a previous generation in the name of freedom.

This WWII pictorial history presents an in-depth study of Hitler’s epic, final offensive campaign. In December of 1944, nine days before Christmas, Hitler played Germany’s last card on which he staked everything to turn the tables in the West. In this densely illustrated volume, military historian Jean Paul Pallud examines the entire salient with ‘then and now’ photographs. Hundreds of miles have been traveled by the author throughout every corner of the battlefield to search out the scenes of past events — every known photograph belonging to combatants, civilians, and in public collections and private sources has been sought or considered. All available film has been examined frame by frame and certain sequences illustrated and analyzed. This painstaking process offers a vividly detailed look at the famous battle. A number of classic pictures used — or misused — in depicting the conflict are placed in their true context, often revealing them to be very different from what they seem!

The powerful German counteroffensive operation code-named “Wacht am Rhein” (Watch on the Rhine) launched in the early morning hours of December 16, 1944, would result in the greatest single extended land battle of World War II. To most Americans, the fierce series of battles fought from December 1944 through January 1945 is better known as the “Battle of the Bulge.” Almost one million soldiers would eventually take part in the fighting. Different from other histories of the Bulge, this book tells the story of this crucial campaign with first-person stories taken from the authors’ interviews of the American soldiers, both officers and enlisted personnel, who faced the massive German onslaught that threatened to turn the tide of battle in Western Europe and successfully repelled the attack with their courage and blood. Also included are stories from German veterans of the battles, including SS soldiers, who were interviewed by the authors.

From a leading expert comes the gripping tale of the largest single atrocity committed against American POWs on the Western Front in World War II.

Just after its seventieth anniversary, the Battle of the Bulge has lost none of its impact. The largest battle fought by US troops on the continent of Europe started in a surprise attack on December 16, 1944, by four German armies, spearheaded by the cream of the German Panzer forces. Under the cover of bad weather and heavy snow, Hitler's last roll of the dice was intended to retake Antwerp, split the Allies, divide their political leadership, and force peace in the West, thus allowing the German forces to concentrate on defeating the Red Army. Strategic pipedream or not, the attack was furious and drained the Eastern Front of reinforcements: 12 armored and 29 infantry divisions, some 2,000 tanks and assault guns--mainly PzKpfw IVs (800), Panthers (750) and Tigers (250 including some of the new King Tigers)-- spearheaded the assault, which smashed into the American First and Ninth Armies. Near-complete surprise was achieved thanks to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with offensive plans, and poor reconnaissance. The Germans attacked where least expected--the forested Ardennes--a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of the weather conditions, which grounded the Allies' overwhelmingly superior air forces. The Allied response was magnificent. Initial reverses brought out the best of Eisenhower's armies, which fought with determination and grit against the enemy and the elements. The harsh battles are best summed up by the defense of the northern shoulder around the Elsenborn Ridge, the battle for St. Vith, and in the south the siege of Bastogne, where the town's commander, Gen. McAuliffe, rejected German calls for surrender with the pithy reply: "Nuts." Within ten days, the German attack had been nullified. Patton, at the time planning an attack further south, wheeled his Third Army round in a brilliant maneuver that relieved Bastogne and set up a counterattack which would drive the Germans back behind the Rhine. The Ardennes Battlefields includes details of what can be seen on the ground today--hardware, memorials, museums, and cemeteries--using a mixture of media to provide an overview of the campaign: maps old and new highlight what has survived and what hasn't; then and now photography allows fascinating comparisons with the images taken at the time; aerial photos give another angle to the story. The fifth book by Leo Marriott and Simon Forty on the Allied invasion of Europe provides a different perspective to this crucial battlefield.

The Battle of the Bulge was the largest and most costly battle fought by the US Army in World War II. The Ardennes fighting was Hitler's last gamble on the Western Front, crippling the Wehrmacht for the remainder of the war. In the first of two volumes on the Ardennes campaign Steven Zaloga details the fighting in the northern sector around St Vith and the Elsenborn Ridge. The Sixth Panzer Army, containing the bulk of German Panzer strength, was expected to achieve the breakthrough here. It was the failure around St Vith that forced the Germans to look south towards Bastogne.

In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author of D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis' lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way, Ambrose shows us the American West as Lewis saw it -- wild, awsome, and pristinely beautiful. Undaunted Courage is a stunningly told action tale that will delight readers for generations. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River to the Rockies, over the mountains, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, and back. Lewis was the perfect choice. He endured incredible hardships and saw incredible sights, including vast herds of buffalo and Indian tribes that had had no previous contact with white men. He and his partner, Captain William Clark, made the first map of the trans-Mississippi West, provided invaluable scientific data on the flora and fauna of the Louisiana Purchase territory, and established the American claim to Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Ambrose has pieced together previously unknown information about weather, terrain, and medical knowledge at the time to provide a colorful and realistic backdrop for the expedition. Lewis saw the North American continent before any other white man; Ambrose describes in detail native peoples, weather, landscape, science, everything the expedition encountered along the way, through Lewis's eyes. Lewis is supported by a rich variety of colorful characters, first of all Jefferson himself, whose interest in exploring and acquiring the American West went back thirty years. Next comes Clark, a rugged frontiersman whose love for Lewis matched Jefferson's. There are numerous Indian chiefs, and Sacagawea, the Indian girl who accompanied the expedition, along with the French-Indian hunter Drouillard, the great naturalists of Philadelphia, the French and Spanish fur traders of St. Louis, John Quincy Adams, and many more leading political, scientific, and military figures of the turn of the century. This is a book about a hero. This is a book about national unity. But it is also a tragedy. When Lewis returned to Washington in the fall of 1806, he was a national hero. But for Lewis, the expedition was a failure. Jefferson had hoped to find an all-water route to the Pacific with a short hop over the Rockies-Lewis discovered there was no such passage. Jefferson hoped the Louisiana Purchase would provide endless land to support farming-but Lewis discovered that the Great Plains were too dry. Jefferson hoped there was a river flowing from Canada into the Missouri-but Lewis reported there was no such river, and thus no U.S. claim to the Canadian prairie. Lewis discovered the Plains Indians were hostile and would block settlement and trade up the Missouri. Lewis took to drink, engaged in land speculation, piled up debts he could not pay, made jealous political enemies, and suffered severe depression. High adventure, high politics, suspense, drama, and diplomacy combine with high romance and personal tragedy to make this outstanding work of scholarship as readable as a novel.

“A riveting tale told through personal accounts and sketches along the way—ultimately, a story of success against great odds. I enjoyed it enormously.” —Tom Brokaw The first book to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives—now updated with new material. In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs—artists, designers, architects, and sound engineers, including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey—landed in France to conduct a secret mission. From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Every move they made was top secret, and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. Hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, along with maps, official memos, and letters, accompany Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’s meticulous research and interviews with many of the soldiers, weaving a compelling narrative of how an unlikely team carried out amazing battlefield deceptions that saved thousands of American lives and helped open the way for the final drive to Germany. The stunning art created between missions also offers a glimpse of life behind the lines during World War II. This updated edition includes: A new afterword by co-author Rick Beyer Never-before-seen additional images The successful campaign to have the unit awarded a Congressional Gold Medal History and WWII enthusiasts will find The Ghost Army of World War II an essential addition to their library.