Bastogne - The Story Of The First Eight Days

Book excerpt: [This edition benefits from numerous maps of the battlefields that the actions were fought over] “NUTS!” - Among the many military legends that abound from the fighting of the Second World War, the one word reply to a German summons to surrender must rank highly in terms of its resonance, importance and sheer grit. General Mcaulliffe decided that despite the odds and the lack of supplies and ammunition his troops would continue to hold the important communication hub of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. This dramatic, yet authoritative account brings all of the action to the fore as the Battered Bastards of Bastogne wrote their names into legend. "THIS STORY OF BASTOGNE was written from interviews with nearly all the commanders and staff officers and many of the men who participated in the defense of Bastogne during the first phase of that now celebrated operation—the days during which the American forces were surrounded by forces of the enemy... Thus it is essentially the account of how a single strong defensive force was built from separate commands of armor, airborne infantry and tank destroyers—a force convinced that it could not be beaten."-Introduction.