The Soldier’s Experience of the Battle of the Bulge

Hambucken is the author of a number of books that offer looks at war using artifacts, period documents, and ephemera, illustrated with numerous photographs and art work, as well as personal testimonials, all giving the reader a picture of the armed conflict from the bottom up. In this book, Hambucken applies his technique to the Battle of the Bulge with considerable success.

Hambucken opens A G.I. in The Ardennes with a short overview of the strategic and tactical situation, setting the stage, as it were. He then gives us many brief treatments of soldiers’ clothing, numerous different weapons, various vehicles, pay, rations, shoes and boots, camouflage, plus less immediate matters as the “Grand Alliance”, mail and censorship, and even glimpses of the Home Front, and much more.

There little profiles are generally well illustrated, and are interspersed with testimonials by soldiers and civilians, short accounts of particular actions or incidents, and Hambucken includes an account not only of the Malmedy massacre of American troops by German forces, but also several other less well-known incidents.

While A G.I. in The Ardennes is a particularly valuable book for those who are unfamiliar with the campaign and military life and service in the Second World War, even serious students of the war will find much of interest in Hambucken’s latest effort.

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Note: A G.I. in The Ardennes is also available in several e-editions.

StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium