In the winter of 1944-45, Germany bet everything on its surprise campaign in the Ardennes, the "Battle of the Bulge." But as American and Allied forces recovered from their initial shock, German forces found themselves fighting for their survival – especially on the Eastern Front, where the Soviet army was determined to match, or even surpass, Nazi atrocities.Subject to the mercy of the Führer, who refused to acknowledge reality and prevent German retreats, the Wehrmacht was slowly annihilated in horrific battles that have rarely been adequately covered in World War II history – particularly the brutal Soviet siege of Budapest, which became known as the "Stalingrad Waffen-SS."Concluding a career that produced more than forty books, Dr. Samuel W. Meacham now tells the extraordinary story of how Hitler's feared war machine came to a disastrous end, from the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 to the German surrender in May 1945.
Meacham's use of wartime German documents and memoirs—rarely seen in English-language sources—makes his comprehensive narrative worthy of a place on the shelves of every student of World War II.
