One of the more famous battles of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge, occurred in December 1944. A new book at the Nashua Public Library, 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944, chronicles the stories of the people who fought this intense, complicated battle. Historian Stanley Weintraub focuses not only on the Allied commanders, but also on the enlisted men, and even the Germans. According to Library Journal, although it is not a "major assessment of the battle...by weaving in holiday facets, Weintraub offers an appealing new way to look at a topic already covered in great historic detail."*

For those of you who are not familiar the Battle of the Bulge, it was one of the later battles between the Allies and the Germans. After the German defeat in France in 1944, Hitler wanted to launch a counteroffensive. He chose the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg because General Eisenhower was thinning his troops on that part of the front. Despite some intelligence pertaining to German concentration in the neighboring Eifel area, the 83,000 Americans were surprised when, on December 16, 1944, 200,000 German troops attacked. Eventually, 600,000 American troops participated, resulting in 81,000 casualties. Officially called the Battle of the Ardennes, it received its more familiar name as a result of the bulge that the attack caused in the American line.**

For additional books on the Battle of the Bulge, do a subject browse in the catalog for Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945.

*Tscherne, Joel. Review of 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944, by Stanley Weintraub. Library Journal 131, no. 18 (November 1, 2006): 88.

**MacDonald, Charles B. and S.L.A. Marshall. "Bulge, Battle of the." In Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of World War II, edited by Thomas Parrish and Brig. Gen. S.L.A. Marshall, Chief Consultant Editor, 86-91. New York: Simon &Schuster, 1978.