The Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge

Thus, the reader is treated to a very thorough look at what the moment-to-moment experience was like from a number of the men who were there to fight it. As Col. Eisenhower was also a career military man following in his famous father's footsteps, he speaks with obvious authority and knowledge about the multitude of factors leading to the engagement on both sides, and one gains an appreciation for his expertise if not for his somewhat pedantic and limited writing skills. Still, the book is an interesting and accessible reading experience.

Of course, since I had already read a number of other titles covering the same ground, much of the material was repetitive, but my impression after finishing it was that "The Bitter Woods" is a very authoritative single volume on the campaign, and that it competes favorably with all the others, although I should not want to so limit myself to a single such source for this, one of the finest moments in American war history. It is stirring to read about the first hand experiences of the tired, overextended, and under armed units of the American forces as they first engage the overwhelming German juggernaut. Beaten to a pulp, they regroup, and surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned, and outmaneuvered, in a desperate hand to hand combat, fight back with hellish ferocity and beat the German forces back.

This account puts to the lie the idea that the only reason we won the war was superior number and endless logistics. Deprived of those two advantages during the extremely bad weather during the worst part of the battle, the U.S. Army simply outfought their German attackers. I personally would recommend you read this book hand in hand with the Toland book ("Battle"), for together they provide a really complete and quite varied look at all of the aspects of one of the most tenaciously fought battles on the western front of the European theater of the Second World War. Enjoy!


Fascinating account of Hitler's last gamble in the West....   December 4, 2003
Alex Diaz-Granados (Miami, FL United States)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

The Bitter Woods, historian John S. D. Eisenhower's insightful account of the Ardennes Counteroffensive in the winter of 1944, is one of the best books yet written about the Battle of the Bulge. Along with John Toland's 1959 classic Battle: The Story of the Bulge and the late Charles B. MacDonald's A Time for Trumpets, this volume is a must-read for World War II buffs.

The Ardennes Counteroffensive was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler himself. Even as Soviet forces raced toward Berlin from the east and the Western Allies advanced steadily toward the Rhine in the west, the Fuhrer squirreled away hundreds of tanks and artillery pieces plus thousands of soldiers -- some of them either old men over the age of 50 or young boys no older than 16 -- and planned a daring stroke reminiscent of the Third Reich's triumphs in 1939 and 1940. Three entire armies would strike the Allies in the "quiet" Ardennes forest region of Belgium and Luxembourg and drive to the crucial port of Antwerp. Hitler hoped to drive a wedge between the Anglo-Canadian armies in the north and the American armies in the south and cause inter-Allied political strife. At the very least, the seizure of Antwerp would slow the Allied advance just enough so Nazi Germany could develop "wonder weapons" and rain V-1 and V-2 missiles on London and other Allied cities. At the very best, the Grand Alliance would fall apart and Hitler might be able to negotiate a separate peace with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

But even though Hitler's offensive caught the Allies by surprise on Dec. 16, 1944 and created much havoc and confusion, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces, remained relatively calm. The Germans did penetrate the thinly held front and created a salient or "bulge" in the Allied lines, but Eisenhower and his field commanders (Bradley, Hodges, Patton and the various corps and divisional commanders) soon recovered and took decisive measures to contain the German assault.

But generals and colonels, no matter how skilled or determined, can't win battles alone. The Bitter Woods contains many accounts of brave GIs and junior officers who fought tooth and nail to slow and stop Hitler's last desperate gamble in the West. Readers who are just beginning to read about World War II will be in awe of the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division who helped hold the surrounded city of Bastogne, whose capture by the Germans was deemed by Hitler as a principal objective if his plan were to succeed. (Bastogne is where Brig. Gen Tony McAuliffe replied to the Germans' demand for surrender with the pithy one-word refusal, "Nuts!") The author, who graduated from West Point in June 1944 and is the Supreme Commander's son, writes about the stand of St. Vith's defenders, the combat engineers who blew bridges in front of the advancing panzer units, the ill-advised massacre of American POWs at Baugnez (the misnamed Malmedy Massacre) by SS troops and the harrowing baptism by fire of the green 106th Infantry Division, which lost two of its regiments in the largest American surrender since Bataan in 1942.

Eisenhower also writes extensively about the campaign in Northwest Europe both before and after the Battle of the Bulge, allowing both the new reader and long-time buff to place this, the largest single battle in U.S. Army history (there were, by January of 1945, over 600,000 soldiers involved), in the context of the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny.

Because the book was originally written in 1969, five years before the revelation of the Ultra secret, the account of the Allies' intelligence failure is not as well-explained as in the 1985 book by Charles MacDonald, but aside from that, The Bitter Woods still stands as one of the finest "case studies" of a major battle of World War II.


A well written account of an interesting battle.   January 10, 1998
kent beuchert (USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

I've read this book more times than I can count. To me, that's the highest praise I can give. Eisenhower (the author) writes as an historian ought to, with no axes to grind in describing Montgomery's actions, etc. His firsthand knowledge of Army ways and wherefores holds him in good stead: the reader is being shepherded through the material by one in the know who always provides a down-to-earth rational perspective. The story he tells stands on its own as, alternately, a mystery, an excellent character study of the participants (particularly the commanders), and an exciting tale of an event that represented, in my mind, the climatic event of World War II in the European Theater.


Best Bulge Book on the Supreme Command   June 2, 2005
David Chesterman (APO, AE USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

This is considered one of the four great books on the Battle of the Bulge. The others are John Toland's Battle, Hugh Cole's official US Army History: The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge and Charles B. MacDonald's A Time for Trumpets. I have read all but Hugh Cole's book and will review each of them.

The Bitter Woods starts with a good background of the breakout from the Normandy beachhead and takes you up the start of the Bulge. Eisenhower gives you a strategic view of the events leading up to the Bulge. He discusses the strategy that the Allies were using against the Germans. His book gives you much more background of the operations before the Bulge than either Toland's or MacDonald's.

As this book was written in 1968, the knowledge of the Enigma intercepts was not released yet. Eisenhower is still able to discuss the deception operation that the Germans were able to successfully conduct against the Allies.

Once Eisenhower gets to the battle he does a good job of taking you to soldier level battles. MacDonald does a better job but he doesn't set the strategic context as well as Eisenhower. All of these books are detailed enough that they keep you referring to the maps to understand what was happening.

Eisenhower also gives more details of other events that happened during and after the the Bulge such as the German offensive Operation Nordwind. Finally Eisenhower shows the strategy that led to the end of the war in Europe.

Eisenhower provides many details about the leadership. He personally knew them and his father was able to provide many personal details.

While Eisenhower knew both General Omar Bradley and Field Marshall Montgomery, I felt he did a pretty good job of describing the personality conflict between them and did not defer from taking on the issue.

If you are looking for a good book on the Battle of Bulge that places it in its historical context, discusses the leadership, and gives you the big view as well as individual actions, the Bitter Woods is the best book of the three.



Complete and accessible   March 3, 1998
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

The Bitter Woods is the story of the Battle of the Bulge. Eisenhower succeeds in presenting a clear and concise history of the famed Nazi offensive, though the vastness of the battleground and the number of men involved can make keeping track of the action a daunting task (in defense of the author, neither the huge amounts of men involved, nor my lack of geographical knowledge of Belgium are his fault). Also, he sometimes uses jargon which a non-student of WWII might not know (what is a German burp gun?).
Not to sound as if I am damning The Bitter Wood with faint praise, I would like to say what is right with the book. Eisenhower's organization of the facts could not have been done any better. The inclusion of maps of each engagement greatly help the reader follow the action (though a full size fold-out map of the entire theater would have been welcome). Also, his knowledge of the personalities involved (on both sides, and especially Ike's) make the reasons behind the Allied victory easy to understand.
Exhaustive without being exhausting, The Bitter Woods is what all historical novels should be.