Corps Commanders of the Bulge. Six American Generals and Victory in the Ardennes

Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Book Award
If
the Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last gasp, it was also America's
proving ground-the largest single action fought by the U.S. Army in
World War II. Taking a new approach to an old story, Harold Winton
widens our field of vision by showing how victory in this legendary
campaign was built upon the remarkable resurrection of our truncated
interwar army, an overhaul that produced the effective commanders
crucial to GI success in beating back the Ardennes counteroffensive
launched by Hitler's forces.
Winton's is the first study of the Bulge
to examine leadership at the largely neglected level of corps command.
Focusing on the decisions and actions of six Army corps
commanders—Leonard Gerow, Troy Middleton, Matthew Ridgway, John
Millikin, Manton Eddy, and J. Lawton Collins—he recreates their role in
this epic struggle through a mosaic of narratives that take the
commanders from the pre-war training grounds of America to the crucible
of war in the icy-cold killing fields of Belgium and Luxembourg.
Winton
introduces the story of each phase of the Bulge with a theater-level
overview of the major decisions and events that shaped the corps battles
and, for the first time, fully integrates the crucial role of airpower
into our understanding of how events unfolded on the ground. Unlike most
accounts of the Ardennes that chronicle only the periods of German and
American initiative, Winton's study describes an intervening middle
phase in which the initiative was fiercely contested by both sides and
the outcome uncertain. His inclusion of the principal American and
German commanders adds yet another valuable layer to this rich tapestry
of narrative and analysis.
Ultimately, Winton argues that the
flexibility of the corps structure and the competence of the men who
commanded the six American corps that fought in the Bulge contributed
significantly to the ultimate victory.