Rating: 
Summary: Battle of the Bulge Only
Review: A person buys a book like this because they are really interested in learning everything hey can about a particular topic, that is why I bought this book. The story is about a German tank leader and his actions during the Battle of the Bulge. This book provides the reader with almost every detail of what this particular tank commander and his group went through during this particular battle of the war. The book does also give the read some background on him to make you understand why he was held in such high regard and it provides the after the war bio also. The book is well written, very detailed and does a good job of tying the pictures it displays to the story. If you really have a deep fascination with either the Battle of the Bulge or German tank warfare then this would be a good book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Battle of the Bulge Only
Review: A person buys a book like this because they are really interested in learning everything hey can about a particular topic, that is why I bought this book. The story is about a German tank leader and his actions during the Battle of the Bulge. This book provides the reader with almost every detail of what this particular tank commander and his group went through during this particular battle of the war. The book does also give the read some background on him to make you understand why he was held in such high regard and it provides the after the war bio also. The book is well written, very detailed and does a good job of tying the pictures it displays to the story. If you really have a deep fascination with either the Battle of the Bulge or German tank warfare then this would be a good book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: For those that want a basic view of Peiper and his role in the Ardennes Offensive, this is very good. The author is unbiased and has both American and German accounts of the battle from beginning to end. Those that want a thorough and indept account of Peiper, Patrick Agte's book is what you want. The Bulge is the final and greatest offensive in the war against the western allies and unlike the war in the east where Peiper participated in, it was the Battle of the Bulge, particularly the Malmady incident that effected Peiper on a more personal level condemning him as a war criminal and to be hanged. Peiper being branded as a war criminal probably what led to his murder by French Communists. But Peiper did nothing unusual that other sides didn't do. The shooting of prisoners was common, particularly on the eastern front, but on the western front Americans also shot German prisoners as well. Aside from the fact that he was a committed Nazi, in all fairness Peiper like all great and aggressive military leaders did what he had to do in order to win a desperate battle.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: For those that want a basic view of Peiper and his role in the Ardennes Offensive, this is very good. The author is unbiased and has both American and German accounts of the battle from beginning to end. Those that want a thorough and indept account of Peiper, Patrick Agte's book is what you want. The Bulge is the final and greatest offensive in the war against the western allies and unlike the war in the east where Peiper participated in, it was the Battle of the Bulge, particularly the Malmady incident that effected Peiper on a more personal level condemning him as a war criminal and to be hanged. Peiper being branded as a war criminal probably what led to his murder by French Communists. But Peiper did nothing unusual that other sides didn't do. The shooting of prisoners was common, particularly on the eastern front, but on the western front Americans also shot German prisoners as well. Aside from the fact that he was a committed Nazi, in all fairness Peiper like all great and aggressive military leaders did what he had to do in order to win a desperate battle.
Rating: 
Summary: GrEaT ReSeArCh !
Review: Gen. Reynolds (ret) did a great job in balancing tactics and first person accounts. This is a perfect book for you if you want to understand the battle from the German point of view. BTW General Reynolds kindly sent me a copy of a map he used to conduct battle field walkthroughs. THANKS FOR THE MAP!
Rating:
Summary: This is a excellent book with a slightly misleading title.
Review: Gen. Reynolds has done a magnificent job in describing the actions of Kampfgruppe Peiper, of the I SS Panzer Divisionin the Battle of the Bulge, december 1944. He has included material from the American After Action reports, and several German sources. There are several detailed maps, and (in Europe) the book is accompanied with an indispensabe, highly detailed military map. This is the book to read if you want to follow Kampfgruppe Peiper in their footsteps. I have actually done this , being an European, and living near to the Ardennes, so I know what I am talking about. Kampfgruppe Peiper was involved in the welknown "Malmedy Massacre", and this subject is reasonably covered in the book. One drawback , in my opinion, is the misleading title of the book. Although the book gives a lot of ,until now, unpublished and intruiging facts about Peiper's life, the book is not a comprehensive biography of Peiper. The descriptions of Peiper's life before and after the Battle of the Bulge are sketchy. Especially Peiper's time as Himmlers adjutant (hence the title), is scarcely touched upon. Summarizing, the book is an detailed military account of the (in)famous Kampfgruppe Peiper in the Battle of the Bulge, by a military general who knows his subject well. The book gives little insight in the person of Peiper himself, and the times he lived the most important part of his life. An interested reader should be on the look out for Danny Parker's book on the Kampfgruppe Peiper. Any e-mail by fellow Peiper researchers would be appreciated.
Rating:
Summary: First Rate
Review: General Reynold's is probably the best book I have read thus far in regards to painting a picture of what the battlefield commander goes through in the critcal hours before stepping off on the attack, or 'prep for combat'. As a company grade infantry officer myself, I could only imagine the pressure on someone so young as Peiper, only 29 and commanding a reinforced panzer regiment! General Reynold's narritive is first rate, and his dependance on primary sources insures his accuracy. I also highly recommend his other book, "Steel Inferno" for much of the same qaulities as mentioned above. Finally, if anyone could tell me how to find Kurt Meyer's book, "Grenadiers", I would greatly appreciate it. Semper Fidelis.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Title taints this book
Review: In my opinion one should be able to read a title and at least get an idea about the main topic of the book. Not so here.If you want an moment-by-momentbreakdown of the Battle of the Bulge then this book is for you. If you want to learn anything about Jochen Peiper, his mind, motivations, style etc, you will be wasting your time. Peiper's name is invoked because he was a leader in the military thrust described by the author. There is no critical evaulation of why he's compelling, how he led, what were his values. We learn almost nothing about Peiper as an individual from this book. All I can take from this book about Peiper is: he was part of Himmler's staff, and since we all know how bad Himmler was it doesn't say good things about Peiper. Guilt-by-association won't work here; I need a lot more evidence to buy the argument.
Rating: 
Summary: The devil's adjutant? A misnomer.
Review: Peiper served only a short time as Himmler's adjutant before volunteeering for frontline service, and proved himself to be qute a dashing officer, ending the war as commander of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler SS Panzer Regiment, though he apparently had never commanded from a panzer.
He ganed notoriety as the scapegoat for the alleged Malmedy massacres, though one wonders why no GIs were ever brought to justice or charged for murdering German prisoners, well documented cases abound.
The title is very much an attention grabber, and a slur on Peiper. Would one call Max Wünshe (ex LAH and then commander of the Hitlerjugend Panzer Regiment)lucifer's adjutant because he served as Hitler's SS adjutant before seeing frontline service? The book also suffers from breaking no new groung, and is very much dependent on other published work on Peiper.
To know the real Peiper, go tor the meticulous, yet expensive book by Patrick Agte instead.
Rating:
Summary: A good book (despite the inaccurate title)
Review: The Devil's Adjutant by Maj. General (Retired) Michael Reynolds is a good book describing the Battle of the Bulge from both viewpoints (German and American). The title leads one to believe that it is a biography of Jochen Peiper, certainly one of the most charismatic (and controversial) figues in the Waffen-SS. The biographical info is certainly interesting (especially since he served as Himmer's aide earlier in the war), but General Reynold's' main concern is with the the German strategy during the Battle of the Bulge with Peiper playing a key role in the narrative. The coverage of the battle is very accurate and draws from both German and American sources. Jochen Peiper was certainly a courageous officer, but he is associated with the massacre of American POWs at Malmedy, a crime for which he was sentenced to death, but was later overturned due to irregualities in the prosecution's case. General Reynolds is even-handed in examining the evidence for and against Peiper. Peiper's later life and mysterious death are covered well. Among Waffen-SS veterans there is a certain amount of sentiment that Peiper was a victim as well and the appelation "Der letzte Gefallene" or the last casualty has been given to him. Certainly Peiper was taking a great amount of risk by living in France, but the French government no doubt knew of his past and allowed him to maintain a residence there. General Reynolds is fair in his assesment that Peiper was an excellent officer who took some excesses in combat, although his attempts to link Peiper to Himmler are a bit far-fetched. The "Final Solution" and its implementation were in 1942, during a period where Peiper was engaged in combat on the Eastern Front and it is unlikely that a junior officer could have had access to sensitive information. Four stars for this book, because of the inaccurate title. Also, there is a mistake concerning the last commander of the 1st SS Panzer Division "LAH." Otto Kumm was the officer in question, not Krumm. Oterwise an excellent account although I feel that Steel Inferno by the same author is probably the better book, as there is less politics in that book.
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