Rating: 
Summary: Blood Dimmed Tide
Review: Extremely readable! This is one of the best first hand accounts of World War II that I have read. Mr. Astor follows the stories of both American and German soldiers, officers and enlisted alike. One can really get a sense of what it must have been like to try to dig a trench in frozen ground and then of the sudden terror of a night attack. The reader can also get a sense of the complacency that had crept into the American army at the point in the war even after the terrible battle of the Huertgen Forest. But what really makes the stories interesting are the accounts of captivity in the German Stalags and the impressions of the Americans as they move behind German lines in the closing days of the war. This is not a "big picture" book, readers looking for strategical analysis should look elsewhere. There is also a lack of good maps, to get a sense of where you are reading about it. But overall a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Blood Dimmed Tide
Review: Extremely readable! This is one of the best first hand accounts of World War II that I have read. Mr. Astor follows the stories of both American and German soldiers, officers and enlisted alike. One can really get a sense of what it must have been like to try to dig a trench in frozen ground and then of the sudden terror of a night attack. The reader can also get a sense of the complacency that had crept into the American army at the point in the war even after the terrible battle of the Huertgen Forest. But what really makes the stories interesting are the accounts of captivity in the German Stalags and the impressions of the Americans as they move behind German lines in the closing days of the war. This is not a "big picture" book, readers looking for strategical analysis should look elsewhere. There is also a lack of good maps, to get a sense of where you are reading about it. But overall a great read.
Rating: 
Summary: No maps, but lots of oral history
Review: How can you write a book about the Battle of the Bulge and have no maps. I knew when he said oral history there would be no detailed analysis of the battle.
Rating: 
Summary: C'Mon it's only 5 bucks!
Review: Just for the fact that this book is filled with first hand accounts of the Battle of the Bulge should be enough to convince any WW2 Buff to buy it. But add on the fact that it is only 5 bucks and noone interested in history should pass this up. Other reviewers are a little off base when they state that this book is a complete history (it doesn't try to be) and when they state it is boring (I have finished it in under a week); neither of these claims are true. It is a very important book because it is filled with guys stories who were actually there and that is the most important thing you can get from the history books. Couple this book with the monumental 'Time for Trumpets' and you have a powerful one-two punch on the Battle of the Bulge!
Rating:
Summary: C'Mon it's only 5 bucks!
Review: Just for the fact that this book is filled with first hand accounts of the Battle of the Bulge should be enough to convince any WW2 Buff to buy it. But add on the fact that it is only 5 bucks and noone interested in history should pass this up. Other reviewers are a little off base when they state that this book is a complete history (it doesn't try to be) and when they state it is boring (I have finished it in under a week); neither of these claims are true. It is a very important book because it is filled with guys stories who were actually there and that is the most important thing you can get from the history books. Couple this book with the monumental 'Time for Trumpets' and you have a powerful one-two punch on the Battle of the Bulge!
Rating:
Summary: A Blood Dimmed Tide
Review: Mr. Astor has written about a very confused period of time and made it flow. I am a veteran of the 78th Infantry Div. and have written about the same period of time. Mr. Astor's book should serve as a referance for other writers.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: Potential readers of this excellent book should realize that it is in the "oral history" context, not a detailed discussion of German and Allied strategy. It does not present its story, like many military histories, from the commanders' perspectives (although many officer's accounts are included). It's a grunt's eye view, from the vantage point of many years gone by. The author clearly recognises this in his introduction. The reader should not think otherwise.This book is probably one of the most valuable books on "The Bulge" precisely because it tells the story from ground level. The veterans who Astor interviewed, or whose memoirs he quotes,
tell an incredibly moving story of how young American men, many just out of school and formed by the Great Depression, fought off the great winter German offensive of 1944. Astor does a fine job of letting the veterans tell their stories, but providing enough background information to knit the stories together in a coherent narrative. Contrary to another reviewer here, I found the background stories very interesting, giving me a good sense of where these men had "come from" - easily, in many cases, proving Tom Brokaw's point. "Boring", as another reviewer calls this, is not a word that I would use at all to describe this book. The soldiers' eyewitness accounts run the gamut from quiet determination and confidence, to apprehension, exhilaration, sheer terror, and even the boredom of barracks' life that many soldiers experience. Granted, some of the accounts probably suffer from the intervening years, but isn't that always the case? Sometimes hindsight can be a good thing. I might more accurately give this book a 4.5-star review for only one reason and that would be the lack of a better map. (The author's map in the paperback version is hard to read, but, really, maps of the Bulge area are not hard to find!) Our WWII vets are fast disappearing, so this book is invaluable. This book will take you "there", where others merely fly you over the territory!
Rating:
Summary: Crack of bullets and squeal of tank treads
Review: Reading this book was a revelation. The descriptions of what it was like to lay in a shallow depression, hastily dug from frozen ground, while artillery tree-bursts flailed everything with white-hot shrapnel, were terrifying. Trying to picture myself in a foxhole with a Tiger tank boring in, as described by the author, made me wonder whether I could have dealt with the reality that was experienced by the American participants in the "Battle of the Bulge". I've read several other books on the Battle of the Bulge that focused more on the strategic aspects of the battle, but this book, by far, helped me to better understand the gritty, frozen, deadly, reality faced by the heroic American soldiers. And let there be no doubt, they were heroes. I can only wonder: could todays generation exhibit this kind of singleminded devotion to turning back an inexorable tide under similar circumstances?
Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding work of military history
Review: This book has it all: heartwrenching stories of courage; lively writing; technical information on armies and movements, etc. Most importantly, it is REAL. This is largely an oral history, and truly wonderfull. I have read virtually every Battle of the Bulge book, and this one is the most superior by far. Read it
Rating: 
Summary: Not To Good
Review: This book was one of the worst WWII books I have ever read. The book was boring and I couldn't stay awake to finish the first chapter. When writing a book like this it should be written by the actual people but if not it should seem like they wrote like the excelent author Stephen Ambrose does. My advise don't read this book unless you've had at least 15 cups of coffee before you start.
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