11 Days in December

Christmas at the Bulge, 1944

By: Stanley Weintraub

Narrated by: Patrick Cullen

11 Days in December tells the story of one of the grimmest points in World War II and its Christmas Eve turn toward victory.

In December 1944, the Allied forces thought their campaign for securing Europe was in its final stages. But Germany had one last great surprise attack still planned, leading to some of the most intense fighting in World War II: the Battle of the Bulge. After 10 days of horrific weather conditions and warfare, General Patton famously asked God, "Sir, whose side are you on?" For the next four days, as the skies cleared, the Allies could fly again, the Nazis were contained, and the outcome of the war was ensured.

Renowned historian and author Stanley Weintraub weaves together the stories of ordinary soldiers and their generals to recreate this dramatic, crucial narrative of a miraculous shift of luck in the midst of the most significant war of the modern era.

©2006 Stanley Weintraub (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"A compact, fast-moving account of those critical days....Weintraub's use of the letters and diaries of 'lesser' soldiers enlivens his account and makes this a particularly poignant saga of men in war." (Booklist)

A colorful, lively, fast-moving account

It makes sense to center a Battle of the Bulge book around Christmas. The surprise German invasion began in mid-December, and Christmas marked, basically within a day or two, the point at which their Panzer advance ran out of steam (or, technically, out of fuel), the skies cleared for U.S. air power, and Patton’s tanks showed up like the traditional cavalry to rescue our beleaguered forces in Bastogne that had been surrounded by the enemy. This book seems an excellent introduction to the battle, mainly relying on lots of anecdotal glimpses of individual soldiers and officers; i.e., it is not a dry macro-level military history, and at just five and a half hours long, it doesn’t go into the detail that hard-core WW2 buffs perhaps might want. Incidentally, it convinced me, as other accounts have as well, that the British general Montgomery was a vain, self-aggrandizing little prig, Weintraub probably tells us as much as we want to know — more, in my case — about Ernest Hemingway’s comings and goings as a hard-drinking war correspondent during this period. And — maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised at this — the final part of the book, dealing with the various ways that men at the front celebrated Christmas (or tried to, or failed to), struck me as curiously anticlimactic, because by this point the tide of battle had turned, although GIs captured by the Germans faced months of suffering.

Some good background, but hard to follow at times.

Info can be disjointed. i,e, Talking about activities on the 16th, then talks about surrender of the two regiments of the 106th (happened on the 19th), then back to the 16th activities.

Narration is monotone. Also, in several locations, narrator refers to the 442nd / 443rd regiments of the 106th, The Japanese-Amercian regiment (442nd) were not involved. It was the 422nd & 423rd that surrendered. (My father was with the 422nd)

A likely accurate account

It is very enlightening to hear the words of participants as well as descriptions of leaders like Eisenhower hiding from assassins and the ineffective and arrogant Montgomery adding only mouthy denigrations while the real heroes, Patton, with his men, was winning the battle.

Great

There are many books on this period. But to my surprise, there is always something new and this book didn't disappoint me.
I really enjoyed it
Spacestationark Ark

Coverage of the complete battle front.

very well done. Book very written. listened stat to finish in one day. Excellent book.