Includes bibliographical references (pages 682-686) and index.

"December 16,1944, the vanguard of three Grerman armies totaling 500,000 men suddenly attacked out of the mists and snows of the rugged Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg in what was the last desperate gamble of Adolf Hitler to reverse the impending defeat of Nazi Germany. In the most abysmal failure of battlefield intelligence in the history of the U.S. Army, the Germans achieved total surprise. Six hundred thousand Americans fought in what came to be knownas the Battle of the Bulge--the most decisive battle on the Western Front during World War II and the greatest ever fought by the U.S. Army." --,(Source of summary not specified)