Excellent!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

By far the most complete story of Bastogne I've ever heard. Really enjoyed it!

Who was your favorite character and why?

All of the 101st.

Have you listened to any of John Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Nope

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

None

1 person found this helpful

attn: Matthew

I met Peter when he was studying in the States and doing some of the research I'm sure is included in this book. I'm glad I was able to find reference to the massacre Matthew mentioned. It can be found in chapter 35 at about 15:30 as the SS 1st Panzer is being introduced into the narrative.
I find this book to be very detail dense as I would expect from a serious scholarly work. I enjoyed John Lee as always.

Great story, lots of info, terrible "performance"

After three attempts I finally finished this book. It's a great story, with lots of info about units, movements, planning, strategy and even civilian testimonials. It's a book that offers a full scope of what happened around Bastogne well into January 1945. There's new info in this book that I haven't known/read in other books on the battle.

However, the "narrator" ruins the book and is the reason why it took me a few times to restart and try to get through it. First, his American accent "impression" is brutally bad - just awful and detracts from the overall story. Also, he trails off words, or last syllables of words, The first several chapters he reads too fast, so you'll likely need to slow down the speed. This is truly more of a performance for the narrator - I guess we're supposed to be impressed that he can pronounce these Belgian town with the correct local accent (I assume, but could be wrong based on this terrible American accent"). But, having read several books on the subject and somewhat aware of these town's and hamlet's names (even in my Americanized English for how I'd pronounce them), his pronunciation left me scrambling with constant rewinds; the narrator's performance is overly confusing when it need not be.

Also, he changes the way he pronounces "Bastogne" throughout the book. Annoying.

In short, the narrator makes the reading more about him and his performance than conveying the information in the book so the listener can easily follow along.

Great story, lots to learn here, but better off buying a physical copy of the book and reading it.

More if the truth

Many think that the battle of the bulge was just a 7 to 10 day event
My uncle was with Patton 3 rd Army for this fight and it took over 6 long weeks after the fight for Bastoin was over to push back the Germans lines

It was a turning point at the cost of many a young man

Great historical information.

This book gave a very accurate account of the battle and the men who fought in it. It wasn't overly dramaticized and tried to present the information and a factual maner.

Great Sory, Poor Narrator Choice

This has wounderful, first hand stories, which are a great insite into the critical point of the Battle of the Bulge. the narrator's English/Scottish accent is out of place while narrating American dialect. when the Narrator does General Patton' s quotes, he sounds like a bad rendition of Carry Grant trying to imitate Humphrey Bogart.

How individuals experienced this key battle.

Narration: Especially clear.

Story: lives up to its promise to describe poignantly individual soldiers' experiences. Recommended.

very informative and not focused solely on the 101

good background and discussion on all units invoved and the civilian experience during the battle

First Read Very Good, Lacking a Crucial Point, So?

Overall I think this was a very good book. It is certainly not the book for those who do not like history or those who know nothing about WWII simply because of the massive amount of information it covers. However, if you are a person who enjoys either you'll likely enjoy this book, yet my caveat below may sway your opinion.

The narration was outstanding. I had only listened to John Lee on one previous book, Dam Busters, in which he did an excellent job, but he was better in this book. Lee was a perfect choice, but be warned; he speaks so swiftly at the beginning of the book that I thought I had accidentally hit the 1.75x speed on my iPod. That said, his diction and pronunciations are flawless and he is easily understood. The speed, in my mind, actually conveyed the sense of urgency that the American units must have felt at the onset of the German attack. Lee also has an amazing ability to switch between accents, which will likely bother some listeners, but I found it interesting to break up the drone of the information being explained. His cadence slows further on, but he doesn't abandon the sense of urgency that he starts with.

Now comes the one caveat. At about the halfway point of the book I began thinking back and trying to recall if Schirjvers had mentioned the mass murder of 84 American prisoners in the hamlet of Baugnez on 17 December 1944 at the hands of the Germans; known as the Malmedy massacre. The book does jump around and is not chronological so perhaps I missed it, but from the time I thought about it on I listened with intent to see if the horrific event was mentioned and it never was. This shocked me and, frankly, caused a certain amount of disappointment if not disdain for the author. Yes, the title is "Those Who Hold Bastogne", but Schrijvers mentioned numerous other engagements or actions outside of Bastogne yet he failed to make even a passing mention of one of the most horrific and well documented war crimes of WWII, why? He made mention of several other murders of civilians committed by the Germans and he actually made mention of a few "alleged" killings of German prisoners by American soldiers, none that I've ever heard as properly documented though. While it is very likely that during the fog of battle both sides committed acts that would or could be perceived as a murder or an extrajudicial killing those instances are far different from a planned and organized intention to march 84 unarmed prisoners of war into a field and machine gun them to death.

In all fairness to the author I do plan on listening to this book again just to determine if I missed this point of history during the first half of the book? While that is possible, it is not very probable because I can gloss over some books while listening, but key points typically strike me. If Malmedy wasn't mentioned little could justify the reason other than an author who is a very poor historian and left it out by oversight, which calls into questions all his research, or an author suffering from some twisted sense of political correctness. Either way I can state with absolute certainty that I will never again purchase another book by Peter Shrijvers if he failed to mention Malmedy. And no; I would not accept the excuse that it was too far out of place for the narrative about the battle for Bastogne itself, that would be a lame excuse.

2 people found this helpful

How Did Anyone Survive?

I have recently had a bent for learning all I can about WWII, and have read many books on the subject. Naturally I was interested in this one. Even with all my recently acquired knowledge, this book was hard to follow and hard to digest, not through any fault of the author, but because of the scope of the battle and the situations it engendered. It is just a lot to take in. Honestly, I don't know how anyone lived through that battle.

I did learn a lot from the book though, and will read it again somewhere down the road.

A belated but heartfelt thank you to the greatest generation, and to those who held Bastogne and similar places. That would include my Father and my Father-in-law. Thank you for your courage, determination and sacrifice. I am grateful for people like you because if I had been given that responsibility,I probably could not have done it.

John Lee is a masterful narrator. I'm not sure I would have picked him for this particular title, however, just because of personal preference. I like him more as a narrator of fiction. Still, I enjoyed his reading of the book, and especially loved hearing him use an American accent. No matter how hard they try, well educated Brits just can't get that accent down to earth enough.

3 people found this helpful