John Toland: The Battle Of The Bulge

Christian Hanselman

4/8/13

MS 290

Battle of the Bulge

Battle: The Story of the Bulge

To write this book the author, John Toland, had to devote 15 years researching different stories from all sides of the war. He studied war memoirs, interviewed war veterans, and read military documents. While doing this he focused on both the allied and axis forces to truly understand both sides of the story and be able to write such a descriptive and accurate piece of work. This research was used in the book to describe the unlikely victory of the Americans over the Germans during the “Battle of the Bulge”.

By using the research he had gained from the memories of veterans and the many military documents written, Toland was able to paint a very graphic picture

of what happened and wrote the book as if he was there in the flesh. This descriptive writing helped me to interpret the battle from the perspective of the generals and GI’s that lived it. By taking their perspective on the issue I really began to understand the immense hardships that they had to undergo. Not only having to survive through the harsh winter but also the mental stress of watching some of their best friends and brothers in arms die. And even when such hardships occurred they had to keep fighting and weren’t allowed to mourn.
There were many hardships that the soldiers from both sides of battle had to undergo.

These hardships included: the harsh weather, watching friends die, killing mass amounts of the enemy, and many more things that can slowly break down even the toughest soldier from the inside out. For example, the author describes a vivid scene after a group of soldiers and refugees had been under attack on Christmas and were now looking for supplies. A man named the Baron Charles de Radzitsky d’Ostrowick had gone into a house in search of water. Toland describes what the Baron sees; “The Baron sickened as he stepped over the debris to the door. Here thirty bodies-American and German-were stacked as if for future reference. He picked his way through the human refuse to the courtyard. Outside, bodies were so thick he climbed onto a wall.” (275)

When men see tragedies such as, dead men (from both sides) literally stacked upon each other and floods of bodies so thick you can’t walk through, it takes an emotional toll and can even effect the most resilient soldier. This is why Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was and is one of the most serious illnesses for soldiers in war. Often times we forget that the immediate danger is not always the worst part of war. It is only after the war when men start to think about what they saw and did that they can fully assess what happened and sometimes that can be too much for a man to bear on his

own.
I liked how the author used real life experiences in a 3rd person storytelling point of view. He used the knowledge he gained from interviewing veterans to show how realistically horrifying battles in WWII were and how it was viewed from the GI’s perspective. This is a new style of reading for me and I liked how accurate he was and how much detail he packed into such graphic scenarios. As I was reading I could feel the emotions of the battlefield and felt as if I was there while it happened.
I also liked Toland’s use of dialogue in each scenario of battle. This shows how Toland’s writing can be versatile in that he can write in a third person perspective by retelling the stories of others but also throw you into an intense situation with first person dialect. This helped me to really “live” the story through reading it and understand the situations the soldiers were put into. For example, on pages 304-305 Toland goes from describing a situation a GI was in and follows immediately with dialogue between another GI.
I thought that it was good that the book was completely factually based off of research but he was still able to pack in detail and make it come to life.

I also enjoyed how he left his opinions out until the end in the epilogue. I feel that many writers can easily be identified as biased by including their emotions about the topic too much. With that being said, I do think that it takes some of the power out of a story. But overall I think it was better that he kept it factual because it minimizes the doubt of credibility.

The Battle: The Story of the Bulge is not a book about how the American’s used sheer numbers and force to overcome the Germans. It is a story of how the GI, who was independent, cocky, and had poor garrison etiquette, overcame the odds and became an unlikely strong adversary thus winning the battle. I can relate to the GI because I find myself at times to be cocky and not always wanting to take orders I don’t agree with. I think this relation helped me to understand some of the emotions the soldiers expressed throughout the

book.