11 Days in December

Eisenhower's heroic gloss dims in this portrait of the WWII offensive by the Germans against Allied troops in Belgium and Luxembourg. Patrick Cullen delivers the first-person accounts collected by Weintraub so that listeners share the cold, loss, and sense of doubt plaguing the ordinary soldier. There are higher momentsâ of course, supplied by Patton, whose famous treble Cullen does not attempt. Ernest Hemingway appears as does Marlene Dietrich, as well as memories of lice and men. Well worth hearing are the letters, journals, and recollections of soldiers who fought and celebrated the holiday far from home. Christmas trees in foxholes, orphans feted, celebratory Spam, and Eisenhower and cohorts feasting in Paris make an unforgettable portrait of war. D.P.D. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

September 18, 2006
The Battle of the Bulge doesn't quite fit the epic mold it's often cast in—bloody, yes, but lacking in strategic consequence, with no one but Hitler doubting the Allied victory. That the carnage spoiled Christmas time is the slender irony anchoring this aimless retelling by military historian Weintraub (Silent Night: The Story of the 1914 Christmas Truce
). Noting American complacency about the German buildup, and strategic and personal squabbles among the Allied commanders, he trumps up Patton's prayer for good killing weather into a dramatic turning point. Mainly, though, the book is a kaleidoscope of anecdotes, combat scenes alternating incoherently with foxhole doldrums and frontline picaresque. There's pluck and defiance—" 'They've got us surrounded, the poor bastards,' " quips a jaunty GI—and death and despair. There are celebrity cameos: correspondent Ernest Hemingway drinks and growls and shoots a few Germans; Marlene Dietrich, on a USO tour, allows a soldier to dust her body with delousing powder. And there are many Christmas celebrations, everywhere from POW camps and Belgian orphanages to Hitler's headquarters. Unfortunately, the reader gleans neither a clear battle narrative nor a sense of pathos—only a period-authentic impatience to get the war over with. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW
.