Not Just Another Battle of the Bulge Title

Collins, Michael, and Martin King.  The Tigers of Bastogne: Voices of the 10th Armored Division
     in the Battle of the Bulge.  Philadelphia: Casemate, June 2013.

The Tigers of Bastogne is about the fight conducted by Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division alongside the 101st Airborne Division against hordes of Germans that laid siege to Bastogne.  The tale is told in largely in the words of the veterans that the authors had interviewed supplemented by unit after-action reports and citations for medals earned during the fight.  The authors provided a framing chapter that provided background on the 10th Armored and introduced some of the veterans.  The heart of the book is the day by day description of events beginning with December 15th and lasting to December 28th.  A final chapter provides a brief summary of the part played by the 10th Armored in the rest of World War II.

Michael Collins and Martin King have done Battle of the Bulge aficionados a great service by highlighting the role played by the 10th Armored in defending Bastogne with the 101st Airborne especially using the voices of the veterans.  However, there are issues of fact checking (mislabeling Panthers as Mark IV's for example) and proofreading (using fair instead of fare when referring to food) in the framing portions  written by the authors that should have been caught.  Non-aficionados will not grasp the full significance of this tale as the authors present the fight for Bastogne in isolation without relating it to the whole Battle of the Bulge campaign.  Also novices to the battle will be disconcerted regarding the disjointedness of the tale as one brief portion of a fire-fight is given, then there is a quick switch to another location with a different veteran with very little connection provided.  The maps provided are helpful, but few. 

Overall, despite the short-comings listed,  Michael Collins and Martin King are to be greatly commended for writing this book and letting the readers in on a little heard story.