HOLD AT ALL COSTS
Chaos and Consequence in the Bulge
Most histories of the Battle of the Bulge ask who won which engagement, when the tide turned, or why the German offensive ultimately failed. Hold at All Costs asks a different question: why did the German command system progressively lose its ability to shape events as the offensive unfolded, while the American command system retained its ability to adapt?
HOW AN OFFENSIVE DEGENERATED INTO CONFUSION
Many of the Americans who rushed in to stem the breach caused by the surprise German offensive in December 1944 did so without proper winter clothing or equipment in one of the coldest European winters on record, scrambling into position under enormous pressure. Yet by Christmas Eve, the tip of the German spear had stalled. It was a week behind schedule, still short of its first objective, the River Meuse and still 90 miles from the ultimate prize, the port of Antwerp. The Germans hadn’t lost the will to fight. They’d lost the ability to advance.
An offensive dictated rigidly from above could not adapt as its tempo collapsed, and the shock achieved in the opening hours went unexploited. The plan had been built around a single anticipated sequence of events. Once that sequence broke down, each delay narrowed the Germans’ ability to recover. This book takes a forensic look at the reasons why an army able to shatter the American front line ended up unable to move.
WHY THIS BOOK IS DIFFERENT
Archival &
Battlefield
Research
Five years of archival research combined with extensive investigation of the ground on which the battle was fought.
Without
Hindsight
The offensive reconstructed as it was understood by the people fighting it — with incomplete information and without knowing what happened next.
Countless
Interactions
Terrain, weather, logistics, timing, human judgement, resistance, adaptation and chance — and the consequences of their interaction.
Beyond the Second
World War
What the battle reveals about how organisations understand, decide and adapt when reality changes faster than they can perceive it.
Drawing on five years of archival research and battlefield investigation, Hold at All Costs reconstructs the offensive as it was understood by the people fighting it, without the benefit of hindsight.
Hold at All Costs: Chaos and Consequence in the Bulge
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PUBLICATION INFORMATION
Publisher:
Amberley Publishing
Publication :
Forthcoming
Hold at All Costs
Chaos and Consequence in the Bulge