Smashing Hitler's Panzers Audiobook By Steven Zaloga cover art

Smashing Hitler's Panzers

The Defeat of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division in the Battle of the Bulge

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Smashing Hitler's Panzers

By: Steven Zaloga
Narrated by: Paul Brion
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In his riveting new book, Steven Zaloga describes how American foot soldiers faced down Hitler's elite armored spearhead - the Hitler Youth Panzer Division - in the snowy Ardennes forest during one of World War II's biggest battles, the Battle of the Bulge.

The Hitler Youth division was assigned the mission of the Führer's Ardennes offensive: Capture the main highway to the primary objective, Antwerp, whose seizure Hitler believed would end the war. Had the Germans taken the Belgian port, it would have cut off the Americans from the British and perhaps led to a second, more devastating Dunkirk. In Zaloga's careful reconstruction, a succession of American infantry units - the 99th Division, the 2nd Division, and the 1st Division (the famous Big Red One) - fought a series of battles that denied Hitler the best roads to Antwerp and doomed his offensive. American G.I.s - some of them seeing combat for the very first time - had stymied Hitler's panzers and grand plans.

©2019 Steven Zaloga (P)2018 Tantor Military Wars & Conflicts World World War II
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The depth of detail in actual combat is exceeding rare. The fact that the road networks were important. This is worth the listen.

Eye opening

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I've read a couple of other books about Battle of the Bulge and this one is different in that it focuses on the northern sector and also is detailed about fighting for specific towns and crossroads. I like hearing specifics about how bazooka teams were dispatching tanks and artillery interdicting a crossroads to great effect. For me this helps to demystify what went on in the day to day fighting.

The narration isn't great. The main distraction is pronunciation of very common terms with foreign accent/variant of the word. For example, he pronounces Bastogne in a French way but clumsily so its annoying. Grenadier is the most annoying though since its so common. He pronounces it Gren-ah-di-aire and after so quick investigation, the German pronunciation is what I've been accustomed too. So I have no idea why he is butchering this word. Also, spelling out Pzkfpw IV is annoying but perhaps we can fault the author if he spelled it out that way each time instead of just letting it be Panzer IV.

Nice detail of small unit action

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Good information. Delivery is so so and with the number of units referenced and the number of geographic locations referenced, you would have to be very very familiar with the theater to be able to sort all this out in your head. Zaloga is an excellent researcher and writer, but keep this one in print.

Average

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This is an okay discussion of the northern shoulder of the Battle of the bulge, but they're just a lot better books out there. it is okay and at times particularly in discussions about Colonel McKinley and Colonel Daniels it rises to very good, but overall why not read "A Time for Trumpets?"

I say that the research seems Rock solid and I would happily keep this around to check older works on the particulars of the actions of the 99th, 1st, and 2nd infantry divisions.

the author probably would have been better served to have included more personal details about the characters where he has that information, because when he dove into yes those biographical details the book was better..

Could Be Better

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The narrator does a great job and is clear and easy to understand. The information sheds new light on the significance of early battles in the battle of the bulge. Really it is and overall excellent Audiobook. My personal preference would been to have included more personal stories from the foot soldiers perspective. Other than that I found this to be a great book.

Meticulously researched – a scholarly work – but wish there were more personal stories

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Bad pronunciation of German terms, like unit designations. Appreciate the effort but found it distracting. Cringe. Better of just saying English version. Annoying.

Armee!!! Just call it army.

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