David Pergrin

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Engineering the victory

The Battle Of the Bulge, in December 1944, was Hitler and the Wehrmacht's last great battle of World War II in the West. After losing the war for the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy, and barely escaping with huge losses from the Falaise pocket, the German Army fell back to just West of the Rhine and the German border. Hitler and his Generals planned a massive counter stroke and marshaled the forces to make it work. Striking in surprise on December 16, 1944 in the weakly defended Ardennes, German thrusts moved quickly to put Allied forces on the defensive. The Battle of the Bulge was that ensuing great battle. In this book Colonel David Pergrin reaches out for the other stories of that battle. Assisted by the Army Engineer Association, he has gathered numerous battlefield stories, anecdotes, and experiences told by those who were there and who lived them. With his own battlefield experience providing an understanding of people in war, he has crafted an interesting book that tells those stories of engineers in battle. Many of the participants in that great battle have never been recognized for their exploits. The stories Dave Pergrin has collected in this book bring attention to engineer soldiers in combat and construction units who fought and died with their comrades of infantry, tankers, artillery, and the others - units that have not before been accorded their due. Weaving these stories and vignettes together into the framework of the overall battle, this book honors the many engineer soldiers, their companies and battalions, that contributed greatly to the allied to the allied defeat of the Germans.