This book tells the devastating story of the terror and chaos of battle, of men who fought until they died and others who quickly surrendered, of officers relieved of command and orders that bore no relation to reality. On the night of 15 December 1944, General Eisenhower and his staff at SHAEF Headquarters celebrated the news that he had just been given his fifth star. That same night, in the frozen forests of the Ardennes, an army of 250,000 men with 2,000 pieces of artillery and 980 tanks awaited the hour to attack. A few miles to the west, the young soldiers of the US 106th ("Golden Lion") Division huddled in their foxholes and tried to sleep. They had never been in battle and were told they occupied a "rest sector" on the front...This was the night when the full might of Hitler's armies exploded against inexperienced and unprepared US troops in the first shattering blow of the Battle of the Bulge. This is an intensely riveting narrative and a must-read for anyone with an interest in the Second World War.