11 Days in December (2006)

In late 1944, the world was deep in war. For Allied soldiers in Belgium, freezing temperatures and dismal travel conditions heralded what was believed to be a peaceful Christmas. The Germans, however, were determined not to give up their now-threatened homeland without a fight. Cobbling together the recollections of major players as well as regular soldiers, historian Stanley Weintraub assembles 11 Days in December, an exhaustively researched, scattered account of the bloody Battle of the Bulge. The combatants' words resonate more than the author's: ''A clear, cold Christmas,'' observed General George Patton, ''lovely weather for killing Germans, which seems a bit queer, seeing whose birthday it is.''