The story of the most infamous massacre of American soldiers in World War Two. An ideal book for people interested in the works of Alex Kershaw, Ben Macintyre and Jonathan Freedland. ‘Drive on recklessly, give no quarter and to take no prisoners’, these are the words that SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper gave to his men on the eve of this notorious event. In December 1944 the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes was in full swing, spearheaded by the armor of the Kampfgruppe Peiper. When they met a U.S. Army convoy of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion they swiftly surprised the Americans and immobilized the convoy. Realizing that they were out-numbered and out-gunned the soldiers of the 285th Field Artillery surrendered to the Waffen-SS, little did they know that they would be mown down by Nazi machine guns in cold blood shortly afterwards. Charles Whiting reconstructs Kamfgruppe Peiper’s drive into the Ardennes during the Battle of Bulge and the subsequent slaughter of eight-four American soldiers in remarkable detail. Through in-depth research and interviews with many who were alive on this fateful day, including Jochen Peiper himself, Whiting uncovers the traumatic sequence of events and its aftermath. ‘a good tactical study … Various interesting personalities appear.’ Military Affairs Massacre at The Story of Jochen Peiper’s Battle Group Ardennes, December, 1944 should be essential reading for all who wish to learn more about one of the most heart-breaking events of the Second World War.
Author
Charles Whiting was a British writer and military historian and with some 350 books of fiction and non-fiction to his credit, under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms including Ian Harding, Duncan Harding, K.N. Kostov, John Kerrigan, Klaus Konrad, and Leo Kessler. Born in the Bootham area of York, England, he was a pupil at the prestigious Nunthorpe Grammar School, leaving at the age of 16 to join the British Army by lying about his age. Keen to be in on the wartime action, Whiting was attached to the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and by the age of 18 saw duty as a sergeant in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany in the latter stages of World War II. While still a soldier, he observed conflicts between the highest-ranking British and American generals which he would write about extensively in later years. After the war, he stayed on in Germany completing his A-levels via correspondence course and teaching English before being enrolled at Leeds University reading History and German Language. As an undergraduate he was afforded opportunities for study at several European universities and, after gaining his degree, would go on to become an assistant professor of history. Elsewhere, Whiting held a variety of jobs which included working as a translator for a German chemical factory and spells as a publicist, a correspondent for The Times and feature writer for such diverse magazines as International Review of Linguistics, Soldier and Playboy. His first novel was written while still an undergraduate, was published in 1954 and by 1958 had been followed by three wartime thrillers. Between 1960 and 2007 Charles went on to write over 350 titles, including 70 non-fiction titles covering varied topics from the Nazi intelligence service to British Regiments during World War II. One of his publishers, Easingwold-based Rupert Smith of GH Smith & Son said he was a quiet man and prolific writer. "He's one of a band of forgotten authors because he sold millions of copies and still, up to his death was doing publishing deals.He was the kind of man who was very self-effacing, one of Britain's forgotten authors, still working at 80 years of age, with his nose down and kicking out books." Charles Henry Whiting, author and military historian died on July 24 2007, leaving his wife and son.
