At 5 A.M. on, December 16, 1944, 1900 pieces of heavy German artillery bombarded the silent, snowcovered Ardennes front; 250,0O0 Germans and almost 1,000 tanks followed in a smashing assault on the Allied "rest area" which was defended only by exhausted or green United States troops.

HITLER HAD LAUNCHED THE DESPERATE OFFENSIVE THAT ALMOST BROUGHT HIM VICTORY. THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE HAD BEGUN.

From the eyewitness reports and military records of those who were there -Americans and Germans, officers and enlisted men, citizens and saboteurs - John Toland has reconstructed this dramatic story of the most crucial battle of World War II. Here is a day-by-day account of Hitler's audacious attempt to smash the Allies. Here is an hour-by-hour chronicle of courage, daring, heroism ... the never-to-be-forgotten story of the cocky GI's who stopped him.