No Less Than Victory

In December 1944, Germany launches a surprise offensive through the Ardennes, creating a dangerous break in the Allied line. Dwight D. Eisenhower attempts to control the crisis while George S. Patton turns his army north towards Bastogne. On the German side, Gerd von Rundstedt understands the weakness of an operation driven by Hitler’s political hopes rather than the resources available to carry it out.

After the Battle of the Bulge, the Allied armies cross into Germany and uncover the concentration camps created by the Nazi state. Shaara follows commanders, American infantrymen and Albert Speer as military defeat exposes the criminal system that sustained the regime. The European sequence ends with victory, but not with a simple restoration of the world the soldiers knew before the war.