JJF Book "Freineux and Lamormenil—The Ardennes"

Casarez · Post by **Casarez** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:07 am

Has anyone read this book by George Winter? I am curious if it is worth picking up. Thanks.

V. Andries · Post by **V. Andries** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 8:03 am

Casarez,

Although a bit short and thus pricy for its length (not surprising for a fight of that small scale), the book is very well documented with lots of details, well written and entertaining. The pictures are interesting too.
The Battle of the Bulge being my main WWII interest I could not avoid buying it. I myself am still looking for the out-of-print title 'Manhay' by the same author.
You can get a taste of George Winter's research and writing skills through this online article of his: the capture of Poteau, published by the Criba website.

kind regards,

Andries

Casarez · Post by **Casarez** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 6:48 pm

V. Andries wrote:Although a bit short and thus pricy for its length (not surprising for a fight of that small scale), the book is very well documented with lots of details, well written and entertaining. The pictures are interesting too. The Battle of the Bulge being my main WWII interest I could not avoid buying it. I myself am still looking for the out-of-print title 'Manhay' by the same author. You can get a taste of George Winter's research and writing skills through this online article of his: the capture of Poteau, published by the Criba website.

Andries,

Thanks, I will check out the website.

V. Andries · Post by **V. Andries** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:41 am

Thanks, I will check out the website.

Glad to be of some help, Rick. Let me just add that, while the online article focusses mainly on the US forces, the Freineux-Lamormenil book portrays the battle from both points of view and includes accounts from 2.SS-Pz.Div. vets.

greetings,

Andries

Ridgeback · Post by **Ridgeback** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 12:24 am

Recently got a copy of this book and on an initial look through it looks pretty good. It has a lot of informaton on what was basically a very small action in a large campaign. I've put it toward the top of my "to read" pile and look forward to reading it.

Casarez · Post by **Casarez** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:56 am

Ridgeback wrote:Recently got a copy of this book and on an initial look through it looks pretty good. It has a lot of informaton on what was basically a very small action in a large campaign. I've put it toward the top of my "to read" pile and look forward to reading it.

When you do read it please post a review. Thanks!

Loz Sims · Post by **Loz Sims** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 4:45 am

For anyone else interested in this book, you may appreciate another opinion and I would urge caution.

IMHO this is probably the worst "book" ever published by JJF and they have put out some very poor quality books in recent years. "Freineux" is ostensibly an 80 page booklet but 17 or so pages are pointless "padding" of dubious use or interest. There are a further three pages of appalling quality hand drawn maps, a pencil sketch of a church and ~24 pages of very poor, irrelevant or just uninteresting photographs.

The real meat of the booklet, is an almost first person recounting of the action over 4 days leading up to Christmas 1944 using quotes taken from interviews with a number of the combatants. Now whilst this is an interesting and quite well arranged account of small unit combat, $22 for 21 pages of text has to be the most expensive book of all time.

Quite simply this book is not worth it, in content or price.

Casarez · Post by **Casarez** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:04 am

Loz Sims wrote:For anyone else interested in this book, you may appreciate another opinion and I would urge caution.

IMHO this is probably the worst "book" ever published by JJF and they have put out some very poor quality books in recent years. "Freineux" is ostensibly an 80 page booklet but 17 or so pages are pointless "padding" of dubious use or interest. There are a further three pages of appalling quality hand drawn maps, a pencil sketch of a church and ~24 pages of very poor, irrelevant or just uninteresting photographs.

The real meat of the booklet, is an almost first person recounting of the action over 4 days leading up to Christmas 1944 using quotes taken from interviews with a number of the combatants. Now whilst this is an interesting and quite well arranged account of small unit combat, $22 for 21 pages of text has to be the most expensive book of all time.

Quite simply this book is not worth it, in content or price.

Actually I am just looking for any review so this is helpful. So he only used interviews form the combatants for this book?

Loz Sims · Post by **Loz Sims** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 1:24 am

Casarez wrote:Actually I am just looking for any review so this is helpful. So he only used interviews form the combatants for this book?

The text is based upon US AAR's, military interviews conducted at the time as well as contemporary letters and interviews with select survivors. I would say this could have been freely released as a short essay by any of the military colleges, others might argue that JJF should be thanked for releasing such an obscure text to a wider audience. I'll leave it up to you to decide :)

Post by **John P. Moore** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:32 am

I found this a good book to read prior to my last visit to Belgium in 2002 when I visited those villages.

John