Nine days before Christmas 1944 Hitler played Germany's last card on which he staked everything to turn the tables in the West. This is the first time that an attempt has been made to cover the entire salient in order to present the battle in our familiar 'then and now' format. Hundreds of miles have been travelled by the author throughout every corner of the battlefield to search out the scenes of past events - every known photograph belonging to combatants, civilians, and in public collections and private sources has been sought or considered. all the cine film has been examined frame by frame and certain sequences illustrated and analysed. In this way a number of classic pictures almost always used - or misused - in depicting the Ardennes battle are not only placed in their context in the German advance but are also shown to be not always quite what they seem! 1260 illustrations, 31 maps