Steven Zaloga, Smashing Hitler's Panzers: The Defeat of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division in the Battle of the Bulge.
This was an insightful look at the opening days of the fighting on the Ardennes offensive's northern shoulder. To sum up, it was pretty much over before it even started, as terrain, weather, logistics, and the poor quality of the German forces combined to blunt the HJ division's advance into Belgium. Not to mention American artillery, but we'll get to that in a moment.
The thing I appreciated most about Zaloga's book was its ability to concisely analyze a unit's combat effectiveness and this probably speaks to his background as an analyst. Very much in tandem with the latest German language scholarship on the Waffen SS, Zaloga emphasizes how much fighting quality HJ had lost since summer '44 and questions its status as an elite unit by the opening of the offensive. It was essentially rebuilt, but unlike other Waffen SS formations, who received an influx of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe, 12th SS was fleshed out largely with draftees from the Kriegsmarine, and the division lacked a shortage of seasoned NCOs for these new troops. In fact, during the opening days of the offensive, the division's panzergrenadier battalions lost so many company and platoon officers in the Krinkelterwald that it lead to combat paralysis in some units. They took so many casualties among their leaders because veteran officers had to lead from the front in order to organize their inexperienced troops. 1st SS and the performance of Kampfgruppe Peiper also take a hit in Zaloga's analysis of the campaign in the northern shoulder.
The division also lacked many of the armored vehicles it was allotted on paper. The AFV muster was largely rounded out with Panzerjaeger vehicles pressganged into a vulnerable assault gun role, and only one panzergrenadier regiment had half-tracks, the others were issued trucks. However, this mattered little since the few roads through the forest created massive traffic jams, slowing motorized traffic. Artillery was also lacking and the division's attack was spearheaded by Volksgrenadier divisions rather than an armored thrust, preceded by a short, ineffective barrage. One staff officer suggested an infiltration in order to swarm the 99th division and its interesting to think about this might have been much more effective against a well entrenched but green unit. At any rate, American troops were able to significantly hinder the attack because German forces were insufficiently concentrated and supported by armor. Once breaking out into open country, weather played a key role, as muddy fields forced the Germans to confront Krinkelt-Rocherath head on. By this point the panzergrenadier elements were either greatly weakened by the Krinkelterwald fighting or stuck in traffic, forcing the armor, including vulnerable tank destroyers, to enter the villages alone, where they were picked off by American bazooka teams or smashed on the outskirts by the ever present artillery- the American corps and divisional artillery batteries fired a record number of missions during the battle, speaking directly to the disparity in fire support between the two sides. Most stunning of all, Zaloga mentions HJ recovery teams attempting to retrieve wrecked vehicles in full view of American positions, as the division desperately tried to replace its dwindling armor as quickly as possible through battlefield repair. This was one of the many moments in the book where scenario ideas popped into mind, as well as memories of watching a gaming buddy try to scrounge equipment during a KGP II campaign.
Zaloga's stated aim was to return the critical battles of the northern shoulder to the center of the Ardennes narrative and he succeeded by creating an interesting, detailed, concise, and quickly readable book that also refreshingly calls into question the combat capability of the Waffen SS in the latter stages of the war.