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Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp: With the 272nd Volks-Grenadier Division from the Huertgen Forest to the Heart of the Reich | 
| Author: Douglas E. Nash
Creators: Edward Miller, Tom Houlihan
Publisher: The Aberjona Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $19.90
You Save: $5.05 (20%)
New (5) Used (1) Collectible (1) from $19.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 69059
Media: Paperback
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0977756327
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN: 9780977756322
ASIN: 0977756327
Publication Date: February 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
As the Allies arrived at the frontiers of Germany itself in the last autumn of WWII, the Germans responded with a variety of initiatives designed to regain the strategic initiative. While the Wonder Weapons such as the V-2 missile are widely recognized, the Volks-Grenadier Divisions (VGDs) are practically unknown. Often confused with the Volkssturm, the Home Guard militia, VGDs have suffered the undeserved reputation as second-rate formations, filled with young boys and old men suited to serve only as cannon fodder. This ground-breaking book shows that VGDs were actually conceived as a new, elite corps loyal to the National Socialist Party and equipped with the finest weapons available. Come follow along with the soldiers of the 272nd VGD's Fuesilier Company from their first battles in the Huertgen Forest to their final defeat in the Harz Mountains . . . learn the enormous potential of VGDs . . . and feel their soldiers' heartbreak at their failure.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Good book, poor binding again July 22, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good book but again the binding gave out right away. It's really a bummer because it looks bad in my collection.
Another Home Run for this Author!!!! June 8, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Doug Nash hits another home run for military history in this well-researched and easy to read study of a lesser known topic from WW2. Buy this book and support real scholarship on the war, it's not just another coffee table rehash.
Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp May 12, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Very well researched and written book. Rare to find small unit action books during World War II from Whermacht perspective in English ! A must
read.
Superb research pays off May 8, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The story behind the story - why the author became interested of the 272nd Volks-Grenadier Division, is fascinating in itself. It shows how militaria collecting can lead to ground-breaking historical discoveries.
I was stunned by the author's research and learnt a great deal from it about what it was like being a German soldier in the last months of WWII.
It is clear to me that utterly few authors do as much research as Douglas Nash does. Not only does the author describe the performance of individual weapons convincingly, but also the food, discipline and political outlook among the Third Reich's last soldiers.
If you are into German Army unit histories and have a special interest in the very last months of WWII this book is a real must for you.
In the appendix section of the book there is a treasure trove of statistics and information about other Volks-Grenadier divisions.
The maps are of the highest quality.
My only negative feedback is that the photo on the cover is not that strong and the subtitle too long. With a more hard-hitting front this book would be more attractive.
The contents are of great value to both historians, wargamers and reenactors. I look forward to reading more from Douglas Nash.
The Best View From the Other Side of the Hill in Years May 6, 2008
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
In recent years, a growing community of active duty military historians has enriched the discipline through the type of scholarship gained at our nation's post graduate service schools. Names like Edward G. Miller, Mark J. Reardon, and Peter R. Mansoor, just to name a few, have contributed greatly to the World War II canon. Douglas E. Nash has certainly earned his rightful place among this distinguished group. His latest contribution, _Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp: . . . _ will predictably be stamped into the bibliographies of future works on the Huertgen Forest for decades to come.
Like archeologists digging up ancient artifacts of lost civilizations, historians sometimes happen upon lost documents that change and enrich our perspectives on an historical event. Nash, fluent in the German language, discovered one such treasure trove in the form of a company clerk's long hidden and meticulously organized "company orderly room files and documents" of Fusilier Company 272 of the 272d Volks Grenadier Division. This unit fought in the Huertgen Forest battles; the northern shoulder of the "Bulge," and eventually capitulated in the Ruhr Pocket. Utilizing these newly discovered documents as a skeletal frame, and microscopic view at the company level, Nash has sculpted a masterful work culling equally from German and Allied sources. Likewise, the view from army or corps headquarters to the lowly Grenadier defending a mud filled foxhole flows evenly and balanced.
Several popular German Order of Battle books hint at the fact that late in the war, many standard German infantry divisions were reconstructed as Volks Grenadier divisions (VGD). Nash offers a thorough comprehensive analysis on the origins and implementation of this entire process, including VGD clothing, equipment, weapons, and tactics. Several books tell the story of the bitter Huertgen Forest battles during the fall and winter of 1944/45, its causes, effects, and the German units the American forces faced during that deadly campaign. Nash, in an engaging writing style that never bogs down, places the reader within the ranks of the 272 VGD as it arrived by rail and deployed in the forest, always short of heavy weapons support. Of particular interest to this reviewer was the raids conducted by my father's unit, the 13th Infantry Regiment of the 8th Infantry Division against the 272 VGD near Vossenack. Scores of books tell of the US 2d Ranger Battalion's heroic scaling of the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc on D-Day, but few tell of its worst day in combat: a futile frontal assault up Hill 400 (Castle Hill) at Bergstein, Germany. Nash shows us how on December 6, 1944, elements of the 272 VGD made the Rangers pay dearly for this chunk of German real estate. Several Huertgen Forest accounts mentions the green US 78th Infantry Division's unkind baptism of fire in the Huertgen during January 1945. In a battle narrative that constitutes one of the high points of the book, Nash recounts the head-on collision between the 272 VGD and the 78th Division at the village of Kesternich.
The Aberjona Press, with several books emphasizing the German perspective of World War II to their credit, has put together a nice package here. Easy to read battle maps accompany every action mentioned in the book. It would have been nice to have a map placed where that particular action was taking place, rather than all grouped together at the front of the book, but this method is not too distracting. Dozens of photographs, most never before seen reproduced a bit dark, but again, not a big annoyance. Though well deserving of a hard cover edition, this paperback is well bound and made of heavy gauge paper that should withstand years of turning. Copious notes and numerous appendices containing: Order of battle, organizational charts, equipment, and tables of organization (ET&O), casualty and replacements tables round out this monumental project.
Nash's book is arguably the best view of the other side of the hill to emerge in years. For students of the Huertgen Forest Campaign, and the last battles of the Third Reich in the west, this book is a must read.
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