When Christer Bergstrom published the first English edition of his ground-breaking mammoth work The Ardennes 1944-1945: Hitlers Winter Offensive in 2014, it hit the World War II community with the impact of an earthquake. Based upon tremendous research into primary sources and interviews with very many of the veterans, this book turned the previous image of the Battle of the Bulge completely upside-down. Although tearing apart many myths that surrounded this battle it has hardly received any negative criticism with such scrutiny has the author treated the sources and source references. This book has been called the new main reference work on the battle. It still remains at the very edge of historical research on this epic battle. Especially the veterans from the Battle of the Bulge have praised the work as completely outstanding. This new Volume I deals with the background of and the build-up for the offensive, the surprising German strike, and the tremendous and previously overlooked German successes during the first period of the offensive. The previously covered-up German successes and American failures are presented and detailed and carefully analyzed.