In general, I have approached this project with the viewpoint that these are essential source documents being made available through this publication. Therefore the style of translation has been scholarly in attempting to carefully preserve the original nature of the documents, including errors. That, in turn, required careful use of bracketed notes, even though that, at times, may interfere with ease of reading. This book includes a number of documents in their original form that did not require translation, either because they were originally written in (American) English or the original German was not available, in which case the available translation is given. Because these are ‘source documents’ and may be used as such, care has been taken to preserve the original spelling (including mis-spellings), punctuation, abbreviations etc. These documents were provided as photocopies of typed or mimeographed material. Thus, foreign terms were not italicized and German vowels with umlauts were rendered with an ‘e’, e.g. ä = ae, ü = ue, etc. In contrast with material translated for this publication, this was retained to preserve the original nature of the document. My apologies to those readers for whom this may reduce ease of reading. I can only assure them that there are others for whom this knowledge will provide reassurance that they can utilize these documents as printed here in their own work. Although it is incorrect to capitalize ‘Von’, as in von Choltitz, that error was so common that I did not insert the usual [sic.n] to indicate that an error in the original document was preserved as such. Wherever the reader meets a capitalized ‘Von’, it can safely be assumed that it was so capitalized in the original document.
Because the German term, Heer, refers to ‘the Army’, as distinguished from Armee, the tactical unit, I insert the German original in brackets where there might otherwise be confusion.
In the area of Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium where the Ardennes Offensive occurred, geography frequency has names in several languages, names that differ slightly and whose current validity depends on the temporal accident of the present border location. In general, German military reports and documents usually use the geographical names and spellings on the maps serving as references for that action. Reports based on that action and subsequent reports on up the line carefully preserve those spellings, since they serve as location references on the maps specifically referred to as the basis for relevant operations orders and the like. Thus, a division history or historical study of an action may include a variety of spellings of place names, sometimes different names for the same place. When translating or writing for the general reader, it is customary to standardize place names and provide maps using those place names. However, when presenting material that may serve as ‘source material’ for later studies, there is a reason for preserving place names exactly as the original author presented them. With the sole exception of replacing Lüttich with Liège, to maintain conformity with the usage in the previously translated documents, that is the practice I have followed here, adding more generally accepted spellings in brackets where relevant, accepting Michelin maps as the standard in most cases. Generally, at the first mention, I have supplied the accepted current spelling in brackets, then continuing to use the author’s variation. However, in a few instances where there is an error, as in Bayerlein’s repeatedly saying Senonchamps, a village west of Bastogne, when actually referring to Benonchamps, a village east of Bastogne, I have appended a bracketed correction to each mention. Where it was a simple matter of a diacritical mark (e.g.e vs. é) I have simply bracketed the first use of the correct mark and then employed it without comment.
Bayerlein, or, in some cases, the person who recorded the interviews, used abbreviations for most formation and unit designations, some of which are nonstandard. Frequently the abbreviation or idiosyncratic name varies from one line to the next. In documents that were already translated, I did my best to accurately transcribe them precisely as they were, since they are being presented as original source documents. In material that I translated, on the first appearance I used Bayerlein’s (or other interviewee’s) designation, followed by the bracketed standardized name, based, for Panzer Lehr Division, on those designations used in Helmut Ritgen’s history of the Panzer Lehr Division and, for other units, either on Tessin’s Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 19339–1945 or Bender and Taylor’s Uniforms, Organization and History of the Waffen-SS. In subsequent mentions I replace the original abbreviated or non-standard designation with the standard designation. I did not see any reason to preserve the variable and idiosyncratic designations of elements and units for the sake of scholarly value in those documents which I translated. An initial experiment in so doing resulted in tedious and confusing proliferation of bracketed notes of explanation.
In giving dates, 13–14 January means on the thirteenth and fourteenth of January, whereas 13/14 January means during the night of January 13 and post-midnight hours on January 14.
Where German terms are retained in material I translated, I used German plurals, but used the nominative form, regardless of grammatical position in the sentence.
Notes regarding translation
In the sections located in France, where there is no doubt as to the location intended, the spelling of all French place names has been corrected in accord with the 2002 Michelin Tourist and Motoring Atlas of France.
Massive blocks of text have been broken up into paragraphs to improve clarity and readability.
Familiar German terms have been retained, with a bracketed explanation upon first appearance. There is a complete glossary at the end. In some cases where an English term has been used the original German term has been included in brackets for added clarity.