TOW #11- IRB First Half

   The Christmas season is a time for all to rejoice and surround each other with the warm feeling of the holidays. However, for soldiers in combat, this tradition is merely just a fantasy.  In the notorious memories from World War II, people tend to only give attention to the tragedies, the evil, or the dictators.  But in the book 11 Days In December by Stanley Weintraub, a closer look is taken at the individual lives of American soldiers who were across the Atlantic on the Christmas of 1944.  Throughout his book, Weintraub includes a strong sense of realism and a third person point of view to expose the reader to the circumstances that these WWII soldiers faced during a Christmas season away from home.
     The Battle of the Bulge, an offensive attack launched by Germany, was a major turning point and important event in depleting the German force in the war.  Before going in depth on the personal levels of the soldiers, Weintraub provides a very a realistic overview of the war in its weeks approaching Christmas.  One of the techniques that he uses in order to set an authentic scene for the reader is the inclusion of quotes from men involved in the war, such as when "Colonel William Sylvan, who had come in to warn Hodges, said in puzzlement, 'some of our tanks are a mile down the road firing in this direction'" (Weintraub 5).  The use of this dialogue not only encapsulates the setting, but it also creates a feeling of realism as that is a true quote pertaining to a true event.  For this book especially, it is important for the information to be exact so that the book has historical accuracy.  With his realistic overview, Weintraub is able to draw attention towards the reality of WWII and make his story more valid through the accuracy of his summarization.
     Weintraub also utilizes a strategic device in his point of view, from which he writes in the third person.  Since he is all-knowing about the historical events surrounding the story, his omniscient perspective is very well suited for the Christmas story at the Bulge.  Through this, Weintraub is able to give a full synopsis of the war up until December of 1944, and cover all of the major points without any limitations.  As he was introducing a town near the Ardennes called Spa, he explains it "was bypassed" but then continues to tell of "another Belgian town [where] the expected Germans in halftracks with 88-mm guns had not yet appeared" (Weintraub 7).  From a third person viewpoint, Weintraub is knowledgable of the actions occurring in all of the towns during the war, which increases his credibility and adds more background to the story.  If he were telling the story, for example, as one of the American soldiers, the reader would therefore not know of what else was occurring outside of the occupied town.
     In the Christmas twist on the true war story of WWII, 11 Days of December demonstrates precise historical accuracy through Weintraub's sense of realism, and is able to provide a lot of information through a third person point of view.  By using both of these devices, Weintraub is able to show his audience that while Christmas is a time to come together and celebrate, it was a matter of survival for the soldiers of 1944.