TV REVIEWS : ‘Battle of the Bulge’ Gives Grunts Their Due

“The Battle of the Bulge,” an “American Experience” marking the 50th anniversary of a brutal World War II passage, could be subtitled “A Song to the American Grunt.” As is typical of this classy series, the personal takes precedence over the grand sweep of history, the telling small story illuminating and clarifying the bigger picture.

The hour-and-a-half short “Battle” is filled with reminiscences that give the documentary dramatic heft. Lines like “There’s nothing out there that has any compassion toward me” give added, terrific power to pictures of war that are powerful in their own right. Especially poignant are understated expressions like “We had been surprised and were in trouble” juxtaposed with scenes of beaten, harried troops on the run.

The numbers are numbing: Nearly 16,000 Americans were killed and 60,000 were wounded or captured when 30 German divisions--250,000 men strong--attacked across an 85-mile front on Belgium’s Ardennes Forest in an attempt by Adolf Hitler to split the Allies and wrest a favorable peace and end to a war he was losing. The “bulge” was a 50-mile-long dent the Germans succeeded in putting in U.S. lines--territory that had to be regained at great expense.

And the G.I.’s had another fierce enemy to worry about as well--Mother Nature, in the form of zero temperatures and blinding snow. “Both the enemy and the weather could kill you,” recalls one private. “And the two of them together was a pretty deadly combination.”

Producer-writer Thomas Lennon skillfully blends the stories of the troops with newsreel and Army footage; host-narrator David McCullough provides his usual steady oversight.

Watching the grunts close up the bulge is a testament to courage. You don’t have to be a military buff to be caught up in this riveting chapter in our history.

* “The Battle of the Bulge” airs at 8 tonight on KPBS-TV Channel 15 and at 8:30 on KCET-TV Channel 28. It also airs at 9 p.m. Friday on KVCR-TV Channel 24.