In the winter of 1944–1945, German troops launched an offensive operation against the allied Anglo-American forces on the Western Front in the Ardennes Range with the aim of defeating their Belgian group and freeing up units for transfer to the Eastern Theater of Operations. The initial success of the German offensive, especially in Belgium, was largely due to the actions of special air assault units, one of which was led by SS Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper, who after the war was accused of a war crime - the mass execution of captured American soldiers. The famous German historical writer Michel Gawen, in his new novel, offers an original and sometimes even controversial version of the events of the Battle of the Bulge.