Alamo in the Ardennes
Alamo in the Ardennes

Author: John C. McManus

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2008-10-07

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0451225589

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“A comprehensive and vivid account of the heroic defense of Bastogne... McManus has taken a great old story and made it new again.”—Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of An Army at Dawn During the Battle of the Bulge, the 101st Airborne made their legendary stand at Bastogne. But their heroics never could have happened if not for the unsung efforts of others. This is the powerful yet little-known story of the bloody delaying action fought by the 28th Infantry Division, elements of the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions, and other, smaller units. Outnumbered and outgunned, they made the Germans pay for every icy inch of ground they gained. It was their gallant efforts that allowed the 101st Airborne to reach and fully occupy Bastogne and prepare for the ferocious attack to come. Featuring numerous helpful maps and a complete list of the soldiers, local civilians, and German commanders whose actions it recounts, Alamo in the Ardennes provides a compelling, day-by-day account of this pivotal moment in America's greatest war.

Snow & Steel
Snow & Steel

Author: Peter Caddick-Adams

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 929

ISBN-13: 0199335141

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A new assessment of the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and bloodiest battle fought by U.S. forces in World War II, offers a balanced perspective that considers both the German and American viewpoints and discusses the failings of intelligence; Hitler's strategic grasp; effects of weather and influence of terrain; and differences in weaponry, understanding of aerial warfare, and doctrine.

The Lost Soldier
The Lost Soldier

Author: Chris J. Hartley

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-08-01

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0811767647

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The Lost Soldier offers a perspective on World War II we don’t always get from histories and memoirs. Based on the letters home of Pete Lynn, the diary of his wife, Ruth, and meticulous research in primary and secondary sources, this book recounts the war of a married couple who represent so many married couples, so many soldiers, in World War II. The book tells the story of this couple, starting with their life in North Carolina and recounting how the war increasingly insinuated itself into the fabric of their lives, until Pete Lynn was drafted, after which the war became the essential fact of their life. Author Chris J. Hartley intricately weaves together all threads—soldier and wife, home front and army life, combat, love and loss, individual and army division—into an intimate, engaging narrative that is at once gripping military history and engaging social history.

Not Me!
Not Me!

Author: Alexander H. Hadden

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2009-05

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 9781435758650

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The World War II Memoir of a Reluctant Rifleman. What happens when an Ivy League preppy is suddenly dumped from a comfortable college environment into combat as a rifleman? Hadden knew that he would find no glory in a foxhole, and for the first two years of his service managed to avoid answering that question. Knowing he would never be a hero, he said "Not me!" to the Air Corps and "Not me!" to the OSS. But like a moth to the flame, he was sucked into war's vortex. And so it was that in the early morning hours of 16 December 1944-the date the Germans launched their surprise Ardennes Offensive-Hadden found himself exactly where he dreaded to be: in a front line foxhole with the 28th Div., stupefied by the first assault. And it goes on to document how almost miraculously the survivors rose above their "chickenshit" training and their misguided and even cowardly leadership. It strips away the veneer that cloaks most combat writing and lays bare what soldiers really think. 30 photos, 3 maps.

Bloody Ridge and Beyond
Bloody Ridge and Beyond

Author: Marlin Groft

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014-10-07

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0698148258

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By a veteran of Lt. Col. Merritt A. Edson's battalion, and author of the Dick Winters biography Biggest Brother and coauthor of A Higher Call On the killing ground that was the island of Guadalcanal, a 2,000-yard-long ridge rose from the jungle canopy. Behind it lay the all-important air base of Henderson Field. And if Henderson Field fell, it would mean the almost certain death or capture of all 12,500 marines on the island . . . But the marines positioned on the ridge were no normal fighters. They were tough, hard-fighting men of the Edson’s Raiders; an elite fighting unit within an already elite U.S. Marine Corps. Handpicked for their toughness, and submitted to a rigorous training program to weed out those less fit, they were the Marine Corps’s best of the best. For two hellish nights in September 1942, about 840 United States Marines—commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Merritt Austin “Red Mike” Edson—fought one of the most pivotal battles of World War II in the Pacific, clinging desperately to their position on what would soon be known as Bloody Ridge. Wave after wave of attacking Japanese soldiers were repelled by the Raiders, who knew that defeat and retreat were simply not possible options. But in the end, the defenders had prevailed against the odds. Bloody Ridge and Beyond is the story of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion, which showed courage and valor in the face of overwhelming numbers, as told by Marlin Groft, a man who was a member of this incredible fighting force.