The Longest Winter.

The Longest Winter

Alex Kershaw

Da Capo Press

Eleven Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142

0303813041 $25.00 www.perseusbooks.com

It was freezing on the morning of December 16, 1944 when the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon of the 394th Infantry, 99th Infantry Division found itself desperately holding up a brutal German attack at a small town called Lanzareth, the point of the main thrust of Hitler's massive and last ditch military offense. By nightfall the men of this beleaguered American platoon had killed over 500 elite German troops while defending a strategically vital hill without reinforcement or artillery support. Outnumbered almost 40 to 1, yet told to "hold at all costs", these valiant American soldiers repulsed three German assaults in a day-long battle. Only when the men had run out of ammunition did they surrender at gun-point--after which they were taken to German prisoner-of-war camps. There Lt. Bouck and his men (who were eventually separated from their officer) began an ordeal far worse than combat--surviving the last days of the Third Reich when brutal guards were increasingly trigger happy, Allied bombers raided almost daily, and thin soup was the only sustenance. When Bouck was finally liberated from the prison camp, his entry weight of 180 pounds had dropped to 112 pounds. A gripping true life saga and one that belongs in every World War II Military History collection, The Longest Winter: The Battle Of The Bulge And The Epic Story Of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon is an impressively written military history by author Alex Kershaw, and published on the 60 anniversary of that famous and infamous battle.