The Longest Winter; The Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon

New York: Da Capo Press, 2004. First Da Capo Press Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xi, [1], 353, [1] pages. Maps. Some discoloration to edges of pages. Some edge soiling. DJ has sticker residue on the front, Includes Acknowledgments, Roster of the 394th I & R Platoon at the Battle of the Bulge, Notes, List of Awards: Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon, 394th Infantry Division, 99th Infantry Division, and 394th I & R Presidential Unit Citation, Sources, Index. Also includes maps of The Western Front, December 1944; 394th I & R Platoon Area of Operations, December 1944; The Battle of Lanzerath, December 16, 1944; and German POW Camps. Alex Kershaw brings to life the story of these little-known heroes—an epic tale of courage and survival in World War II and one of the most inspiring episodes in American history. Alex Kershaw is an author of books on World War II, including The New York Times bestsellers The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter. Kershaw's journalism has appeared in many magazines and newspapers since 1990, varying from investigative pieces and reportage to interviews with subjects ranging from Frank Zappa, Alger Hiss and Gary Kasparov to the boxer Max Schmeling and dozens of World War II veterans. The Longest Winter, 2004, focused in particular on World War II's most decorated platoon, an I & R unit commanded by 20-year-old Lyle Bouck Jr. of the 99th Infantry Division. In December 1944, a platoon of just eighteen men held back the Third Reich's last major offensive and changed the course of World War II. The I&R platoon of the 394th regiment, 99th Infantry Division was sent to the Lanzerath area to set up an observation post and protect the regiment's right flank. 1st Lt. Lyle Bouck positioned his platoon in the wood line Northwest of Lanzerath, overlooking the highway which runs North to the main defensive positions of the regiment and with a view to the East towards Losheim just across the German border. Besides their normal small arms, the platoon had accumulated some BARs, a .30-caliber light machine gun and had one of its jeeps equipped with a mounted .50-caliber heavy machine gun as well as extra ammo and grenades. It was a cold December morning in 1944, deep in the Ardennes forest of Belgium. Eighteen men of a small intelligence platoon commanded by twenty-year-old lieutenant Lyle Bouck were huddled in their foxholes, desperately trying to keep warm. Suddenly the early morning silence was broken by the roar of a huge artillery bombardment. Hitler had launched his bold and risky offensive against the Allies—his "last gamble"—and the American platoon was facing the main thrust of the entire German assault. Shortly after the shelling stopped, an American tank destroyer unit positioned at Lanzerath pulled its guns back to positions in the rear, leaving the I&R platoon to hold the line alone. Vastly outnumbered, the platoon repulsed three German assaults in a fierce day-long battle to defend a strategically vital hill. Only when Bouck's men had run out of ammunition did they surrender. In this one day of fighting, the 18 men of this I&R platoon inflicted between 400-500 German casualties, nearly destroying a battalion of the German 3rd Parachute Division. The German attack plan in this sector was seriously disrupted to the point that they were delayed roughly 24 hours. In those 24 hours, Kampfgruupe Peiper was to have reached the Meuse River. Instead, they had only advanced a few miles, and the 99th and 2nd Infantry Divisions had time to set up defenses at Elsenborn Ridge, where they stopped the Germans cold. But their long winter was just beginning. As POWs, Bouck's platoon experienced an ordeal far worse than combat—surviving in captivity with trigger-happy German guards, Allied bombing raids, and a starvation diet. While hundreds of other captured Americans in German POW camps were either killed or died of disease, the men of Bouck's platoon miraculously survived—all of them—and returned home after the war. More than thirty years later, when President Carter recognized the unit's "extraordinary heroism" and the U.S. Army approved combat medals for all eighteen men, they became America's most decorated platoon of World War II.