The Last Hill
The Epic Story of a Ranger Battalion and the Battle That Defined WWII
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's The Last Hill is the incredible untold story of one Ranger battalion's heroism and courage in World War II.
They were known as “Rudder’s Rangers,” the most elite and experienced attack unit in the United States Army. In December 1944, Lt. Col. James Rudder's 2nd Battalion would form the spearhead into Germany, taking the war into Hitler’s homeland at last. In the process, Rudder was given two objectives: Take Hill 400 . . . and hold the hill by any means possible. To the last man, if necessary. The battle-hardened battalion had no idea that several Wehrmacht regiments, who greatly outnumbered the Rangers, had been given the exact same orders. The clash of the two determined forces was one of the bloodiest and most costly encounters of World War II.
Castle Hill, the imposing 1320-foot mini-mountain the American Rangers simply called Hill 400, was the gateway to a desperate Nazi Germany. Several entire American divisions had already been repulsed by the last hill's dug-in defenders as—unknown to the Allies—the height was the key to Adolf Hitler's last-minute plans for a massive counterattack to smash through the American lines in what would become known to history as the Battle of the Bulge.
Thus the stalemate surrounding Hill 400 could not continue. For Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, there was only one solution: Call in Rudder's Rangers. Of the 130 special operators who stormed, captured, and held the hill that December day, only 16 remained to stagger back down its frozen slopes. The Last Hill is replete with unforgettable action and characters—a rich and detailed saga of what the survivors of the 2nd Ranger Battalion would remember as “our longest day.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Frequent collaborators Drury and Clavin (Blood and Treasure) revisit the 1944 Battle of Hürtgen Forest in this exhaustive history. Before they get to the action, the authors detail the U.S. Army Rangers' origins in Gen. George Marshall's admiration for Lord Louis Mountbatten and his British commandos; conceived as "soldiers first, scout-saboteurs second," the 1st Ranger battalion was organized in 1942 and played a key role in forcing the Axis surrender in North Africa. Commanded by Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder, the 2nd Ranger battalion's mission in Hürtgen Forest was to take Hill 400 and the observation tower at its top, from which German spotters directed artillery barrages. In dramatic fashion, the authors recount how the Rangers charged up the icy hill with "no semblance of order" ("It was like scrabbling up a thirteen-hundred-foot child's playground slide while being shot at") and attacked the Germans "with knives, entrenching tools, steel helmets, bare fists." After achieving "the deepest penetration into German territory by any American or British unit across the vast Allied front," the Rangers defended the hill against a series of fierce counterattacks. Drury and Clavin pack the narrative with biographical details about the Rangers and skillfully toggle between battle scenes and big-picture analysis. WWII buffs will savor this deep dive.
