Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon, The

Army, Dec 2004 by Hymel, Kevin M

The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon. Alex Kershaw. Da Capo Press. 336 pages; black and white photographs; maps; index; $25.

Alex Kershaw has done it again. The author of The Bedford Boys, a tragic chronicle of one of the first platoons to come ashore on D-Day, has written another account of a small unit in World War II. This time it is an intelligence and reconnaissance (I&R) platoon of the 99th Infantry Division, which held up a German parachute division for almost an entire day in the opening hours of the Battle of the Bulge.

The platoon, commanded by Lt. Lyle Bouck Jr., was not designed for sustained combat, but with the division's flank exposed, the platoon was rushed in as a temporary solution. Dug in on the outskirts of Lanzerath, Belgium, on December 16, and having been on the line for only a few weeks, the men were struck by the full force of an elite parachute division, preceded by an artillery barrage.

Fighting in place, the I&R platoon managed to kill more than 500 Germans before being overrun and forced to surrender after nearly eight hours of fighting. By stopping the Germans for that one day, they threw the entire offensive off schedule and allowed other units time to retreat and reorganize.

The survivors, two of whom were badly wounded, spent the rest of the war as POWs, subsisting on a starvation diet in barbaric conditions. They witnessed the cruelty of German guards and watched as Allied bombers leveled German cities. They were almost liberated once when a task force sent by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. entered the camp, but the force, which was primarily sent to liberate Patton's son-in-law, John Waters, was too small. It was captured and the prisoners had to return to camp.

The book is at its best when describing the day-long defense of Lanzerath. The barrel on a jeep-mounted machine gun melts from the intensity of fighting.

One soldier warns the machine gunner to fire in bursts, but the gunner replies that there are too many Germans to do that; one soldier suffers a broken jaw when a rifle grenade smacks him in the face without exploding; another soldier miraculously survives after being shot in the face by a machine gun.

Through it all, Bouck's leadership proves the difference. He could have fled the area, especially when the cavalry unit next to his position bugged out, but he stayed and kept his men's guns pointed at the enemy. His calm words kept the men fighting and, after their forced surrender, kept them alive.

The author also follows Joachim Peiper, the infamous SS leader whose men killed scores of American prisoners, particularly at the Malmedy Massacre. The author theorizes that Bouck's men did such an excellent job at blunting the German attack that Peiper's frustrations exploded in the form of killing prisoners.

Bouck and Peiper even crossed paths. When Bouck was first taken prisoner, Peiper entered the house where he was being kept and reviewed a situation map. At the time, neither of the men had any idea who the other was.

One character the author brings into the story, but who could have been left out, was Otto Skorzeny, Hitler's infamous commando, who took English-speaking soldiers, dressed them in American uniforms and sent them behind the lines to wreak havoc with the Allies.

None of Skorzeny's commandos encountered the I&R platoon. The only connection is speculative and tangential. The Germans took the I&R men's dog tags after they were captured, possibly for Skorzeny's men to wear.

The only problem with the book is its subtitle "World War Il's Most Decorated Platoon." The author offers no proof for this assertion.

Kershaw is a fantastic storyteller and excels at describing small-unit action. Anyone who enjoyed The Bedford Boys would like this book.

-Kevin M. Hymel