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  • The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II’s Most Decorated Platoon
  • Mannie Liscum
The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II’s Most Decorated Platoon. By Alex Kershaw. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2004. ISBN 0-306-81304-1. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. x, 326. $25.00.

Alex Kershaw scored a popular hit with The Bedford Boys (2003), and appears to be doing it again with his latest book, The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon. The historical centerpiece of The Longest Winter is the Battle of Lanzerath (16 December 1944), in which eighteen soldiers of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance (I&R) Platoon, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division staged a miraculous defense against the numerically superior 1st Battalion, Fallschirmjäger Regiment 9 (temporarily assigned to the 1st SS-Panzer Division). Although two men of I&R/394th were killed and the remainder captured, their actions at Lanzerath delayed the main effort of the Sixth Panzer Army for the better part of 16 December. As Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) John R. Finch and Major George J. Mordica II wrote in 1992: "The I&R Platoon's action exemplifies the determination of the American soldier and what he can do when properly prepared, motivated, and led" ("Miracles: A Platoon's Heroic Stand at Lanzerath" in Combined Arms in [End Page 596] Battle Since 1939 [Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Press, 1992], 171).

While the actions of I&R/394th merit telling, The Longest Winter is not its first recounting. That honor belongs to John S. D. Eisenhower's The Bitter Woods (1969). Unfortunately the retelling of the Battle of Lanzerath in The Longest Winter (pp. 77-111) is simply that, a retelling providing little new information or insight. In an apparent attempt to create a lilting broad-perspective story, Kershaw has devoted considerable text to the discussion of well-known events and people not directly connected to I&R/394th. Yet, more often than not this merely serves to distract the reader from the central story. As an example, the book is peppered with references to and quotations from author Kurt Vonnegut, a veteran of the 106th Infantry Division. While such allusions to Vonnegut add a recognizable personality to the story, they are historically unnecessary. Equally disappointing are the numerous errors of fact. For instance, despite citing George Stein's authoritative Waffen-SS (1984) in his bibliography, Kershaw misstates two SS-related items on p. 54 alone: (1) the Leibstandarte-SS "Adolf Hitler" is referred to as a component of the 1st SS-Panzer Division when in fact they were one and the same; and (2) the 1st SS-Panzer Division is referred to as the original "Death('s) Head" unit responsible for running the concentration camps, which it simply was not.

Fortunately, two portions of the book present fresh material. The first describes the formation and training of I&R/394th, and their time spent on the European continent prior to the battle (pp. 1-57). The second discusses the platoon's captivity, liberation, and postwar recognition (pp. 174-285). Actions of the parent 99th Infantry Division are also discussed in these sections. However, these have been chronicled before, in Major General Walter E. Lauer's Battle Babies: The Story of the 99th Infantry Division in World War II (1951).

On balance, Kershaw has crafted an engaging book that will thrill neophytes and leave more seasoned students of World War II history feeling somewhat frustrated.

Mannie Liscum
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, Missouri
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