The Last Hill: The Epic Story of a Ranger Battalion and the Battle That Defined WWII

by Bob Drury, Tom Clavin

Overview

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.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250247179
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	58,751
File size:	36 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

BOB DRURY and TOM CLAVIN are the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of, most recently, The Last Hill, as well as Blood and Treasure; The Heart of Everything That Is; Lucky 666; Halsey's Typhoon; Last Men Out; Valley Forge; and The Last Stand of Fox Company, which won the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award. They live in Manasquan, New Jersey, and Sag Harbor, New York, respectively.
BOB DRURY, the recipient of several national journalism awards, is a three-time National Magazine Award finalist as well as a Pulitzer Prize nominee. Drury honed his investigative skills writing for all four New York City newspapers as well as a variety of national publications. His journalism career has arced from sports to crime to adventure travel to foreign correspondence. He is also the author, co-author, or editor of ten non-fiction books, including Blood and Treasure, Valley Forge, and Lucky 666.
TOM CLAVIN is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and has worked as a newspaper editor, magazine writer, TV and radio commentator, and a reporter for The New York Times. He has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and National Newspaper Association. His books include the bestselling Frontier Lawmen trilogy—Wild Bill, Dodge City, and Tombstone—and Blood and Treasure with Bob Drury. He lives in Sag Harbor, NY.

Table of Contents

Prologue: A Vast Green Cave 1

Part I The Rangers

1 Commandos 11

2 Darby's Recruits 18

3 Torch 25

4 Heat and Dust 31

5 "Big Jim" Rudder 42

6 A New Beginning 49

7 Sea Change 58

8 Swim and Swat 67

9 The Cliffs 78

Part II The Beach

10 "The Most Dangerous Mission of D-Day" 91

11 Gin Blossoms 98

12 Charon's Craft 106

13 Charnel Ground 116

14 Thermite 124

15 "No Reinforcements Available" 133

16 "All Rangers Down!" 144

17 Graves Registration 150

Part III The Fortress

18 Hurry Up and Wait 159

19 The "Fabulous Four" 170

20 Brittany 177

21 Festung Brest 186

22 The "Fool Lieutenant" 193

23 Credentials 201

Part IV The Forest

24 "End the War in '44" 211

25 The Green Hell 222

26 The Queen's Gambit 233

27 The Return of the "Fabulous Four" 244

28 "How Bad Is It?" 251

Part V The Hill

29 Bergstein 263

30 Rudderless 272

31 The Sugarloaf 279

32 "Let's Go Get the Bastards!" 287

33 The Crest 295

34 Fallschirmjägers 301

35 A Last Stand 308

36 Howls and Whistles 317

37 Trudging Away 323

Epilogue 329

Afterword 339

Postscript 361

Acknowledgments 365

Notes 369

Selected Bibliography 379

Index 385

Editorial Reviews

09/05/2022

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. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Drury and Clavin are to be commended for resurrecting with delicate poignancy the travails of men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion ... With its muscular prose and expert storytelling, The Last Hill deserves to stand beside Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers as one of the truly epic—and intimate—accounts of American heroism and sacrifice in World War II. " —Wall Street Journal

“Journalists Drury and Clavin have turned out a steady stream of well-received military histories … and their latest fits well with their previous titles … war stories remain a persistent genre, and this should satisfy its substantial readership.” —Kirkus Reviews on The Last Hill

"In this exhaustive history ... 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." —Publishers Weekly on The Last Hill

"For anyone who loves the adventurous side of American history, “Blood and Treasure” is a gem. It’s full of action, thorough and wide. Seek out this treasure and you won’t be disappointed." —Terri Schlichenmeyer for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle

“Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, challenge conventional wisdom about an American origin story and, in the process, weave a tale fit for the big screen.” —Washington Free Beacon on Blood and Treasure

"Clavin and Drury return with an enlightening biography of Daniel Boone set against the backdrop of 18th-century America’s conflicts with England and Native tribes. [They] successfully separate fact from fiction while keeping the pages turning. History buffs will be entertained." —Publishers Weekly on Blood and Treasure

“Bob Drury and Tom Clavin together have given us a half-dozen elegantly written narratives of exhilarating episodes in American history. [Blood and Treasure] may be the authors’ finest work to date. Redolent of time and place, a raw and rugged tale.” —Wall Street Journal

"Popular historians Drury and Clavin deliver a ripsnortin’ tale of the early frontier and its first and most powerful legend. [Blood and Treasure] offers a vivid account of Boone’s frontier years, one that may not be for the faint of heart." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

09/23/2022

In their latest work of military history, best-sellers Drury and Clavin (Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier) discuss "Rudder's Rangers," the United States Army battalion in World War II that they describe as the Allied Forces' "spearhead into Germany" in December 1944 who finally carried the battlefront inside the borders of Hitler's homeland. About the founding of this battalion of Rangers, the book explains that several voices in the Allied Forces foresaw the utility of a military unit modeled on the British Commandos and consisting of highly trained men capable of executing raids and operating behind enemy lines—what we would now call "irregular warfare." In preparation for invading Nazi Germany, the Rudder's Rangers soldiers, all volunteers, underwent extreme physical and martial training. Ultimately, two Ranger battalions were fielded; Drury and Clavin focus on the record of the Second Battalion, who climbed the cliff at Point-du-Hoc and silenced a German battery as the Allied D-Day fleet approached. Later in the war, the Second Battalion fought in the Hürtgen Forest, which was nearly destroyed—all recounted here in detail. VERDICT Most libraries with World War II collections will want recent works, like Drury and Clavin's, on the accomplishments of these famous Army Rangers.—Edwin Burgess

Library Journal

2022-09-07
The bestselling authors return with another tale of an elite military unit’s battles and ultimate triumph.

Journalists Drury and Clavin have turned out a steady stream of well-received military histories, including Halsey’s Typhoon, Valley Forge, Blood and Treasure, and Lucky 666, and their latest fits well with their previous titles. Having raced across France after the breakthrough in Normandy, U.S. troops were surprised at the sudden resistance when they crossed into Germany. Among their worst experiences was a nasty November-December 1944 battle in the Hürtgen Forest, a fortified wilderness on the frontier. Historians agree that American leaders mishandled it, sending in units that suffered terrible casualties for minimal gains. Drury and Clavin focus on the final, bloody attack of Castle Hill, toward the end of the campaign, which was ultimately taken by the 2nd Ranger Battalion. Special forces remain controversial among the military because they cost far more than regular troops but don’t fight often and, formed by volunteers, deprive units of their best men. Still, civilians and popular writers find them irresistible. Clearly fascinated by the subject, the authors rewind the clock to deliver the Rangers’ history since its 1942 approval by Gen. George Marshall, inspired by British Commandos. Ranger units distinguished themselves during the invasions of North Africa and Italy and then landed at Normandy in June 1944 before the main force to destroy an artillery emplacement that endangered Omaha Beach. Military buffs will enjoy the authors’ account of the often bitter fighting that followed, described in minute, occasionally excessive detail; the authors vividly capture the miserable, freezing, wet conditions and the bloody small-unit actions that often failed. Drury and Clavin conclude that victory was costly, and the Hürtgen campaign was a mistake: “The American high command knew well…how much blood had been spilled in that woodland to accomplish so little.”

“Untold” and “epic” war stories remain a persistent genre, and this should satisfy its substantial readership.

Kirkus Reviews