Böcker av Ken Hechler

It was a stunning strategic victory of World War II-and one of the most fantastic breaks for the Allies. On March 7, 1945, a small group of American infantrymen, engineers, and tank crews secured the Ludendorff Bridge that crossed the Rhine. The successful mission saved thousands of American lives and spearheaded the invasion of Nazi Germany.The Bridge at Remagen is the detailed narrative of this surprising but crucial military action, one that stunned the German army. It is also the moving story of men who did not consider themselves heroes, but who performed magnificently under fire. In this amazing true story, Ken Hechler gives you the hour-by-hour account of brilliant military daring, human courage, and almost incredible luck that profoundly changed the course of the war.

On 16 December 1944, when the 51st Engineer Combat Battalion faced the Germans' last gasp effort to win the war, it had been operating 30 sawmills in support of the First United States Army. Within days the battalion was spread over the Belgian countryside, defending roads, bridges, and towns from the Nazi attempt to break through to the Meuse River and to split the British and American forces. The men set up roadblocks, using mines and abatis; mined bridges and culverts; and defended river crossings with machine guns, recoilless rifles, and bazookas. This narrative by Ken Hechler, a combat historian and Infantry captain at the time, was drawn from numerous oral history interviews of participants. Captain Hechler and Technician Fourth Class Harvey R. George did the interviews shortly after the battles.