by Tom Clavin
First published 2022
Lieutenant Colonel James Rudder receives orders that will define his battalion's fate: take Hill 400 and hold it at any cost. The 1320-foot Castle Hill guards the gateway into Nazi Germany, and several American divisions have already failed to capture it. Rudder's 2nd Ranger Battalion, battle-tested veterans known as the most elite attack unit in the Army, prepares to assault the frozen slopes in December 1944. What they don't know is that multiple Wehrmacht regiments have received identical orders to defend the hill to the last man. The collision between these determined forces becomes one of World War II's bloodiest encounters. As Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower desperately needs this victory to prevent Hitler's planned counterattack, 130 Rangers charge up the icy mountain. The hill holds secrets crucial to what history will remember as the Battle of the Bulge. Through the brutal fighting, only 16 Rangers will survive to descend those frozen slopes, carrying with them the memory of what they call "our longest day."
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, action, world-war-ii, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-allies, survival
Setting: Hill 400, Castle Hill, Germany
Period: December 1944, Battle of the Bulge
416 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: graphic-violence, war