The Last Hill (2022) [/]
Apr 22 2024
The Last Hill: The Epic Story of a Ranger Battalion and the Battle That Defined WWII is an account of the 2nd Ranger Battalion during World War 2. We get a bit on how the 1st Ranger Battalion was conceived and formed and their success during Operation Torch led to the formation of the 2nd Ranger Battalion.
The main narrative is their training then going to England then D-Day with their job of taking out the guns at Point Du Hoc and the fierce battle once they got up the cliff. They did some refitting then participated in taking Brest on the western coast of France. More miscellaneous missions and refitting until we get to the final part of the book.
During November 1944 the allies were attacking towards Aachen and the Roer river in Germany. The Germans were building up for Wacht Am Rheim (Battle of the Bulge) so were desperate to keep the Americans at bay so they wouldn't find out. The Hurtgen Forest was to the side of the advance and General Hodges wanted to secure the forest to protect the advance.
On the other side of the forest was Schmidt and the 28th Division was assigned to take it but couldn't (exciting to me since The Gamers' Objective: Schmidt game covers the Nov 2-6 attack by the 112th Regiment of the 28th Division). Anyway there is a hill near there, Hill 400, used by the Germans for artillery observation. After several failures to get close to the hill and take it the 2nd Battalion was called upon to do the job that would normally be assigned to a Regiment.
The last exciting part of the book is the attack on Hill 400 by essentially two Ranger companies -- I think there were 6 in the Battalion but the other four were holding the town before the hill and would come up as reserves, which unfortunately they did not do for a while. The Rangers secured the hill then held on as their numbers dwindled and then were finally supported.
Throughout the book we've gotten to know various Rangers, although I guess it was all commanders, captains, lieutenants and sergeants but not sure if Rangers had lower ranks. Anyway half the book is anecdotes woven into the narration so it's one overall story (I've read books where the anecdotes are told one after the other and it's reading this little separate episodes that together eventually give you a story, but it's a rather piecemeal way of telling it). On Hill 400 a lot of them die and it's a bit teary for me.
The book pretty much ends once the 2nd Ranger Battalion returns to the States. There is a long Afterword where each of the survivors gets a brief mention of their post-WWII life. There are some footnotes and a bibliography which is always nice.
Apparently the official US Army History of WWII doesn't really mention the Rangers much and of course there's the depiction that Point Du Hoc was a wasted effort since the guns had been moved, which this book dispels since the Rangers did a lot more than just get up on top of a cliff and find empty gun emplacements. Also the Hurtgen Forest battles tend to get sidelined by the Battle of the Bulge so it's nice having more detail there (make no mistake this book is focused on the Rangers so what the rest of the US Army did in Hurtgen Forest is barely covered).
The writing style is a bit too breezy for me -- I'm more for more detail on what the unit did than on knowing the people in the unit. But you still get a fair amount of detail and the book is intended to have more of a human touch.
Overall it's a fairly interesting book and I think I'd recommend it.
The main narrative is their training then going to England then D-Day with their job of taking out the guns at Point Du Hoc and the fierce battle once they got up the cliff. They did some refitting then participated in taking Brest on the western coast of France. More miscellaneous missions and refitting until we get to the final part of the book.
During November 1944 the allies were attacking towards Aachen and the Roer river in Germany. The Germans were building up for Wacht Am Rheim (Battle of the Bulge) so were desperate to keep the Americans at bay so they wouldn't find out. The Hurtgen Forest was to the side of the advance and General Hodges wanted to secure the forest to protect the advance.
On the other side of the forest was Schmidt and the 28th Division was assigned to take it but couldn't (exciting to me since The Gamers' Objective: Schmidt game covers the Nov 2-6 attack by the 112th Regiment of the 28th Division). Anyway there is a hill near there, Hill 400, used by the Germans for artillery observation. After several failures to get close to the hill and take it the 2nd Battalion was called upon to do the job that would normally be assigned to a Regiment.
The last exciting part of the book is the attack on Hill 400 by essentially two Ranger companies -- I think there were 6 in the Battalion but the other four were holding the town before the hill and would come up as reserves, which unfortunately they did not do for a while. The Rangers secured the hill then held on as their numbers dwindled and then were finally supported.
Throughout the book we've gotten to know various Rangers, although I guess it was all commanders, captains, lieutenants and sergeants but not sure if Rangers had lower ranks. Anyway half the book is anecdotes woven into the narration so it's one overall story (I've read books where the anecdotes are told one after the other and it's reading this little separate episodes that together eventually give you a story, but it's a rather piecemeal way of telling it). On Hill 400 a lot of them die and it's a bit teary for me.
The book pretty much ends once the 2nd Ranger Battalion returns to the States. There is a long Afterword where each of the survivors gets a brief mention of their post-WWII life. There are some footnotes and a bibliography which is always nice.
Apparently the official US Army History of WWII doesn't really mention the Rangers much and of course there's the depiction that Point Du Hoc was a wasted effort since the guns had been moved, which this book dispels since the Rangers did a lot more than just get up on top of a cliff and find empty gun emplacements. Also the Hurtgen Forest battles tend to get sidelined by the Battle of the Bulge so it's nice having more detail there (make no mistake this book is focused on the Rangers so what the rest of the US Army did in Hurtgen Forest is barely covered).
The writing style is a bit too breezy for me -- I'm more for more detail on what the unit did than on knowing the people in the unit. But you still get a fair amount of detail and the book is intended to have more of a human touch.
Overall it's a fairly interesting book and I think I'd recommend it.