The Last Ridge

Author: Mckay Jenkins
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0307432378
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
When World War II broke out in Europe, the American army had no specialized division of mountain soldiers. But in the winter of 1939–40, after a tiny band of Finnish mountain troops brought the invading Soviet army to its knees, an amateur skier named Charles Minot “Minnie” Dole convinced the United States Army to let him recruit an extraordinary assortment of European expatriates, wealthy ski bums, mountaineers, and thrill-seekers and form them into a unique band of Alpine soldiers. These men endured nearly three years of grueling training in the Colorado Rockies and in the process set new standards for both soldiering and mountaineering. The newly forged 10th Mountain Division finally faced combat in the winter of 1945, in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, against the seemingly unbreakable German fortifications north of the Gothic Line. There, they planned and executed what is still regarded as the most daring series of nighttime mountain attacks in U.S. military history, taking Mount Belvedere and the sheer, treacherous face of Riva Ridge to smash the linchpin of the German army’s lines. Drawing on unique cooperation from veterans of the 10th Mountain Division and a vast archive of unpublished letters and documents, The Last Ridge is written with enormous warmth, energy, and honesty. This is one of the most captivating stories of World War II, a blend of Band of Brothers and Into Thin Air. It is a story of young men asked to do the impossible, and succeeding.

To the Last Ridge

Author: Walter Hubert Downing
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781875989263
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 207

Book Description
The moving account recalls in an hosest and personal way the ordinary soldier's experience an done of the most horrific series of battles ever fought. (back cover.).

To the Last Ridge

Author: W. H. Downing
Publisher: Grub Street the Basement
ISBN: 9781904010203
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
Written just after the heat of the battle and in the language of the time, this is the personal account of an ordinary soldier's experience of one of the most horrific series of battles ever fought. Fleurbaix, Bapaume, Beaumetz, Lagincourt, Bullecourt, The Menin Road, Villers-Bretonneux, Peronne and Mont St. Quentin. Downing describes the mud, the rats, the constant pounding of the guns, the deaths, the futility, but also the humour and the heroism of one of the most compelling periods in world history. His writing is spare but vivid, and presents a graphic description of an ordinary person's struggle to survive.

Summary of Mckay Jenkins's The Last Ridge

Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 39

Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The Allied campaign in Italy had been a drain on Hitler’s army, a third front. The final German defensive barrier, the Gothic Line, had been unbreakable by the Allies. #2 By late 1944, the American Fifth Army had broken through the Gothic Line and was making its way north along the Adriatic. The Germans were beginning to retreat, but they were taking the last ridge back with them. #3 The one remaining keystone in the Apennines was the heavily fortified Mount Belvedere, which was the southwestern butt of a four-mile ridge that also included Mount Gorgolesco and Mount della Torraccia. Belvedere was the key. # The ridgeline between Mount Belvedere and Rocca Corneta was protected by the 1044th Grenadier Regiment and the 232nd Fusilier Battalion, which were reinforced by hundreds of soldiers from Fanano and Sestola. The flanks were locked up in ice and snow by the coldest winter in recent memory.

Leepike Ridge

Author: N. D. Wilson
Publisher: Yearling
ISBN: 0375838740
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Before he wrote the bestselling 100 Cupboards trilogy and Ashtown Burials series, N. D. Wilson delighted readers with his first unforgettable action-adventure story of survival. . . . Thomas Hammond has always lived next to Leepike Ridge, but he never imagined he might end up lost beneath it! The night Tom’s schoolteacher comes to dinner and asks Tom’s mother to marry him, Tom slips out of the house and escapes down a nearby stream on a floating slab of packing foam. The night and stars lull Tom to sleep, and when he wakes, he has ridden his foam raft all the way to the ridge, where the stream dives underground. Flung over rapids and tossed through chasms, Tom finally hits shore, sore but alive. What Tom finds under Leepike Ridge—a dog, a flashlight, a castaway, a tomb, and buried treasure—will answer questions he hadn’t known to ask, and change his life forever. Now, if only he can find his way home again. . . . In the grand tradition of Robinson Crusoe, Hatchet, and Tom Sawyer, N. D. Wilson’s first book for young readers is a remarkable adventure, a journey through the dark and back into the light. A New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing “This is a ripping good adventure yarn. . . . Here’s the perfect remedy for any summer that’s been disappointingly short on thrills.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Starred “Wilson’s debut is a literate, sometimes humorous page-turner in the classic tradition. Well-read adventure lovers are in for a treat looking for echoes of The Odyssey and Tom Sawyer.”—Kirkus Reviews “Tom’s adventures have several literary ancestors, including Tom and Huck in the cave, and the inventive Swiss Family Robinson, but this is solidly set in the present, standing on its own with well-crafted suspense and fascinating survival detail. . . . [M]iddle-grade readers will also relish the physicality of the journey: underwater swims, tight passages, and rock climbing. . . . [An] appealing and easy-to-booktalk package.”—Booklist “Wilson sets the scene vividly, from Tom’s home to the labyrinth of tunnels and caverns under the mountain, and the central characters’ emotional lives develop both naturally and affectingly. [Readers] will appreciate both the fast-paced adventure and Tom’s determination to make the impossible journey back home.”—The Horn Book Magazine “Wilson’s rich imagination and his quirky characters are a true delight.”—School Library Journal

Til Death

Author: Sharon Sala
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1460309707
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
An ex-con rescues his high school sweetheart while attempting to clear his name in this romantic suspense tale by a New York Times–bestselling author. Nearly twenty years after he was wrongly convicted of setting the fire that killed his father, Lincoln Fox returns to Rebel Ridge, Kentucky. There, deep in the Appalachians, the truth of that terrible night lies buried—and he’s sworn to uncover it. His plans take an unexpected turn when, in the midst of a blizzard, he rescues Meg Walker from her wrecked car. Suddenly Linc discovers another reason to clear his name. Meg, his high school sweetheart, had always believed in his innocence, and if he wants a future with her, he must show the world proof that she was right. As the community chooses sides, those who once let a teenage boy take the fall for their crime are forced to raise the stakes. They kidnap Meg, leaving her to the mercy of the mountain. And a second rescue may be more than even Linc can manage. . . .

The Ridge

Author: Michael Koryta
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316175358
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
Discover a brilliant thriller set in a remote big-cat sanctuary: "one of the scariest and most touching horror tales in years" (James Patterson). In an isolated stretch of eastern Kentucky, on a hilltop known as Blade Ridge, stands a lighthouse that illuminates nothing but the surrounding woods. For years the lighthouse has been considered no more than an eccentric local landmark -- until its builder is found dead at the top of the light, and his belongings reveal a troubling local history. For deputy sheriff Kevin Kimble, the lighthouse-keeper's death is disturbing and personal. Years ago, Kimble was shot while on duty. Somehow the death suggests a connection between the lighthouse and the most terrifying moment of his life. Audrey Clark is in the midst of moving her large-cat sanctuary onto land adjacent to the lighthouse. Sixty-seven tigers, lions, leopards, and one legendary black panther are about to have a new home there. Her husband, the sanctuary's founder, died scouting the new property, and Audrey is determined to see his vision through. As strange occurrences multiply at the Ridge, the animals grow ever more restless, and Kimble and Audrey try to understand what evil forces are moving through this ancient landscape, just past the divide between dark and light. The Ridge is a brilliant thriller from international bestseller Michael Koryta, further evidence of why Dean Koontz has said "Michael Koryta's work resonates into deeper strata than does most of what I read" and why Michael Connelly has named him "one of the best of the best." "The Ridge is a classic ghost story, penned by a master. I couldn't put it down, even though I almost screamed when the wind blew a branch against the tree outside my study. Yes, it's that scary." --Stephen King

A Moonlight Massacre

Author: Michael Locicero
Publisher: Helion
ISBN: 9781911628729
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Book Description
The Third Battle of Ypres was officially terminated by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig with the opening of the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November 1917. Nevertheless, a comparatively unknown set-piece attack - the only large-scale night operation carried out on the Flanders front during the campaign - was launched twelve days later on 2 December. This volume is a necessary corrective to previously published campaign narratives of what has become popularly known as 'Passchendaele'. It examines the course of events from the mid-November decision to sanction further offensive activity in the vicinity of Passchendaele village to the barren operational outcome that forced British GHQ to halt the attack within ten hours of Zero. A litany of unfortunate decisions and circumstances contributed to the profitless result. At the tactical level, a novel hybrid set-piece attack scheme was undermined by a fatal combination of snow-covered terrain and bright moonlight. At the operational level, the highly unsatisfactory local situation in the immediate aftermath of Third Ypres' post-strategic phase (26 October-10 November) appeared to offer no other alternative to attacking from the confines of an extremely vulnerable salient. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of the affair occurred at the political and strategic level, where Haig's earnest advocacy for resumption of the Flanders offensive in spring 1918 was maintained despite obvious signs that the initiative had now passed to the enemy and the crisis of the war was fast approaching. A Moonlight Massacre provides an important contribution and re-interpretation of the discussion surrounding Passchendaele, based firmly on an extensive array of sources, many unpublished, and supported by illustrations and maps.

To the Last Ridge

Author: W. H. Downing
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1909808636
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
This soldier’s WWI account of trench warfare is “a masterpiece among the chronicles of war” (The Australian). Written just after the heat of the battle, this is the personal account of an ordinary soldier’s experience of one of the most horrific series of battles ever fought—Fleurbaix, Bapaume, Beaumetz, Lagnicourt, Bullecourt, the Menin Road, Villers-Bretonneux, Péronne, and Mont Saint-Quentin. W. H. Downing, who was a law student in Melbourne before fighting on the Western Front and earning the Military Medal, describes not only the mud, the rats, the constant pounding of the guns, the deaths, and the futility, but also the humor and the heroism of one of the most compelling periods in world history. His writing is spare but vivid, and presents a graphic description of an ordinary person’s struggle to survive.

Last Chance Rebel

Author: Maisey Yates
Publisher: HQN Books
ISBN: 146039500X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Book Description
Get swept away to Copper Ridge, Oregon, by New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates, and meet the town's prodigal son who has finally come home... The man who ruined Rebecca Bear's life just strolled back into it with one heck of an offer. Years ago, Gage West's recklessness left Rebecca scarred inside and out. Now he wants to make amends by gifting her the building that houses her souvenir store. Rebecca won't take Gage's charity, but she's willing to make a deal with the sexy, reclusive cowboy. Yet keeping her enemy close is growing dangerously appealing… He's the wild West brother, the bad seed of Copper Ridge. That's why Gage needs the absolution Rebecca offers. He just didn't expect to need her. After years of regretting his past, he knows where his future lies—with this strong, irresistible woman who could make a black sheep come home to stay…