6/28/2023 0 Comments The longest winter by alex kershaw![]() Army approved combat medals for all eighteen men, they became America's most decorated platoon of World War II. More than thirty years later, when President Carter recognized the platoon's "extraordinary heroism" and the U.S. Yet miraculously the men of the platoon survived-all of them-and returned home after the war. But their long winter was just beginning.Īs POWs, the platoon experienced an ordeal far worse than combat-surviving in wretched German POW camps. Only when they had run out of ammunition did they surrender to the enemy. Despite being vastly outnumbered, they were told to hold their position "at all costs." Throughout the day, the platoon repulsed three large German assaults in a fierce day-long battle, killing hundreds of German soldiers. ![]() ![]() ![]() On the morning of December 16, 1944, eighteen men of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon attached to the 99th Infantry Division found themselves directly in the path of the main thrust of Hitler's massive Ardennes offensive. The epic story of the vastly outnumbered platoon that stopped Germany's leading assault in the Ardennes forest and prevented Hitler's most fearsome tanks from overtaking American positions ![]()
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