**Bob Drury and Tom Clavin's The Last Hill is the incredible untold
story of one Ranger battalion's heroism and courage in World War II.
**
They were known as "Rudder's Rangers," the most elite and experienced
attack unit in the United States Army. In December 1944, Lt. Col. James
Rudder's 2nd Battalion would form the spearhead into Germany, taking the
war into Hitler's homeland at last. In the process, Rudder was given two
objectives: Take Hill 400 . . . and hold the hill by any means possible.
To the last man, if necessary. The battle-hardened battalion had no idea
that several Wehrmacht regiments, who greatly outnumbered the Rangers,
had been given the exact same orders. The clash of the two determined
forces was one of the bloodiest and most costly encounters of World War
II.
Castle Hill, the imposing 1320-foot mini-mountain the American Rangers
simply called Hill 400, was the gateway to a desperate Nazi Germany.
Several entire American divisions had already been repulsed by the last
hill's dug-in defenders as--unknown to the Allies--the height was the
key to Adolf Hitler's last-minute plans for a massive counterattack to
smash through the American lines in what would become known to history
as the Battle of the Bulge.
Thus the stalemate surrounding Hill 400 could not continue. For Supreme
Allied Commander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, there was only one solution:
Call in Rudder's Rangers. Of the 130 special operators who stormed,
captured, and held the hill that December day, only 16 remained to
stagger back down its frozen slopes. The Last Hill is replete with
unforgettable action and characters--a rich and detailed saga of what
the survivors of the 2nd Ranger Battalion would remember as "our longest
day."
