Messengers of the Lost Battalion: The Heroic 551st and the Turning of the Tide at the Battle of the Bulge - Softcover

Orfalea, Gregory

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684871092 ISBN 13: 9780684871097

Publisher: Touchstone, 1999

Synopsis

In 1989, Gregory Orfalea received notice that the first reunion of his father's World War II infantry battalion, the 551st, would be held in France. Still mourning the death of his father the year before, Orfalea decided to attend in his place, hoping to find some survivors of the unit who could help him piece together the lost story of his father's wartime experiences. What he discovered far exceeded his modest expectations. Why has this heroic unit's memory been all but completely erased from the military annals of the war? Why was the 551st sent to its destruction in a desperate assault on the village of Rochelinval during the Battle of the Bulge? And finally, how could the handful of frostbitten, bloodstained renegades that were the 551st's walking wounded actually take Rochelinval and win the day?

About this title

About the Author:

Gregory Orfalea was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and educated at Georgetown University and the University of Alaska. He has held teaching positions at Georgetown, The Claremont Colleges, and at Westmont College. Orfalea is the author and editor of eight books, the most recent of which are the short story collection The Man Who Guarded the Bomb and Angeleno Days, which won the 2010 Arab American Book Award and has been named a Finalist for the PEN USA Award in Creative Nonfiction.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A son's record of his long, wide-ranging search to uncover his dead father's army experiences during WW II. Poet and historian Orfalea attended the first reunion of the 551st Battalion, hoping to find out something about his father, but discovered many mysteries instead. Why was this heroic airborne unit sent to its destruction against a well-entrenched German unit, and why were their achievements ignored in military history? During the Battle of the Bulge, with few other units not already pinned down or shattered, the 551st was sent against fanatically determined German forces in a counterattack that lasted five days, blunted a part of the German assault, took hundreds of prisoners, and left only 110 of the battalion's 643 soldiers standing when it ended. Despite this extraordinary record, the unit was disbanded, its records were destroyed, its bravery went unrecognized, and its very existence was swiftly forgotten by the army bureaucracy. Orfalea's investigations reveal the men of the 551st to have been exuberant loners, distrustful of authority; many had served time in the military stockade. Unattached to other Allied forces, they were, in many ways, seen as a rowdy, defiant bunch and thus, perhaps, dispensable. Despite the army's neglect, the unit received the Croix de Guerre from Charles de Gaulle, and a monument was erected to them by the Belgians in recognition of their heroic efforts. Orfalea, who writes vividly and with great detail about the men of the 551st and their battles, asserts that the army, ever reluctant to acknowledge past injustice in the ranks, is still unwilling (despite the entreaties of 551st survivors and several generals) to recognize the unit's remarkable achievement. A fine military history of a heroic, hitherto forgotten unit finally brought to light. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0684871092
• ISBN 13: 9780684871097
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416