Some of the toughest fighting of World War II fell to the courageous U.S. paratroopers. This is the true account--written by a combat officer of the famed 101st Airborne Division--of their heroism in the sky and on the ground.

Hailing from the big cities and small towns of America, these young men came together to serve their country and the greater good. They were the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division (the All Americans). Phil Nordyke, their official historian, draws on interviews with surviving veterans and oral history recordings as well as official archives and unpublished written accounts from more than three hundred veterans of the 505th PIR and their supporting units. This is history as it was lived by the men of the 505th, from their prewar coming of age in the regiment, through the end of World War II, when they marched in the Victory Parade up Fifth Avenue in New York, to the postwar legacy of having been part of an elite parachute regiment with a record unsurpassed in the annals of combat.

The acclaimed World War II historian delivers “a panoramic and compelling boots-on-the-ground illumination of one of the Bulge’s most epic battles” (Patrick K. O’Donnell, author of Washington’s Immortals). Hitler’s last gamble, the Battle of the Bulge, was intended to push the Allied invaders of Normandy all the way back to the beaches. The plan nearly succeeded, and almost certainly would have, were it not for one small Belgian town and its tenacious American defenders who held back a tenfold larger German force while awaiting the arrival of Gen. George Patton’s mighty Third Army. In this dramatic account of the 1944–45 winter of war in Bastogne, historian Peter Schrijvers offers the first full story of the German assault on the strategically located town. From the December stampede of American and Panzer divisions racing to reach Bastogne first, through the bloody eight-day siege from land and air, and through three more weeks of unrelenting fighting even after the siege was broken, events at Bastogne hastened the long-awaited end of WWII. Schrijvers draws on diaries, memoirs, and other fresh sources to illuminate the experiences not only of Bastogne’s three thousand citizens and their American defenders, but also of German soldiers and commanders desperate for victory. The costs of war are revealed, uncovered in the stories of those who perished and those who emerged from battle to find the world forever changed. “A fast-paced story . . . Schrijvers does an admirable job of weaving personal accounts into the larger picture of Bastogne’s horrors.” —The Wall Street Journal “Pulse-pounding . . . The first thorough treatment of the famous battle for Bastogne.” —John C. McManus, author of Fire and Fortitude

This is the second book of a trilogy. Click on the links below to view the other two volumes of the trilogy. LA DIVINA COMMEDIA (THE DIVINE COMEDY) : Inferno LA DIVINA COMMEDIA (THE DIVINE COMEDY) : Paradiso

The Delphi Poets Series offers readers the works of literature's finest poets, with superior formatting. This volume presents the works of world poet Dante Alighieri, with beautiful illustrations, the original Italian texts and bonus material. (12MB Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Dante's life and works * Concise introductions to the poetry * Excellent formatting of the poems * Both verse and prose translations of THE DIVINE COMEDY, with glossed footnotes – ideal for students * Also includes Gustave Doré’s celebrated illustrations of THE DIVINE COMEDY – over a hundred stunning images * Easily locate the cantos you want to read with detailed contents tables * Includes Dante’s complete works in Italian – ideal for students exploring the original texts * Features a bonus biography - discover Dante's literary life * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres CONTENTS: The Poetry Collections THE NEW LIFE THE DIVINE COMEDY (VERSE) THE DIVINE COMEDY (PROSE) The Italian Texts LIST OF WORKS The Biography DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK BY ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER