Stand of the Thunderbirds: 180th Infantry Regiment and the Battle of Frmifontai [Hardcover]

Michael Reyka tells a painstakingly accurate and visceral portrayal of World War II American infantry in the dense forest of the Vosges region of France as the still formidable German Army fights desperately to defend the frontiers of the Reich. Meticulously researched, the author walks the battlefield to discover his fathers experience and tells the story of courage under fire and the physical and psychological burden endured by soldiers of the U.S. Army in close combat.  Albert F. Lord Jr., U.S. Army War CollegeIn the first week of October 1944, in the dense forests of the Vosges Mountains, 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, teetered on the brink of total annihilation. German troops and tanks surrounded all three of its rifle companies, along with their H Company heavy weapons attachments. Supply routes and communication lines had been severed by intense artillery and tank shelling. Faced with the probability of impending death or capture, the battalion confronted this formidable attack with determination and courage, embodying the motto of the 45th DivisionAlways Forward!The majority of an entire infantry company, along with its heavy weapons attachments, was captured in that forest. The remaining two battalion companies, E and G, lost more than half of their men in hand-to-hand combat after exhausting their ammunition. After fighting throughout the day and night they attempted to fight back through to their own lines through the dark woods, encountering enemy strongpoints and firefights in the darkness, only to find enemy troops using 180ths foxholes.Nearly 50% of the battle casualties among all American troops in France in October 1944 were sustained by the divisions pushing north through the small French villages nestled in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. One of them was Steve C. Reyka, who served as an H Company heavy machine gunner. He had been with 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, since Italy. With the other survivors of the battlel£9