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

by Orfalea, Gregory

• ISBN13: 9780684871097
• ISBN10: 0684871092
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Touchstone

Summary

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? Within hours of the 551st victory at Rochelinval, the last German Tiger tank had run out of fuel, Hitler's last chilling counteroffensive of the war was over, and the German Army was in full and final retreat. But Messengers of the Lost Battalion is more than an engaging history and powerful war story; it is also a moving tale about a son's search for his father - a soldier who delivered the messages of the battalion by motorbike.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
The Old Men Return: Europe, August 1989	p. 1
Band of outsiders	p. 1
"And there is it--my tree!"	p. 5
"Always the farthest one back"	p. 7
A lonely hutch	p. 9
Peace in Nice	p. 15
We are what we remember	p. 17
Getting my orders down deep	p. 19
Hello, Earth!: Training to be Airborne	p. 21
Contact	p. 21
A family steeped in war	p. 24
Geronimo!	p. 29
The Frying Pan	p. 39
Panama: the First (Secret) Mission	p. 45
Freaks of nature	p. 45
The Panama City riot	p. 56
Spotlight's rebellion	p. 59
A shadow-box of lepers	p. 62
Martinique	p. 64
Foreboding: the Night Jump Drownings at Mackall	p. 68
The pups' death	p. 68
The glider jumps	p. 72
Joerg departs	p. 78
"You're all rabble!"	p. 80
"His legs were tangled in tree stumps"	p. 88
The spared	p. 98
The secret inquest	p. 100
My father's hollow egg	p. 105
War at Last: Operation Dragoon into Southern France	p. 108
GOYA! GOYA! GOYA!	p. 108
"All of us are going to get it"	p. 113
Rome	p. 125
The last communion before the invasion	p. 133
"Jacques, there are three Americans by the pond"	p. 136
The capture of Draguignan	p. 148
First to Nice	p. 156
Holding the Crags: Ski Patrol in the Maritime Alps	p. 169
Shellings on the border	p. 169
My father the messenger	p. 176
Cards and nerves	p. 184
To Laon	p. 189
Speartip: at the Battle of the Bulge	p. 197
Huempfner's one-man war	p. 197
A bloody shirt	p. 207
Hitler rolls the dice	p. 208
The GOYAs face the 1st SS Panzers	p. 215
Christmas at Ster	p. 229
"He's fixing to sacrifice us"	p. 235
Night raid on Noirefontaine	p. 246
The counteroffensive hatched	p. 253
January 3, 1945	p. 261
January 4: The bayonet attack	p. 274
January 5: Russians in Belgium	p. 282
January 6: The fateful call	p. 289
Tall Snow: Death at Rochelinval	p. 299
"A large spark flashed on his helmet"	p. 299
The infant	p. 316
The disbandment	p. 320
No records, no honors	p. 331
To the end of the line unknown	p. 334
Home	p. 350
Abyss of peace	p. 350
A GOYA in 'Nam	p. 355
The unspeakable	p. 361
A happy death	p. 368
Epilogue	p. 369
Veterans of the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion Interviewed	p. 373
Notes	p. 375
Selected Bibliography	p. 395
Index	p. 399
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