Fonthill Media Ltd

Refitted and reorganized after the Normandy campaign, the 12.SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend’ participated in the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944. Tasked with covering the right flank of the offensive, the division fought hard, facing unexpectedly tough opposition from US forces. Despite repeated efforts and heavy losses, it never came close to a breakthrough. By the end of January 1945, when American reinforcements surged the front, the division had been pushed back to its starting positions. Next, in early March, the division took part in Operation Frühlingserwachen on the Eastern Front, an attempt to recapture the Hungarian oilfields. After initial success the advance was ground to a halt by increasing Soviet resistance. On 16 March the Soviets counterattacked, threatening to encircle the German forces. The 12.SS was involved in desperate rearguard fighting until driven into full-scale retreat towards Vienna. On 8 May 1945 its 10,000 survivors surrendered to the US forces. Proud and defiant to the bitter end, they refused to raise white flags, ignoring orders to the contrary, and marched into captivity in perfect formation as if on parade, with their vehicles bearing their national flags.

In the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, Prince Andrew of Greece was given command of the 2nd Army Corps during the Battle of the Sakarya. He was commanded to lead his troops in attacking the Turkish positions, but to the consternation of his commanding general, Anastasios Papoulas, he elected to follow his own battle plan. Following three weeks of bitter fighting, Papoulas ordered a retreat, placing the blame directly on Prince Andrew. The final defeat of the Greek army in Asia Minor came in August 1922 and precipitated the 11 September 1922 Revolution in Athens, which led to Prince Andrew’s lifelong banishment from his homeland. Towards Disaster is Prince Andrew’s own account of the campaign in Asia Minor in which he defends his actions during the Battle of the Sakarya, a hopeless contest in his estimation, during which he was intent on avoiding needless loss of life.

The atom bombs dropped on Japan at the end of the Second World War opened the door to the nuclear age. Seeing the potential for developing nuclear energy for the US Navy, Capt. Hyman Rickover initiated a research program that culminated in the launch of USS Nautilus, the world''s first nuclear-powered submarine. Meanwhile, ballistic missile technology was developing fast, but still relied on complex liquid fuels. The US Navy partnered with the army to develop a ballistic missile for both services, but withdrew when solid fuels became a practical proposition. Under the leadership of RADM William Raborn, the US Navy set up its own project: the Polaris weapon system. In 1960, the first missile-armed nuclear-powered submarine (SSBN) left on patrol, with forty more to follow in subsequent years. Two years later, when Britain''s Blue Streak and Skybolt plans were canceled, Harold Macmillan and John F. Kennedy agreed for Polaris to be supplied to the Royal Navy.

This book is not another battle chronicle. It is an examination of how the motivations of individual soldiers to fight and win can make the difference in battle, especially in the face of overwhelming odds. In December 1944, the American 28th Infantry Division occupied an 85-mile front extending along Germany''s borders with Belgium and Luxembourg. There they repelled a desperate attempt by Hitler to drive a wedge through the Allied lines to the port of Antwerp, which he believed would buy his scientists the time they needed to complete development of the super weapons forecast to turn the tide of the war. This book explores the first-hand accounts of men of the 28th Infantry Division, who, with extraordinary tenacity, held the line through December 1944 and January 1945, and the chaplains who attended their religious needs. It assesses the efforts of the U.S. government to inspire its soldiers to fight for the American way of life, and how these efforts filtered onto the battlefield, shaping the resolve of the men asked, if necessary, to make the ultimate sacrifice.