The Last Battle
- Author Stephen Harding
- Narrator Joe Barrett
- Publisher Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date 30 August 2013
- Run Time 7 hours and 11 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre General and world history, History, Military history, Second World War.
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What to expect
May 1945. Hitler is dead, and the Third Reich is little more than smoking rubble. No GI wants to be the last man killed in action against the Nazis. But for cigar-chewing, rough-talking, hard-drinking, hard-charging Captain Jack Lee and his men, there is one more mission: rescue fourteen prominent French prisoners held in an SS-guarded castle high in the Austrian Alps. It's a dangerous mission, but Lee has help from a decorated German Wehrmacht officer and his men, who voluntarily join the fight.
Based on personal memoirs, author interviews, and official American, German, and French histories, The Last Battle is the nearly unbelievable story of the most improbable battle of World War II—a tale of unlikely allies, bravery, cowardice, and desperate combat between implacable enemies.
Critics Review
“A tale as compelling as it is unlikely. The
Last Battle demonstrates that truth can indeed be stranger than
fiction, particularly in war. Well-researched and well-told.”
“Stephen Harding has a laser-beam instinct for
the detail that tells the story, he’s a fine writer, and, most important, knows
a good story when he sees one. All the above is true of The Last Battle,
one of the more remarkable battles in a truly vast war, now very nicely
illuminated.”
“A little-known but fascinating story brought
brilliantly to life.”
“At the heart of The Last Battle is a largely unknown story that (a) seems
implausible, (b) would make a great movie, and (c) reminds us that almost
seventy years after the end of World War II there are countless tales still to
be told…Harding’s skills as a researcher and dedicated historian are
apparent…A moment-by-moment real-time report of the events from the
viewpoints of the Americans and prisoners…Page-turning…Harding has brought the
implausible story to life.”
“The most extraordinary things about Stephen Harding’s The
Last Battle, a truly incredible tale of World War II, are that it hasn’t
been told before in English, and that it hasn’t already been made into a
blockbuster Hollywood movie…Steven Spielberg, how did you miss this story?…Harding
is a respected military affairs expert…and his writing style carries immediacy
as well as authority…Everything that Harding reports in this exciting but also
historically accurate narrative is backed up with meticulous scholarship. This
book proves that history can be new and nail-bitingly exciting all at
once…While the book concentrates on the fight for Castle Itter, it also sets
that battle in the wider strategic contexts…This book is thus a fascinating
microcosm of a nation and society in collapse…Part Where Eagles Dare,
part Guns of Navarone, this story is as exciting as it is far-fetched,
but unlike in those iconic war movies, every word of The Last Battle is
true.”
“Well done and eminently readable.”
“I love untold stories from World War II, and
this is a great one. Brilliantly told, meticulously researched, and filled with
larger-than-life heroes and villains. The Last Battle is such
a compelling read, I couldn’t put it down.”
“The Last Battle combines good
history and good storytelling. Harding writes with the skill and grace of a
novelist but also the authority of a historian who has done some rather
remarkable research into a previously lost chapter from World War II’s final
days. I had trouble putting this book down, and I think you will, too.”
“The Nazis capture two former prime ministers of
France (who detest each other) and lock them in a medieval castle in Austria. A
handful of intrepid American soldiers sets out to rescue them. And then…well,
you’ll have to read The Last Battle to find out what happened.
It’s going to make a fantastic action movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger, call your
agent!”
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