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The Longest Winter
The Longest Winter
Oct 27, 2024 2:28 AM

Author:Alex Kershaw

The Longest Winter

A cold winter morning in the Ardennes Forest, 1944, and Hitler launches his last and most audacious attack on the unprepared Allies. Standing between the German forces and the desperately regrouping Allies were just eighteen young Americans, hidden in fox holes.

In a fierce day-long battle, this small band of soldiers repulsed the German attack three times, inflicting severe casualties and defending a strategically vital hill despite being vastly outnumbered. They surrendered only when they ran out of ammunition. But then the real battle for survival began ...

Alex Kershaw's brilliant account draws on the words of the decorated men who fought this heroic action, bringing vividly to life their struggle on the battlefield and later off it - as POWs.

Reviews

Kershaw digs deep into the folk memories of the young men who survived virtually impossible odds, blending their accounts seamlessly into the harrowing narrative of battle. His journalistic approach is brilliantly complemented by his intimate, sharp, plain prose

—— Herald

‘Gripping … The hour-by-hour account is packed with fascinating and often poignant vignettes'

—— Daily Express, 5 stars

Kershaw writes well and makes sense of the battle ... a clear and straightforward military view.

—— Literary Review

Shows us the battle at its grittiest and bloodiest, but through it all manages to maintain a grip on the bigger picture.

—— Scotsman

So where does this leave Robert Kershaw’s 24 Hours at Waterloo? Very simply, in a class of its own ... brings the events to life with judiciously chosen first-hand accounts ... there could be no better companion to the battlefield than Kershaw’s.

—— Spectator

Chomsky's work is neither theoretical, nor ideological: it is passionate and righteous

—— Times Literary Supplement

Engaging writing and excellent presentation . . . a tricky yet well-crafted analysis, which adds to the revisionist school of thought with some edgy arguments, this is sure to get you thinking.

—— BRITAIN AT WAR magazine

An insightful study of generalship on both sides.

—— DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Books of the Year'

A tremendously well-written and important book and a testament to the qualities Camus lent La Peste's hero: 'humane, optimistic, tolerant, free-thinking, ever alive to injustice and acts of inhumanity'

—— Rebecca K Morris , Independent

Caroline Moorehead’s remarkable book is in essence the story of how a community, or rather group of communities, survived the travails of war with dignity. It is also a tale that gives a larger meaning to Hemingway’s macho phrase, 'grace under pressure'… Moorehead is wary of attempts to simplify history and ignore the complications of memory… What, as the last memories dim, was the truth? Moorehead’s question is implicit: is there such a thing? The reader is left with another question, equally difficult: 'what would I have done?’

—— Ian Bell , The Herald

Powerful and ultimately uplifting book … a far more nuanced account of courage - in which some Catholics did indeed help, and the links with neutral Switzerland were occasionally helpful - than previously recounted about Le Chambon

—— Anne Sebba , Jewish Chronicle

Fascinating and heartening story… Thorough, objective and readable… captivating

—— Roger Hutchinson , Scotsman

Elegant style

—— Richard Vinen , Evening Standard

Brilliantly captures the actions of an astonishing, taciturn wartime community

—— Dermot Bulger , Sunday Business Post

A story of courage and determination, of heroic individuals…and of what can be done when people come together to oppose tyranny

—— Sunday Telegraph

A unique story of courage and determination

—— Daily Telegraph

Elegant style

—— WOW247

Moorehead’s account makes for frequently moving and, at times, harrowing reading… Fascinating

—— Hanna Diamond , BBC History Magazine

[Moorehead is a] brilliant investigative journalist

—— Country Life

A work of remembrance and a moving tribute

—— Iain Finlayson , Saga Magazine

Moorehead skillfully intersperses layer after layer of historical fact with narratives of deeply human stories

—— Henriette Wentink , Reform Magazine

A moving piece, splendidly told

—— Lucy Beckett , Tablet

It’s an inspiring story

—— Peter Lewis , Daily Mail

Moorehead does an expert job in pulling together testimonies from survivors to filter myths and memories from fact to retell an extraordinary tale

—— Julia Richardson , Daily Mail

Story of courage and determination, of a small number of heroic individuals who risked their lives to save others, and of what can be done when people come together to oppose tyranny

—— Miss Dinky

Village of Secrets is crammed full of stories from survivors, tales of courage, betrayal, failure, success, hope, despair. It is a helter-skelter ride through the most extreme of human experiences

—— Susannah Perkins , Nudge
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