1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910461269603321

Autore

Sanders Charles J (Charles Jeffrey), <1958->

Titolo

The Boys of Winter : Life and Death in the U.S. Ski Troops During the Second World War / / Charles J. Sanders

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Boulder : , : University Press of Colorado, , 2005

©2005

ISBN

1-60732-044-4

1-4571-1054-7

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (547 p.)

Disciplina

940.54/451/092273

B

Soggetti

Soldiers

Regimental histories

Mountain warfare

Military campaigns

Armed Forces - Ski troops

World War, 1939-1945 - Mountain warfare

Soldiers - United States

World War, 1939-1945 - Regimental histories - United States

World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Italy

Biographies.

History

Nonfiction

Electronic books.

United States

Italy

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-242) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Foreword / by John B. Woodward -- The hero of the thunderbolt (Rudy Konieczny) -- The Pied Piper of Pine Lake (Jake Nunnemacher) -- The Sun Valley serenader (Ralph Bromaghin) -- The time of their lives -- Rocky Mountain highs -- From Alaska to Austin -- General Clark and



the war in Italy -- Good-byes -- Into the Maelstrom -- The ridges that could not be taken -- The brutal road to Castle d'Aiano -- Rest and recuperation -- The bloodbath of spring -- Bad times -- Pursuit to the Alps -- Home -- Legacy.

Sommario/riassunto

"Drawing on dozens of interviews and extensive historical research, Charles J. Sanders reveals the stories of these young men. Sanders traces their journeys from childhood to ski championships and from training at Mount Rainier and in the Colorado Rockies to bloody battles against the Nazis in the Apennine Mountains of Northern Italy." "Ultimately, The Boys of Winter is the story of how some of America's best and brightest died in the war's last and most desperate battles under General Mark Clark, calling into question the necessity of their sacrifices - and those of thousands of other troops - on the "forgotten" Italian front in the spring of 1945"--Jacket.

"The Boys of Winter is the true story of three young Depression-era American ski champions and their brutal, heroic, and ultimately tragic transformation from athletes to infantrymen with the fabled Tenth Mountain Division. Rudy Konieczny, Jacob Nunnemacher, and Ralph Bromaghin - three skiers from disparate geographic and economic backgrounds - forged names for themselves in the burgeoning sport of snow skiing during the late 1930s. With the world suddenly at war, they found themselves drawn together with several of the world's greatest winter athletes in the U.S. Tenth Mountain Division at Camp Hale, Colorado, where they trained to fight Hitler's troops in the mountains of Europe."