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Summary
Summary
When World War II broke out in Europe, the American army had no specialized division of mountain soldiers. But in the winter of 193940, after a tiny band of Finnish mountain troops brought the invading Soviet army to its knees, an amateur skier named Charles Minot "Minnie" Dole convinced the United States Army to let him recruit an extraordinary assortment of European expatriates, wealthy ski bums, mountaineers, and thrill-seekers and form them into a unique band of Alpine soldiers. These men endured nearly three years of grueling training in the Colorado Rockies and in the process set new standards for both soldiering and mountaineering. The newly forged 10th Mountain Division finally faced combat in the winter of 1945, in Italy's Apennine Mountains, against the seemingly unbreakable German fortifications north of the Gothic Line. There, they planned and executed what is still regarded as the most daring series of nighttime mountain attacks in U.S. military history, taking Mount Belvedere and the sheer, treacherous face of Riva Ridge to smash the linchpin of the German army's lines. Drawing on unique cooperation from veterans of the 10th Mountain Division and a vast archive of unpublished letters and documents, The Last Ridge is written with enormous warmth, energy, and honesty. This is one of the most captivating stories of World War II, a blend of Band of Brothers and Into Thin Air. It is a story of young men asked to do the impossible, and succeeding.
Author Notes
McKay Jenkins is a former staff writer for "The Atlanta Constitution". His articles have appeared in "Outside", "Outdoor Explorer", & "Orion". He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Researched thoroughly, written clearly and dramatized with aplomb, this presentation of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division's WWII exploits increases our knowledge of the war's Italian theater-and of the postwar American outdoor recreation industry. Jenkins, an English professor and historian of the conservation movement, is the author of The White Death, a similarly well-written book on avalanche rescue. He shows that the division spent most of the war in the United States, in Washington State, Colorado and Texas, recruiting an astonishing variety of people, from IBM executives and cowboys to European outdoorsmen exiled from several Nazi-occupied countries. Their early days of ski training resembled a gigantic Keystone Kops routine in the snow, but left them exceptionally fit and with high morale. In fact, the division was fully trained by 1943 and could have been invaluable at Cassino, but saw combat only at the end of 1944, clearing the Germans off a key position in the Apennine Mountains, and doing so without its mountain gear, all left in warehouses in New Jersey. Between then and the end of the war, the division suffered nearly 5,000 casualties (including Bob Dole, who became the Kansas senator) and did a full share and more of driving the Germans out of Italy. Afterward, its veterans founded the Aspen and Vail resorts, among other cornerstones of the new West, and worked extensively in conservation. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Engaging biography of one of the US Army's most celebrated WWII units. But does the 10th Mountain Division deserve its renown? Jenkins (English & Journalism/Univ. of Delaware; The White Death, 2000) has no intention of diminishing the accomplishments of the 10th, a unit dissolved in 1945 but then reconstituted in the '70s for action in places such as Somalia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. Still, he wonders why "so many civilians with no particular interest in military history seem to know the division's story," a story that involves only limited (if certainly bloody) action in Italy in the winter of 1944-45. Chalk it up, he suggests, to a couple of joined facts: the 10th Mountain Division's veterans went on to found or operate nearly every major ski run in the country, becoming famed among ski enthusiasts in the bargain; and more than a few of them--including Sierra Club director Edward Brower--in the unit went on to write memoirs of their time in battle, giving the 10th publicity out of all proportion. Jenkins traces the 10th's origins to a handful of ski bums who had trouble convincing the military brass that a specialized unit trained in the rigors of mountain warfare could be of much advantage in Europe's difficult terrain; so uninterested was the Pentagon, in fact, that National Ski Patrol head Minnie Dole came to seem like a Revolutionary War patriot "offering to round up the farmers and teach them to use their squirrel guns to fight the British." When junior officers including Mark Clark convinced the War Department that the worst that could happen was that the army would add another division, the brass gave the go-ahead, only to keep the unit in training for most of the war. Brought into action against nearly impregnable German defenses in the mountains of northern Italy, the 10th quickly destroyed the foe, doing just what it was designed to do. Yet it was just as quickly deactivated--a better fate, Dole reckoned, than seeing the 10th "become purely another division of flatland character." A fine account, for WWII and outdoor adventure buffs alike. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The 10th Mountain Division of World War II has a Denver archive (the brainchild of winter sports enthusiasts) that the author has productively combed for this complete history of the unit. It is a bloody one, for the unit suffered a 30 percent casualty rate, and Jenkins' direct descriptions of combat leave no room for euphemisms: when Robert Dole is hit, Jenkins does not soften the scene of the future politician's grievous wounding. The 10th's carnage occurred in the war's final months in northern Italy, where it had been sent following some two years of training in Colorado. During that time, Jenkins relates, the 10th acquired a glamorous reputation as it awaited an assignment worthy of its high-altitude skills. To recapture life in the 10th, Jenkins relies heavily on a clutch of soldiers given to expressive letter writing and oral histories, while he mines memoirs of generals for the strategic deadlock the 10th was ordered to break, and did. The 10th is famous among WWII readers, so interest in Jenkins' competent composition elevates accordingly. --Gilbert Taylor Copyright 2003 Booklist
Library Journal Review
With World War II looming in Europe, the U.S. Army had no troops trained for mountain operations and none of the specialized equipment that the European armies had developed. Late in 1941, a mountain climber named Minnie Dole persuaded the War Department to let him recruit skilled mountaineers and skiers from American society and the European expatriates community. They trained for two years in Colorado, honing mountaineering skills and identifying mat?riel needs, before the division was first used in the recapture of Kiska, an Aleutian island occupied by the Japanese. In 1944, the division fought in Italy's Apennine Mountains, helping to break the Germans' Gothic Line. Although the army quartermasters had left all the mountain equipment in the States, the division was successful, and after some grueling battles it became part of the force that liberated northern Italy. Jenkins's (The White Death) popular history is largely composed from diaries and recollections and concentrates on the personal experiences of the soldiers. Recommended for subject collections.-Edwin B. Burgess, Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
