The Final Crisis: Combat in Northern Alsace, January 1945 [Paperback]

Richard E. Engler (Author), Theodore MacKechnie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1999

A multi-faceted book built around an intensely personal and vivid memoir of infantry combat in the last brutal winter of WWII. The author combines these carefully-verified recollections with an insightful description and analysis of the social dynamics within an incompletely-trained infantry platoon thrown into combat unexpectedly and prematurely in the face of Operation NORDWIND, the last German offensive on the Western Front in WWII. Framed by a comprehensive and detailed account of the US Seventh Army's tenacious struggle to halt a combined German force including Tiger tanks, Luftwaffe paratroopers, previously-undefeated SS mountain infantry, and the last of Germany's manpower reserves, The Final Crisis provides credit to the American infantrymen and tankers who halted the last threat to the Western Alliance. Long overshadowed by the Ardennes Offensive, the so-called "Battle of the Bulge," which barely preceded it, the struggle to halt the NORDWIND offensive comes to life at every level from foxhole to field army.

8.5" x 11" format; 25 original maps; 20 original pen and ink drawings, rendered by Colonel (then-Lieutenant) Ted MacKechnie, 42d Infantry Division, WWII; index

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Excellent editing and a broad purpose make this book a model for memoirs." -- The Journal of Military History, January 2000

"Most informative insights into an unjustly little-known chapter of the Second World War." -- Steel Masters magazine, November/December 2004

"Superbly researched and well written...a clear sense [emerges] of...just how effectively [the American soldier] generally performed in combat." -- Military Heritage magazine, October 2000

From the Publisher

The Final Crisis is the most comprehensive and complete tactical account of Operation NORDWIND yet published. The parts played by the following units are covered in significant detail.

German Divisions

21st Panzer Division 10th SS-Panzer Division "Frundsberg" 17th SS-Panzer Grenadier Division "Götz von Berlichingen" 25th Panzer Grenadier Division 6th SS-Mountain Division NORD 7th Parachute Division 19th Volks-Grenadier Division 36th Volks-Grenadier Division 47th Volks-Grenadier Division 256th Volks-Grenadier Division 257rd Volks-Grenadier Division 361st Volks-Grenadier Division 553rd Volks-Grenadier Division 559th Volks-Grenadier Division

US Army Divisions

12th Armored Division 14th Armored Division 36th Infantry Division 42nd Infantry Division (Task Force Linden) 44th Infantry Division 45th Infantry Division 63rd Infantry Division (Task Force Harris) 70th Infantry Division (Task Force Herren) 79th Infantry Division

100th Infantry Division 103rd Infantry Division

Free French Army

2nd Armored Division

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: The Aberjona Press (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966638913
• ISBN-13: 978-0966638912
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #982,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, compelling...a must have!, September 3, 2004

By 

James V. Holton "The Ecclectic Professor" (Lakeland, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Final Crisis: Combat in Northern Alsace, January 1945 (Paperback)

One of the best memoirs/battle accounts of any book on WWII. Meticulously researched, compellingly told, it will satisfy both the avid WWII reader and the scholar. Engler includes plenty of footnotes at the end of each chapter which demonstrates an unparalled research effort, one done with most care and then crafted into a wonderful narrative.

This little-known but critical battle finally gets its due. Engler masterfully recounts the infantryman's-eye view of battle, all the while integrating the street-to-street and house-to-house fighting into the larger context of the American effort in WWII in 1944-1945. Engler elaborates on the condition of the American Army post-Normandy breakout. Everyone expected the war to be in its final stages. But behind the "greatest generation" was a desperate effort to keep America motivated, and an even more desperate effort to scrape whatever barrels remained of soldier manpower. Engler's research convincingly demonstrates the faults of America's technology over manpower approach which stacked logistics and the machine arms while shortchanging the infantry. It is a conclusion in short supply, but one that sheds light on the battle and the war.

The only minor quibble is that the book is physically too large--the pages are 8.5 x 11, and the text can be hard on the eyes. But that is not enough to detract even 1/2 of a star from its top rating.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doom Awaits Tomorrow in Alsace, December 7, 2003

By 

Steven C. Myers (Bedford , PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Final Crisis: Combat in Northern Alsace, January 1945 (Paperback)

The late Dick Engler's The Final Crisis is an essential read.
A first-in-print, moving account of major force engagements late in the WWII European Theater, this work recounts savage West Front fighting long overshadowed by the larger fabric of final war months.
In winter 1945, what must be assessed as the last of some of the most powerful engagements, Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and Waffen-SS units locked horns with Allied forces in the varied terrain of Lower Alsace in eastern France -- from the Vosges Mountains to the river plain of the Rhine -- and, ultimately, lost the initiative.
The Gemman "Operation Nordwind" intended to cut through combined Allied-French lines that had been overextended to support the Battle of the Bulge.
Crack SS Panzer units "Frundsberg," Goetz von Berlichingen," 21st and 25th Panzergrenadier divisions, and the SS 6th "Mountain Division 'Nord'" as well as Luftwaffe airborne and German Army ground forces and Volksgrenadier units worked in company to join battle. Ensuing combat was sustained and bloody. Soldiers of the US Seventh Army absorbed horrific enemy blows but held their ground, ultimately blunting the German attack.
The author who participated in the fight, shows detailed research and understanding of this part of the war in Europe. He did extensive research at the National Archives and at the US Military History Institute. Mr. Engler's understanding of this often overlooked part of WWII translates into a stunning account that is worthy of historians' high praise.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivid picture of war at the front and at hone, February 14, 2004

By 

Benjamin R. Myers (Columbia, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Final Crisis: Combat in Northern Alsace, January 1945 (Paperback)

The best aspect of "The Final Crisis", apart from its detailed and powerful memior of combat, is Richard Engler's inclusion of descriptions of the U.S. home front as Army infantrymen pass through training and the voyage to Europe to reach the battefield.

Engler descibes the process and circumstances by which many young men who had joined up expecting to take slots in Army aviation or officers' programs, instead found themselves issued rifles and sent into the forests and mountains of the Rhineland. Although Americans generally wanted to be leaders in the war effort and not rank-and-file soldiers, the brutal reality of battle losses swept away many well-laid personal "war plans".