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The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors by [Maurice Isserman]

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Maurice Isserman

The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors Kindle Edition

by Maurice Isserman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL SKIING HISTORY ASSOCIATION'S ULLR AWARD | “Compelling and readable . . . I had serious trouble putting this book down.”—John C. McManus, author of Fire and Fortitude and The Dead and Those About to Die

The epic story of the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division, whose elite soldiers broke the last line of German defenses in Italy’s mountains in 1945, spearheading the Allied advance to the Alps and final victory

At the start of World War II, the US Army had two cavalry divisions—and no mountain troops. The German Wehrmacht, in contrast, had many well-trained and battle-hardened mountain divisions, some of whom, by 1943, had blocked the Allied advance in the Italian campaign. Starting from scratch, the US Army developed a unique military fighting force, the 10th Mountain Division, drawn from the ranks of civilian skiers, mountaineers, and others with outdoor experience. The resulting mix of Ivy League students, park rangers, Olympic skiers, and European refugees formed the first specialized alpine fighting force in US history. By the time they deployed to Italy at the beginning of 1945, this ragtag group had coalesced into a tight-knit unit. In the months that followed, at a terrible cost, they spearheaded the Allied drive in Italy to final victory.

Ranging from the ski slopes of Colorado to the towering cliffs of the Italian Alps, The Winter Army is a saga of an unlikely band of soldiers forged in the heat of combat into a brotherhood whose legacy lives on in American mountain fighters to this day.

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354 pages
Language

English
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Mariner Books
Publication date

November 5, 2019
File size

19921 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Winner of the International Skiing History Association’s Ullr Award

"Captivating . . . It is good to have the stories of these men between hard covers, for their heroics occurred three-quarters of a century ago and are in danger of disappearing.”
—Wall Street Journal

“From the frozen spine of the Colorado Rockies to the icy steeps of Riva Ridge in Italy, Maurice Isserman skillfully tracks the birth of the 10th Mountain Division and its harrowing World War II battles. The Winter Army is a fitting tribute to the high-altitude soldiers who fought with more courage than oxygen.”
—Mark Obmascik, author of The Storm on Our Shores

“Compelling and readable, this is how a unit history should be written. Isserman has shed long overdue light on the remarkable 10th Mountain Division, an elite unit full of fascinating personalities, many of whom almost seem like characters from a fast-paced adventure novel. I had serious trouble putting this book down.”
—John C. McManus, author of Fire and Fortitude and The Dead and Those About to Die

“You won’t find any US Army division history better than this one. Maurice Isserman’s superbly crafted account of this wild and completely unique military organization is gripping, masterful, and moving. A must-read for anyone with even the slightest interest in military history.”
—Flint Whitlock, coauther of Soldiers on Skis

“As the son of a 10th Mountain trooper, I consider The Winter Army essential reading for anyone interested in this fascinating history. With great attention to detail and depth of research, Maurice Isserman brings a new, more personal perspective to the story of the division during World War II, allowing me to get to know, as young men, the veterans I’ve known for many years.”
—Stephen Coffey, immediate past president, 10th Mountain Division Descendants, Inc.

“A solid military history focused on an elite division that made its mark in the final stages of World War II.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Drawing from letters sent by 10th Mountain Division soldiers to family and friends back home, Isserman provides frontline views of such famous battles as Riva Ridge and Mt. Belvedere, and relates how the unit’s veterans took part in the postwar rise of the American ski industry. The result is an entertaining, well-sourced blend of military and sports history.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Isserman has created a fascinating study of this branch of specialized American soldiers during World War II, a bit of military history that will be of interest to World War II buffs and readers who have been on the slopes or gazed in wonder at mountains’ majesty.”
—Booklist

“A masterwork . . . the work of a master craftsman.”
—Vail Daily

“Maurice Isserman masterfully lets us listen in as the original mountain soldiers tell their stories of acting as America’s elite alpine troops. His well-researched reliance on firsthand accounts adds a much-needed new chapter to the rich history of the famed 10th Mountain Division . . . The combat-tested veteran, the military historian or the interested casual reader can enjoy this book . . . The Winter Army also serves as reminder to our nation and our Army that we must constantly prepare for war, and in doing so, seek and welcome the perspectives of those outside the military and security community . . . These are stories that must continue to be told and men that America should never forget.”
—Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, former commander of the US Army 10th Mountain Division, Army Magazine

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

MAURICE ISSERMAN, PhD, is the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History at Hamilton College, where he teaches US history, including the history of mountaineering. A former Fulbright grant winner, his prize-winning books include Fallen Giants (co-authored with Stewart Weaver), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the Banff Mountain Book Festival prize for best mountaineering history, the National Outdoor Book Award for best history, and the Andrew Eiseman Writers Award; The Other America, recipient of a Choice magazine Outstanding Academic Book Award; and Cronkite’s War (co-authored with Walter Cronkite IV). He has written for the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor,Newsday, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the American Historical Review,as well as for numerous academic journals and contributed volumes. He lives in Clinton, New York. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07LC8Q4KD
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Reprint edition (November 5, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 5, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 19921 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 354 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #433,300 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #176 in History of Italy
- #557 in History of Germany
- #731 in Italian History (Books)

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Sydney Williams

An elite corps that trained hard and fought valiantly in Italy's Northern Apennines in WWII.

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2019

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Sydney M. Williams

“The Winter Army” by Maurice Isserman
November 7, 2019

“General Hays…his division had been my most dangerous opponent.”
General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin
Commander, German IV Panzer Corps
May 3, 1945
As quoted in The Winter Army

The quote above from German General von Senger und Etterlin, in referring to General George P. Hays, commander of the 10th Mountain Division, tells of the Division’s fighting spirit and capabilities. The German General was an experienced officer. He had fought in the Battle for France in 1940 and had led troops in the battle for Monte Casino during the winter and spring of 1944. His respect for the men of the 10th Mountain Division speaks volumes.

In preparation for my book "Dear Mary," I read more than a dozen histories of the 10th Mountain Division, including the wartime, day-by-day story of the 87th (my father’s Regiment) compiled by Captain George Earle and published in October 1945. Apart from the details available in Captain Earle’s book, The Winter Army by Maurice Isserman is the best book I have read about this elite mountain group. He takes the reader from the genesis of the 10th, when four men including C. Minot (Minnie) Dole talked of the need for ski troops over drinks before a roaring fire at Manchester, Vermont’s Orvis Inn in February 1940, to War’s end in Italy on May 2, 1945, with the victorious 10th Mountain Division on the shores of Lake Garda.

Professor Isserman writes of how the idea of a “Ski Troops” was born out of the Finnish resistance to the Soviet invasion of their country during the winter of 1939-1940. He tells of how it was Minnie Dole’s energy and persistence that convinced General George Marshall to support the idea, and of how the first troops trained at Fort Lewis in Washington and on nearby Mount Rainier. In early 1943 they moved to the newly constructed Camp Hale in the Colorado Rockies. The Army Post sat at 9,200 feet, surrounded by several 14,000-foot peaks. While the mountains and altitude were perfect for training mountain troops, conditions were awful because the valley trapped coal smoke, from the three engines required to bring men and supplies up from Denver and from the coal stoves used to heat the barracks. Nevertheless, they persevered. He writes of their training and of the disastrous (and unnecessary) invasion of Kiska in early June 1943, an island in the Aleutians, which had been occupied and then abandoned by the Japanese.

We learn that a year later, in early summer 1944, the Ski Troops, now re-christened the 10th Mountain Division, was moved to Camp Swift in Texas in preparation for overseas deployment. (It was in Texas where my father joined the 10th.) In December and January, on two ships, the three regiments sailed from Fort Patrick Henry in Newport News, Virginia to Naples, Italy. From there they went up the coast to Livorno and then east to Pistoia and then north into the Northern Apennines, where on February 18 and 19 they attacked, first Riva Ridge and then Mount Belvedere. Maurice Isserman writes that after the battle “Belvedere was a mountain of death, littered with the bodies of American and German fighters.”

Isserman makes use of letters, diaries and newspapers, including the “Blizzard,” the newspaper of the 10th. But it is diaries and letters that are most revealing. Following the attack on Belvedere, he quotes from Private Robert Ellis’ diary: “…Counterattack surrounded us. Prayed in my foxhole and read my Bible. Shrapnel dropped on my stomach. Can’t take it any longer.” While letters were subject to censorship, there is poignancy in some of them. In a letter home, three days after the Germans surrender, Wallace Arnheiter, of the 85th Regiment, is quoted: “We are all just coming out of the fog now – for the last month we’ve been ‘sweating it out’ – just praying it would end before the law of averages caught up with us. So many of my buddies died and so many more were hurt…You wonder why God let you walk through all that hell, and come out unscratched, and took so many finer, better men.” In all, over 900 men from the 10th were killed and over 4,000 wounded during the two and a half months the Division was in combat.

Much of the fighting and most of the casualties occurred during the spring offensive that began in mid-April 1945, when the outcome of the War was no longer in doubt – the Soviets had crossed the Oder by the end of January and the Americans and British had crossed the Rhine by the end of March. Professor Isserman notes the motto of the 10th, Sempre Avanti, and wonders, “…had the time arrived in Italy when always forward ceased to make sense?” The question is rhetorical, but one asked by those whose loved ones died in the waning weeks of the war. However, it is impossible, from a perspective of seventy-five years, to place ourselves in the position of those then in command. They did not have the benefit we have of knowing their future.

Isserman concludes his story by telling the reader of how wartime skills were used to create a civilian pastime – recreational skiing. Veterans of the 10th could be found in years afterwards on ski slopes in Colorado, the Cascades, the Sierras and in the Green and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, transforming the sport of skiing “from an elite pastime to a mass participation sport.” As for Italy today, he writes: “The views today from Riva Ridge and Mount Belvedere are of a beautiful and peaceable landscape in an imperfect but better world. The men of the 10th helped make it so. Sempre Avanti.”

The Winter War is a valuable addition to the growing collection of books dealing with World War II, a war unlike anything the world had ever experienced and unlike anything the world will ever see again. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, there were 496,777 of the 16 million who served in World War II still alive in 2018. With all of them in their nineties, there are considerably fewer today. We owe them honor and respect, and we owe them an understanding of the dangers they faced in defense of liberty. To listen, read and learn from their exploits is the least we can do.

14 people found this helpful

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Ross I.

A great book with one glaring omission

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

The “Winter Army” is a fascinating story of the origins of the 10th Mountain Division and it’s fighting record during World War II. The author provides considerable detail through his extensive research. The origins of the ski troops and influence of "Mini" Dole in bringing the unit about was particularly interesting.
Isserman spends a great deal of effort successfully describing the war from the perspective of individual soldiers from each of the regiments as well as the unique contributions of the ski patrol and professional mountaineers.

Although Isserman attempts to describe the overall training and planning for the campaign, he is there found wanting. There are few, if any descriptions of the contributions of the division staff other than those of commanding general Hays. The most glaring omission is the lack of any reference concerning the division operations officer, LTC Jefferson Irvin. LTC Irvin’s vision and skilled operations staff provided the planning and orders which made the described events happen! Yes, and I am his son.

18 people found this helpful

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Charles A. Krohn

Visit Camp Hale, close your eyes, and picture what it was like in 1943

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

My cousin, Richard Wolf Netzorg, 1912-1984, is buried in Saginaw, Michigan in his 10th Mountain Division uniform. He trained at Camp Hale, just outside Vail, Colorado and deployed to Italy during WWII as a first lieutenant. A skier for life as was his father who has a slope in Michigan named in his honor. I knew nothing of Camp Hale until our twin sons moved to Vail. We visit the historic site regularly now, winter and summer. It is always a sobering reminder of the debt we owe those who trained there and sacrificed in Italy, so well recounted in The Winter Army.

Charles Krohn, author, The Lost Battalion of Tet

9 people found this helpful

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George S, Baroff

A detailed picture of America's ski troops, the 10th Mountain Division in WWII.

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2020

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This is the best of several books about the "ski troopers" in World War II, the Tenth Mountain Division, that fought in Italy in 1945. It is the most detailed of books about the 10th, making much use of correspondence between 10th soldiers, typically to family and depicting the reality of combat. I served with the 10th from 1943 to 1945 and, in Italy as a "mule skinner," an unusual occupation for a city-raised kid.
It's great book, an authentic read about Italy and the war that disappeared from national attention after D Day and the Normandy invasion. We in Italy were on the "forgotten front."

6 people found this helpful

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ray weir

true mountain troops

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2020

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i loved the book---several students from my high school, vermont academy, were in this 10th mountain division.Our ski coach, warren chivers, was one of the 6 Dartmouth students that were in the 1936 winter olympics although he ended up in the marines durimg ww 2 most of the rest were in the 10th mountain division. .the troops learned the arlberg method of skiing from hannes schneider who was also my ski instructor together with his son and tony matt. the last two were also in the division. while i was too young to serve in ww 2 ( 1930) i also knew walter prager the dartmouth coach who also served in the 10th mountain division and was the dartmouth ski coach. the book is well written and very detailed .glad i was able to get it thru amazon rayner weir

3 people found this helpful

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jeff c.

Well written book that makes you understand life during WW 2

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2021

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I really felt like I was able to get a better perception of how life was during world war two, with all the trials and tribulations felt by the soldiers ,good or bad. Even though the 10 th Mountain was not in direct conflict until the end, the day to day life before and during conflict really makes you understand better, and really appreciate our veterans, past and present. Living only 60 miles from where the 10 th Mountain division is currently based, gives me more of an appreciation .

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Randall W Glenney

Gripping account.

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

I had heard about the 10th Mountain Division but knew few details. I think that added to the drama/suspense I felt in reading these accounts. Very good tribute to the 10th, and well worth reading by anyone interested in its history.

4 people found this helpful

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