Messengers of the Lost Battalion The Heroic 551st and the Turning of the Tide at the Battle of the Bulge

In 1989, Gregory Orfalea received notice that the first reunion of his father's World War II infantry battalion, the 551st, would be held in France. Still mourning the death of his father the year before, Orfalea decided to attend in his place, hoping to find some survivors of the unit who could help him piece together the lost story of his father's wartime experiences. What he discovered far exceeded his modest expectations. Why has this heroic unit's memory been all but completely erased from the military annals of the war? Why was the 551st sent to its destruction in a desperate assault on the village of Rochelinval during the Battle of the Bulge? And finally, how could the handful of frostbitten, bloodstained renegades that were the 551st's walking wounded actually take Rochelinval and win the day? Within hours of the 551st victory at Rochelinval, the last German Tiger tank had run out of fuel, Hitler's last chilling counteroffensive of the war was over, and the German Army was in full and final retreat. But Messengers of the Lost Battalion is more than an engaging history and powerful war story; it is also a moving tale about a son's search for his father - a soldier who delivered the messages of the battalion by motorbike.

Gregory Orfalea was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and educated at Georgetown University and the University of Alaska. He has held teaching positions at Georgetown, The Claremont Colleges, and at Westmont College. Orfalea is the author and editor of eight books, the most recent of which are the short story collection The Man Who Guarded the Bomb and Angeleno Days, which won the 2010 Arab American Book Award and has been named a Finalist for the PEN USA Award in Creative Nonfiction.