Hell's Highway

The author of The Battered Bastards of Bastogne does a "superb job of telling the history the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Market Garden" ( Kepler's Book Reviews).   Hell's Highway is a history, most of which has never before been written. It is adventure recorded by those who lived it and put into context by an author who was also there. It is human drama on an enormous scale, told through the personal stories of 612 contributors of written and oral accounts of the Screaming Eagles' part in the attempt to liberate the Netherlands.   Koskimaki is an expert in weaving together individual recollections to make a compelling and uniquely first-hand account of the bravery and deprivations suffered by the troops, and their hopes, fears, triumphs, and tragedies, as well as those of Dutch civilians caught up in the action.   There have been many books published on Operation Market Garden and there will surely be more. This book, however, gets to the heart of the action. The "big picture," which most histories paint, here is just the context for the real history on the ground.