Days of Perfect Hell

Nearly 100 years ago, on October 4, 1918, on a muddy, poison gas-soaked hillside in France, the U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment jumped-off amidst a hail of shell fire and machine-gun fire to begin the final push to end World War I. For the next 39 days, with little respite, the regiment fought desperately against a determined, well-armed foe. This is the story of a single regiment in a successful, highly acclaimed Regular Army division, during the greatest American battle to date. This is not a dry recitation of facts, but an in-depth examination of a single regiment that allows the reader to appreciate the intricacies of small-unit action and the problems associated with leading platoons, companies, and battalions in battle during the Great War, while at the same time depicting the human drama associated with the terrible carnage
AUTHOR: Peter L. Belmonte retired after serving twenty years in the US Air Force, first enlisted and then as an officer. A veteran of Operation Desert Storm, he holds a master’s degree in history from California State University, Stanislaus, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Purdue University. He has written and published in the fields of immigration and military history and is a member of the Company of Military Historians. His first book, ‘Italian Americans in World War II’, was published in 2001. 94 b/w images