Screaming Eagles (The Front, Book 1) (21 page)

As he'd been tossed toward the sidewalk, a tremendously painful pinching had occurred where he'd been stung a moment before, and his back had wrenched in agony as a muscle had spasmed, and pain had ripped through his right leg all the way down to his foot. The torment had raced up his side, and it had felt like his heart had been clenched in a tight fist.

But he hadn't struck the ground. He hadn't torn the skin off his palms, his jacket hadn't been soaked by the standing water, and the breath had not been knocked out of his body.

Bryon stared down at the concrete, a few inches from his face. He looked from one hand to the other, where his outstretched fingers hovered nearly half a foot off the ground. Then he looked down, and his mind was truly blown.

Bryon was floating.

I
’m
an indie author and I work very hard on my books. I love hearing input from readers and the best way to provide that is via a review.

When you leave a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, or where ever you purchased a book, it helps other readers. This also helps the author out more than you can imagine.

So please, friends, if you can spare a few minutes of your time, go and review THE FRONT: SCREAMING EAGLES on amazon.

Be honest and know that I read every review and use feedback to better my writing as well as have a positive impact on future novels.

Watch for THE FRONT: SCREAMING EAGLES from David Moody in early 2016.

T
he Front series
came to life after a convention, back in May of 2015, when Craig DiLouie and I were enjoying a few libations. We’d been attending Crypticon Seattle and began to discuss the future of the zombie genre. Our talk soon turned to creating something World War II era since we were both interested in that time period as well as the millions of brave men and women who fought and gave their lives in the war.

We approached David Moody and asked him to join our project as the third author. We fully expected him to shoot us down but much to our delight he said yes. THE FRONT will span six books with us alternating authors. David Moody will write the second novel: SCREAMING EAGLES. Craig DiLouie will write the third volume titled BERLIN OR BUST.

The first book was the result of months of studying source material. While I have tried to keep events historically accurate I did have to change a few things to make everything work.

In THE FRONT I’ve written an homage to one of the most decorated platoons of World War 2. On December 16th, 1944, the 18 men of the 99th’s Intelligence and Recognizance Infantry Division, faced a force of over 500 German paratroopers. They managed to hold a hill that overlooked the village of Lanzareth (not Longvilly as I wrote in the book) for 10 hours.

They were commanded by a 20-year-old Lieutenant named Lyle Bouck. The amazing part was that the entire group of men were green and yet they delayed the German advance by up to 20 hours despite begging for artillery support and being told they were “seeing things”.

The 99th had no artillery support with the exception of a 60mm mortar despite repeated calls for help. At full strength the company numbered 22 men with the mortar (a late arrival on the morning of the attack). They suffered only minimal losses. One of the mortar team members was struck and died. They had almost no medical supplies and no morphine.

During the battle, one of the men, Private Louis Kalil, was hit in the face by a rifle grenade. Luckily it didn’t detonate. Kalil later said that he could feel his teeth embedded in the roof of his mouth and tongue. His face was fractured in 3 places.

He fought on throughout the rest of the day.

The idea that a force of over 200,000 German troops were staging an offensive through the Ardennes forest was too lubricious for the allied command to believe and they were slow to respond. Making matters worse, Hitler picked a time when there was bad weather and there was massive fog. This grounded the superior Allied air cover and left a corridor for the Germans to attack through. As they advanced, the Allied lines “bulged” outward as they tried to keep from getting flanked.

The men of the 99th were eventually taken prisoner of war. The platoon was at one point lined up against a wall and thought they were going to be executed by the Germans. An officer intervened at the last minute and the men were spared. Most sat out the rest of the war in POW camps.

It was not until 1981 that this platoon received the recognition they deserved and were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism.

While THE FRONT is a fictional story that involves real world events with zombies, I can’t ever say enough about the brave soldiers who fought in World War II.

I relied on a large number of history books for this novel and I encourage you to seek some of them out if you are interested in The Battle of the Bulge.

Source Material:

• The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson
  
• The Battered Bastards of Bastogne – George Koskimaki
  
• Company Commander: The Classic Infantry Memoir of WWII – Charles B. MacDonald
  
• Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45 – Peter Caddick-Adams
  
• The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II’s Most Decorated Platoon – Alex Kershaw
  

Documentaries and movies:

• The War – A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
  
• The World at War series
  
• The Winning of World War II: Road to Victory
  
• Band of Brothers
  
• Saving Private Ryan
  
• Battle of the Bulge
  
• The Longest Day
  

• @TimWLong
  
• TimothyWLong