NEVER IN FINER COMPANY: The Men of the Great War's Lost Battalion
Nonfiction Doughboys, carrier pigeons, and blind luck NEVER IN FINER COMPANY: The Men of the Great War's Lost Battalion By Edward G. Lengel 368 pp. Da Capo Reviewed By William C. Crawford War produces instantaneous heroes as well as those who percolate up to public prominence over time. The men of the Lost Battalion fall squarely into both camps. This book illustrates how makeshift, multiethnic, military units made up of mostly poor, Gotham City soldiers rose up to demonstrate surprising battlefield valor during the Great War. When the Yanks were surrounded with no food and little ammunition, our boys had a plucky way of shifting the odds miraculously back in their favor. They stuck together and leaned on their New York City roots. Blind luck and a wounded carrier pigeon also played into this saga, but mostly dogged personal determination overcame blatant command mistakes to produce a gripping rescue of US soldiers hopelessly trapped in the Argonne Forest. A disparate...