Summary

Twenty-one year-old explosives expert Private First Class Robert W. Holmlund was in Metz, France, on October 3, 1944. An assault on the German fortress, Driant, was just minutes old and he believed he would surely die that day. His senior commander was the stalwart General George S. Patton but he was in relative safety at twenty-five miles behind the front. Company B was halted by a wall of barbed wire. The field commander ordered that it be blown up. Two hours later, Holmlund and the other survivors of Company B had taken the fort. Four months before Patton had addressed the third company about fear, fighting and valor. He gave the men hope and inspiration.

Company E made it past the barriers during the second assault but suffered high casualties in their effort. Patton was aware that the battle for Metz was failing and that...