As the Battle of the Bulge raged, a small force of American solders--including the famed 101st Airborne division, tank destroyer crews, engineers, and artillerymen--was completely surrounded by Hitler's armies in the Belgian town of Bastogne. Taking the town was imperative to Hitler's desperate plan to drive back the Allies and turn the tide of the war. The attack would come just before dawn.

As the outnumbered, undersupplied Americans gathered in church for services or shivered in their snow-covered foxholes...