Just a few weeks before the armistice, during the advance of the entire American army, the Second Battalion of the 308th Infantry, Seventy-seventh Division, was reported missing. The United Press scooped the story, which remained page 1 news for almost a week. Where were they?

In fact, the battalion had been trapped at the edge of a steep precipice by German soldiers. They held off the Germans for five days. While Major Whittlesey, the officer in command, was reported to have replied "Go to Hell" to the German demand for surrender, this was a myth. He made no reply but did order his men to cover two white airplane panels lying on the ground, lest they be mistaken for a sign of surrender.

Some enterprising reporters from the army publication Stars and Stripes investigated the fate of the "Lost Battalion," and found that nearly...