"A painstakingly researched account of World War I's violent Meuse-Argonne Offensive and the 100-year-old cover-up at its center traces the efforts of AEF Commander-in-Chief John J. Pershing to capture the near-impregnable German Montfaucon and the inside betrayal that cost untold lives"--NoveList.;Prologue: words tongued with fire -- Part I. The stakes -- "Horrors from the abyss" -- Harry Parkin's affidavit -- Little Gibraltar of the Western Front -- "Do you wish to take part in the battle?" -- "This appalling proposition" -- "Feeling like crusaders" -- Training for disaster -- "An ominous, dread inspiring place" -- Part II. Battle and betrayal -- Toward Montafaucon and into a trap -- "The 79th is holding up the entire First Army" -- "Bayonet and rifle butt, pistol and trench knife" -- "All America is behind us" -- "Regardless of cost" -- The cost of "regardless" -- Relief and disgrace -- Into the cyclone ... once again -- Redemption on Corn Willy Hill -- Making good ... at last -- Part III. The war after the war -- Controlling the narrative -- Bullard, Bjornstad, and Booth -- Betrayal at Little Gibraltar -- Denkmal: remembering the lost doughboys -- Epilogue: "Some could, some could not, shake off misery."