The Lieutenants

Here, for the first time in decades, is the novel that introduced the world to W.E.B Griffin—whose epic stories and profound knowledge of the intricate workings of the military mind in both war and peace would make him “the poet laureate of the American military” (Los Angeles Daily News).

As the chaos of World War II unfolds, the lives and actions of men from very different worlds will forge the paths of their futures—and of the war.

Robert Bellmon was a born military man. As the son of a general and one of the youngest Armor majors in the service, he believes in his country and his duty. After he is blasted from his Sherman tank at Kasserine Pass, he finds himself in a Polish POW camp—and the de-facto leader of all the prisoners. It is there he is surprised to find his father’s pre-war friend, Colonel Graf Peter Paul von Greiffenberg.

Count von Greiffenberg is a veteran soldier, now a POW camp commandant due to wounds received in battle. But he is not cruel. After witnessing the Russian massacre of 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in the Katyn Forest, he is determined to get word to the Americans, even if he has to use Bellmon to do it….

From the Nazi-prowled wastes of North Africa, to the bloody corridors of Europe, to the hallowed halls of West Point, The Lieutenants is the beginning of an epic saga that millions of fans have followed and that only W.E.B. Griffin could deliver.