Sons Of World War II Heroes Host Book Signing And Discussion About The Sons Of Bitche

BITCHE, FRANCE, March 3, 2026⎯Joseph Militano, author of The Sons Of Bitche, a novel inspired by the World War II heroics of the U.S. 100th Infantry Division in France, will participate in a book signing and interactive discussion here March 14 to promote the new French-language edition of the historical-fiction. The author's father, Joseph Sr., was a combat engineer with the American Army division in France during World War II.

Centered on the nearly forgotten third and southern front against Hitler, The Sons Of Bitche tracks the advance of the 100th through Nazi-occupied Fort Schiesseck of the vaunted Maginot line, fighting in sub-zero temperatures from foxholes in frighteningly close combat in the Vosges Mountains just outside Bitche, before liberating the town in March, 1945. The book captures the desperation of the French Alsatians and Mosellans, forced to endure more than four years of Nazi atrocities amid the ensuing hardships of occupation in the mountains and plains just west of the Rhine River border with Germany. Through the eyes of a seven-year-old French boy, who in 1945 saw the first American tanks streaming into his hometown of Bitche, and through the tears of a local French-American, depicted in newspapers around the world by an iconic photograph of an American flag sewn by his wife that flew over the battered town, the book tells a colorful story of triumph over tragedy.

The author will provide an overview of the division's drive to liberate several towns of eastern France, how and when he decided to write a book about their heroics, and why the historic Franco-American alliance must be preserved. His father, who managed explosives, never spoke about the war.

James and Russ Ferrell, the sons of Sergeant Vincent R. Ferrell, who was awarded two Bronze Stars for heroism and two Purple Hearts for wounds, will discuss their father's battlefield heroics while in intense combat in the town of Rimling.

Fred Wolff, son of Sergeant Adolph Wolff, who risked his life behind enemy lines to help a young French woman deliver her baby, despite the Nazi SS patrolling outside, will recount his father's harrowing story.

The Sons Of Bitche has inspired a number of senior American military leaders, precisely because it focuses on the battlefield heroics as well as the plight of the French under wartime occupation. "It is a gripping story from within the shadows of World War II history, magnificently capturing the human side of the 100th Infantry Division's vicious fighting in eastern France and the plight of the French citizens living under Nazi rule," said retired Lt. General Kevin Campbell, former Chief of Staff of the United States Strategic Command. Retired Lt. General Paul T. Mikolashek,
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former Commanding General of the U.S. Third Army, which during World War II was commanded by General George S. Patton, said: "The Sons of Bitche is the fascinating story of the U.S. soldiers, French civilians and German troops caught up in one of the lesser known, but no less brutal series of World War II battles, including the terrible tragedies faced by the local populace amid the horrors of occupation."


Editor's Note: The Sons Of Bitche book signing and discussion will be conducted Saturday March 14, from 3:00 p.m. till 4:30 p.m. at the Media Theque Communautaire Joseph Schaeffer, 44 Rue St. Augustin, Bitche.

Purchase the French-language or English-language editions of The Sons Of Bitche at: bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com

Visit us at: www.thesonsofbitche.com
Media Contacts
Michel Klein (France) 06 02 31 41 11 michel.klein@tubeo.fr
Joseph Militano (US) 732-998-0464 jpmilitano@yahoo.com