Soldier Dogs #5: Battle of the Bulge
By Marcus Sutter and Andie Tong
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About this ebook
A loyal army of sled dog teams up with an unlikely pair of kids to help Allied forces win the Battle of the Bulge in the fifth book in this action-packed middle grade series! Perfect for fans of the Hero and Scout books.
Boss the Alaskan Husky is parachuting into the middle of a snowstorm. As an army dog, it’s her job to bring supplies to Allied troops during the Battle of the Bulge. But when she finds a wounded sled dog and two lost kids, she knows she has to help them, too.
As the blizzard bears down, can Boss complete her mission, escape the Nazis, and get the kids out of the storm alive?
Marcus Sutter
Marcus Sutter is a former military brat who collects model planes and ships from the WWII era. He lives on a ranch in the Midwest with his family and their three-legged mutt, Mike.
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Book preview
Soldier Dogs #5 - Marcus Sutter
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all the brave soldiers—whether they walked on two legs or four—who drove the Nazis out of Belgium. We remember.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Picture Insert
Battle Facts
Battle Timeline
Wartime Q&A
Battle of the Bulge Stats
What’s the Setup of a Sled Dog Line?
Excerpt from Soldier Dogs #6: Heroes on the Home Front
About the Author
Books by Marcus Sutter
Back Ads
Copyright
About the Publisher
Prologue
THE OURTHE RIVER
DECEMBER 30, 1944
8:35 A.M. LOCAL TIME
The air in the Ardennes forest was thick with silence.
Guns fired. Tanks rumbled. Men called to each other through the trees. The sounds of war echoed around them, and yet somehow the vast, dense sprawl of the Ardennes swallowed them all up. The only sounds Juliette could hear were the ice cracking beneath her and her own heartbeat.
She stood on the surface of the frozen river, halfway across, staring down at a German soldier.
His scarf and goggles obscured his face. Between that and his long black coat, he looked like a drawing from a storybook she’d once read, about the Grim Reaper playing chess with an ordinary man.
The dogs they’d traveled with, Boss and Delta, were crouched and ready to strike at the soldier, but they couldn’t help her.
Juliette shifted her right foot an inch.
Beneath her came the muffled crack of splitting ice.
Throughout the Ardennes, buried in the freezing hills and thick pines, two sides were waging a dire war. Hungry, tired, and far from home, the Allied and German troops both sought a victory that would decide the fate of the world. If the Germans pushed into the enemy front, they would finally overwhelm the American military and stop their advance farther into Belgium. It would deal a blow that might force the US troops to slowly lose the ground they’d gained since invading France earlier in the year. If the Americans won, they could drive the occupying Germans farther and farther north, take back the port of Antwerp, liberate Belgium, and deal Hitler a humiliating blow. German morale would be destroyed. It might even lead to the end of the war.
Juliette wanted the Americans to win. She wanted her country back and the war to be over.
But right now, all that mattered was that the ice beneath them held.
What do we do?
whispered Antoine behind her. Juliette had never liked her neighbor, but right now he sounded as different as possible from the bully she knew. The fear in his voice echoed the tension hanging around them.
I don’t know,
she admitted.
Beneath her, there was another soft rumble, and a new crack appeared in the ice at her feet.
We need to run,
said Antoine, giving in to total panic. We’ve got to—
No!
Before she could get the words out, Antoine was spinning to head back the way they’d just come. She could see the accident moments before it happened: his unsure footing, the fear in his stride, and the slippery snow on the ice beneath his feet.
Her heart seized. Antoine’s foot went out from under him, and he fell to the frozen surface with a sickening thud.
Juliette heard the ice cracking beneath her. She felt a quick shock under her feet. Boss and Delta turned to her and whined, their ears able to pick up the barely audible sounds.
More silence.
Antoine looked up with half a smile and said, I think we’re okay.
Whew,
sighed Juliette.
There was another cracking nose, and the ice underneath her feet fell through.
Chapter 1
PLAINEVAUX, BELGIUM
DECEMBER 29, 1944
4:35 P.M. LOCAL TIME
Juliette saw her chance. She’d have to move quickly.
She tossed her doll to Alix and sprinted across the courtyard. The cobblestones beneath her feet were uneven and cracked, but she’d walked them her whole life, and she could nimbly leap over any obstacle in her path.
The boys barely even saw her coming. They thought they could continue their soccer game uninterrupted. But they’d made a vital mistake—they’d passed to Luca Diget, a disorganized boy, who dribbled like he was trying to dance around the ball. The minute Juliette had seen it come his way, she knew she had an in.
She flew past Luca so quickly, he barely had time to yell, Hey!
In an instant she had the ball, and she expertly dodged the boys who sprinted toward her. They all rushed her at once, yelling and carrying on.
She easily dribbled to the end of the courtyard and faced the goal—a section of brick wall between two trash cans. Antoine Marzen crouched there, hands out and brow set, a mean scowl beneath his stupid bowl cut. Juliette grinned and drank up Antoine’s anger at the sight of her. She was going to enjoy this.
She faked—left, right, left—and came down hard with her right foot. Antoine darted to the right, anticipating her kick . . . but she held back at the last minute, and he landed in a pile of rotten cloth and old newspaper. As Antoine sputtered from the garbage at her feet, Juliette neatly kicked the ball against the wall, where it smacked the brick and rolled back to her!
WHOO!
she yelled, and threw her fists into the air. When she turned back to the other kids, she saw that no one else shared her excitement. The boys all crossed their arms and sneered at her. George Gurn, who had gotten the ball for Christmas a few days ago, picked it up and clutched it to his chest. Luca Diget’s round cheeks were bright red with anger. In the background, Alix and the other girls stared at Juliette like she’d decided to chew rocks.
See? I told you!
yelled Antoine, brushing a shred of damp smelling paper from his arm and pointing at her. "I told you it would be like this! We can’t even have her around. She should be banned from this courtyard."
You’re just upset that you’re a bad goalie,
said Juliette.
A murmur of disbelief ran through the kids. If a boy had said such a thing, Juliette knew, it might mean a fight. Part of her hoped Antoine would try to fight her and give her an excuse to show him what for. He screwed up his face, looking like he was about to burst with rage—but at the last minute, he took a deep breath, brushed down his pants one last time, and then faced the boys with a calm regard.
The war will never end if girls act like this,
he said calmly.
The boys all nodded and rumbled in agreement.
Now it was Juliette’s turn to feel angry. Shut up,
she said.
"My father says that the only way for us to come out of the