On June 8, 1944, twenty-year-old Harold Frank had moved as one with his battalion onto the marshy shores of Utah Beach, pushing through the D-Day invasion to begin a months-long blockade of the pivotal Nazi port city of Certbourg. As the last experienced BAR Rifleman in the 357th infantry, he was tasked with leading a dangerous night patrol to rescue two lost U.S. Infantry companies before being ambushed in a deadly, nine-hour fight by the German 15th Parachute division. Now, he was alone. Trapped in a brutal Nazi POW camp, exposed to the vengance of the rapidly advancing Russian Military, and in the flight path of thousands of allied bombers racing towards the neighborhing city of Dresden. Would Harold escape to freedom alive?

In The Last of the 357th Infantry, historian Mark Hager builds on dozens of hours of interviews with Frank, sharing an intimate and heart-pounding account of his journey as a child of the Great Depression to the bloody shores of the D-Day invasion. Thrilling and deeply personal, The Last of the 357th Infantry is a must-read account of survival, escape, and unconquerable faith that belongs on the shelf of every student of WWII.

Mark Hager is a historian, teacher, and award-winning documentary filmmaker based in North Carolina. Hagar’s interest in living history was sparked by a childhood in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he grew up near a military base surrounded by military veterans, whose stories fascinated him. He began recording veteran memoirs among his own family, including those of an uncle who was a WW II Bronze Star veteran of the North Africa and Italy Campaign, and a cousin who served on the USS Pennsylvania during the Pearl Harbor attack and then fought across the Pacific. Hagar joined the U.S. Army himself where he served as a field artillery surveyor. He was stationed in Germany during the Cold War and observed the evils of communism firsthand through barbed wire, concrete walls, and Soviet propaganda. Later during master’s studies at UNC Greensboro, Hagar became engrossed in public history, and began conducting interviews and documenting local history, including veteran stories. Hagar went on to a career in teaching and filmmaking. He coproduced Tele award-winning The Border States of America, a comprehensive documentary that paints a picture of the U.S.-Mexico Border through the eyes of sheriffs, ranchers, and residents in each border county. He is also coproducer of documentary The Last Gathering - The 75th Anniversary of D Day, which led him to the story of Harold Frank, the last of the 357th Infantry, whose early life was filled with the struggles of the Great Depression and the intense action and horror of WW II, but also a life rife with lessons of resilience, rugged individualism, and faith. Hagar currently serves as president of the Forks of the Yadkin and Davie County Cultural History Museum in Mocksville, North Carolina.