Deeds Not Words

Deeds Not Words is the first volume of Paul David Bauer's epic World War II novel, The Coldest Winter in a Century. In Deeds Not Words, Captain Ed Rybowski, on his way back to the front to take command of his company, receives a "Dear John" letter from his wife, Mary Randolph, the wealthy daughter of a Senator, and the sister of Rybowski's best friend from Princeton, Billy Randolph. While Mary claws her way upward in wartime Washington bureaucracy, and while Billy charms his way through the war in London on the Intelligence staff at SHAEF, Ed, with nothing left to lose, leads his men into desperate combat against the German Army along the Siegfried Line.