No Surrender: A Father, a Son, and an Extraordinary Act of Heroism That Continues to Live on Today

by Christopher Edmonds, Douglas Century

Overview

In the tradition of #1 New York Times bestsellers like Unbroken, Boys on the Boat, Band of Brothers, and Schindler’s List, No Surrender is an unforgettable story of a father’s extraordinary acts of valor in the treacherous final days of World War II and a son’s thrilling journey to discover them—an epic narrative of bravery, compassion, and faith.

 

In No Surrender, Chris Edmonds tells the inspiring and unforgettable story of his father, Roddie, a humble American soldier and his incredible acts of heroism in the waning days of World War II. Captured at the Battle of the Bulge, Roddie Edmonds was the highest-ranking American solider at Stalag 9A, a POW camp near Ziegenhain, Germany. A simple, soft-spoken man, Roddie was also a man of deep inner strength and unwavering Christian faith. Driven to the limits of endurance, he stared down the barrel of his Nazi captor’s pistol and refused to say which of his fellow prisoners of war were Jewish, staring evil in the eye and daring the Nazi to shoot. Roddie's act of defiance spared the lives of as many as 200 Jews and the lives of the infantryman under his command. 

Inspired by his father’s story, Chris Edmonds embarked on a years-long journey, interviewing surviving POWs under Roddie’s command, and retracing Roddie's footsteps to learn about his unspoken bravery during World War II. Along with New York Times bestselling author Douglas Century, Edmonds takes us to the front lines of this inspiring multi-generational story, revealing in gripping, novelistic detail Roddie’s previously untold heroism—and the lasting effects his bravery had on the lives of thousands, then and now. “What was most remarkable about my journey to discover what my father did during the war,” Chris writes, “was the realization that any one of us has the untapped potential to do something incredibly courageous. We all have the potential to change the world simply by standing up for what’s right.” 

Spanning seven decades and linking a sprawling cast of heroes from every corner of the country, No Surrender is an utterly compelling page-turner that recounts major events of World War II and United States Army initiatives that helped the Allies win the war – from the Battle of the Bulge to the massacre at Malmedy to and the now-little-known Army Specialized Training Program, which trained "geeks" or "Quiz Kids" from all over the country—Bob Dole, Kurt Vonnegut, Mel Brooks, and Henry Kissinger among them—to fight the Nazis in the European theater.

A shining example of the transformative and redemptive power of moral courage, No Surrender is a celebration of faith, family, and service, the very characteristics that continue to define us today.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062905017
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/08/2019
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Chris Edmonds is senior pastor of Piney Grove Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, and chief executive officer of Roddie’s Code, LLC, and The Roddie Edmonds Foundation, organizations committed to extending the legacy and leadership of Master Sergeant Edmonds to future generations. He also teaches Leadership Development to military leaders at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He earned his bachelor's degree in business at the University of Tennessee and, later, a master's degree in religion at Liberty Theological Seminary. He lives in Maryville, Tennessee, with his wife, Regina.

Douglas Century is the author and coauthor of numerous bestselling books including Hunting El Chapo, Under and Alone, Brotherhood of Warriors, Barney Ross: The Life of a Jewish Fighter, and Takedown: The Fall of the Last Mafia Empire, a finalist for the 2003 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. His most recent book, No Surrender, coauthored with Chris Edmonds, was published by Harper One and was the recipient of a 2020 Christopher Award. A veteran investigative journalist, Century’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Tablet and the Guardian.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/30/2019

In this page-turning memoir, Edmonds, a church pastor, and Century (Hunting El Chapo) chronicle the WWII experiences of Edmond’s late father, Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds of the 106th Infantry Division. After a lifetime of not knowing much about his father’s past, Edmonds determined to learn more (“I felt a growing responsibility to myself and my family to know what happened to Dad”). Through a fortuitous Google search, Edmunds tracked down Lester Tanner, his father’s war buddy and fellow POW from the Battle of the Bulge, who revealed a surprising story: while imprisoned in Germany’s Stalag IXA, Sgt. Edmonds refused an order to identify the Jewish servicemen among the prisoners, stating, “We are all Jews here.” Then, two months later, as the German army weakened, Edmonds refused a German officer’s command to lead 1,200 soldiers on a certain death march from the camp; the Germans fled as the Allies approached. The authors have skillfully transformed war records, interviews, and archival data into a dramatic account of Edmonds’s grueling experience as a prisoner, which culminates in the March 1945 liberation of Stalag IXA. More than a story of brothers in arms, this work is a son’s labor of love. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

There’s perhaps no greater untold story to come out of World War II. It’s a heck of a father-son story, but it’s also a tale of the power of one man to do something selfless that forever changes a life.” — Newsweek

“After his father’s death, Chris Edmonds journeyed across the US and to Germany to discover his father’s heroic past. No Surrender is a quintessential American story of bravery, compassion, and righteousness told by an admiring son.” — James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers

“Roddie Edmonds is a hero for our age—or any age. His story of principled defiance in the face of evil is an inspiration and a challenge. In No Surrender, Chris Edmonds and Douglas Century have given us the one righteous man whose goodness spares us all.” — Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11

“A fascinating war story... a you-are-there portrait of the horrors of war and the incredible effect one selfless person can have on hundreds.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“In this page-turning memoir, Edmonds and Century chronicle the WWII experiences of Edmond’s late father, Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds…[and] have skillfully transformed war records, interviews, and archival data into a dramatic account…More than a story of brothers in arms, this work is a son’s labor of love.” — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

From the Publisher

Roddie Edmonds is a hero for our age—or any age. His story of principled defiance in the face of evil is an inspiration and a challenge. In No Surrender, Chris Edmonds and Douglas Century have given us the one righteous man whose goodness spares us all.

 New York Times bestselling author of Fall an Mitchell Zuckoff

After his father’s death, Chris Edmonds journeyed across the US and to Germany to discover his father’s heroic past. No Surrender is a quintessential American story of bravery, compassion, and righteousness told by an admiring son.

James Bradley

There’s perhaps no greater untold story to come out of World War II. It’s a heck of a father-son story, but it’s also a tale of the power of one man to do something selfless that forever changes a life.

Newsweek

There’s perhaps no greater untold story to come out of World War II. It’s a heck of a father-son story, but it’s also a tale of the power of one man to do something selfless that forever changes a life.

Newsweek

There’s perhaps no greater untold story to come out of World War II. It’s a heck of a father-son story, but it’s also a tale of the power of one man to do something selfless that forever changes a life.

Newsweek

Roddie Edmonds is a hero for our age—or any age. His story of principled defiance in the face of evil is an inspiration and a challenge. In No Surrender, Chris Edmonds and Douglas Century have given us the one righteous man whose goodness spares us all.

 New York Times bestselling author of Mitchell Zuckoff

Roddie Edmonds is a hero for our age—or any age. His story of principled defiance in the face of evil is an inspiration and a challenge. In No Surrender, Chris Edmonds and Douglas Century have given us the one righteous man whose goodness spares us all.

MITCHELL ZUCKOFF

Only after my father died did I learn what he and his buddies had done on Iwo Jima. After his fathers’ death, Chris Edmonds journeyed across the US and to Germany to discover his father’s heroic past. No Surrender is a quintessential American story of bravery, compassion, and righteousness told by an admiring son.

JAMES BRADLEY

2019-08-04
After discovering that his late father was a war hero, a son takes a deep dive into World War II and the terrors of the Nazi regime.

Along with Century (co-author: Hunting El Chapo, 2018, etc.), Tennessee-based pastor and first-time author Edmonds relates a fascinating war story. When the author's daughter announced that she wanted to write a school paper on her paternal grandfather, Roddie, it startled him into realizing how little he actually knew about him. He knew from reading his father's journals that the Nazis had captured him during battle and forced him to spend several months in brutal POW camps. Other than that, Edmonds knew very little. "His descriptions were terse," writes the author. "Bare facts. Sometimes just fragmented sentences. Mental notes. Personal shorthand. Words clearly scribbled in haste." Roddie had never spoken of his experiences, and Edmonds had never asked. Now, though, startled by his daughter's plan, finding out all he could about his father became an obsession. He tracked down everyone he could find whose names were in the journals, and what they told him startled him even more: On more than one occasion, his father had saved the lives of hundreds of fellow POWs by refusing to follow Nazi officers' orders, despite their threats to kill him if he did not. Ostensibly, the narrative—essentially a love letter from a son to his late father that is occasionally cloying—is about those two episodes, although Edmonds only devotes roughly 10 pages to them. In the bulk of the book, the author describes in chilling, horrifying detail how Nazi soldiers overran an American front line, captured thousands of GIs, forced them to march on frozen and frostbitten feet for days without food or water, and then tortured and starved them in POW camps, often leading to death.

A you-are-there portrait of the horrors of war and the incredible effect one selfless person can have on hundreds.

Kirkus Reviews