Crossing the Rhine

After Dunkirk #9

by Lee Jackson

In late 1944, as Allied forces grind their way toward Germany’s Siegfried Line, the Littlefield family finds themselves caught at the center of a desperate struggle.

Jeremy, the daring pilot, flies dangerous missions across Europe and beyond, risking his life and his heart as he battles a waning and desperate empire. Beside him stands Amelie, the courageous ambulance driver dedicated to saving soldiers’ lives at the front—Allied and enemy. She is equally devoted to Jeremy—undaunted by the chaos around them.

Claire, the brilliant cryptologist who is stationed at Bletchley Park, races against time to crack enemy codes that could save thousands. Her sharp mind unearths enemy secrets, but she is haunted by the fear that her warnings could be ignored—leading to catastrophic consequences.

Paul, the steady and determined soldier, advances through France, uncovering Nazi atrocities as he liberates war-torn villages. The discovery of a hidden Nazi prison camp forces him to confront the unimaginable, fueling his mission to expose the truth and bring freedom to the oppressed.

And in the brutal confines of Colditz, Lance, the bold adventurer, is willing to risk everything, escaping and joining forces with the French Resistance as he fights to defy Nazi rule. As he and his comrades endure unspeakable conditions, Lance’s spirit burns fiercely—a defiant spark of rebellion behind enemy lines.

Will their collective strength be enough to silence the guns of war?

Crossing the Rhine is the ninth installment in Wall Street Journal bestselling author Lee Jackson’s riveting After Dunkirk series. This historical fiction saga offers readers an epic glimpse into the turmoil and triumphs of WWII.

____________________________

Praise for Lee Jackson and the AFTER DUNKIRK

"...an exceptional work of historical fiction..." —Lieutenant General Rick Lynch, US Army (Ret.)

"...compelling fiction is masterfully woven in with the actual events...” —John J. Gobbell, author of The Last Lieutenant

"A sweeping, wonderfully crafted saga...Jackson has created a masterful, enduring tale." —H.W. "Buzz" Bernard, award-winning author of When Heroes Flew

"[Jackson]...deftly balances the deeply personal stories of his characters with the action..." —Commander George Wallace, USN (Ret.), author of Warshot and Operation Golden Dawn

“There is intrigue and action galore, but also true and gripping personal depth in this remarkable story...” —Don Keith, author of Final Bearing and Only the Brave

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

462 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 9, 2026

About the author

My Tagline: Lee Jackson Brings Heat To The Cold War. I write Historical Thriller Fiction - particularly surrounding the Cold War. Having lived in Morocco, Germany, Costa Rica, and of course in the United States; and, having been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan for a combined 38 months, I've been up-close-and personal with many different cultures. I graduated from West Point and Boston University, resulting in a front row seat on many pivotal events. I live in Texas with my wife. My first novel, "Curse The Moon" was published on 10 December 2013. I publish under my own name, Lee Jackson.

Reviews

[Jim Rickard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

What a great book and series. This one of the best series I've ever read. This books continues on with all the stories of the lives encountered. If you started reading the book without reading the others , please go back and start with volume 1 After Dunkirk

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series, which appears to have at least one more volume coming, continues to charm me. Really, I love this series and will be sorry when it's over.

Jackson does a magnificent job weaving his fictional Littlefield family into every corner of World War II. I want to know what happens to them.

He shines lights on corners of the war too often overlooked. In this book, that includes the French role in fighting to free their homeland after D-Day; the less-remembered-by-history Allied drive north through France from the Mediterranean; prominent citizens held hostage by the Germans; the British fight for Burma: and the MacArthur-led invasion to retake the Philippines. Plus what happened immediately after the Battle of the Bulge: the difficult rooting out of the last German strongholds in France.

His characters are cleverly positioned to take us everywhere. Jeremy Littlefield starts out as a British Army engineer and ends up an RAF commander. Paul Littlefield is on a young intelligence officer who becomes an aide to Churchill, later liaison to OSS founder William Donovan, and now to Free French General Philippe LeClerc.

Jeremy's romantic interest, the French girl Amelie Boulier, and her sister Chantal initially spy for the Resistance, and after Paris's liberation stay near the front lines, Amelie as an ambulance driver and Chantal a motorcycle dispatch rider.

The American Zack Littlefield, a grunt on the ground in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany, is now a field-promoted officer.

Among the things I find praiseworthy:

—Jackson doesn't sugarcoat the leaders, but neither does he vilify them as they make hard moral choices. Eisenhower wants to bypass Paris and leave it in German hands; De Gaulle and Leclerc won't have it—France needs to see Paris liberated and Frenchmen leading the attack, postwar stability will depend on it—and violate his orders.

De Gaulle, with French forces liberating the last German-held towns, carpet bombs and even napalms towns full of French civilians.

FDR lets Stalin have Eastern Europe and the sole role taking Berlin. Churchill reluctantly agrees for Russian control of Poland in exchange for Greece staying in the West. Eisenhower wants to pull out of the just-liberated French city of Strasbourg to consolidate the Allied position. He holds Patton back from striking deeper and faster into Germany, toward Berlin.

Earlier, we've seen the Italian campaign with the leaders knowing full well that it's undersupported and undersupplied in favor of the brewing Normandy invasion, its forces sacrificed to divert the Germans and create an additional front diluting their defenses.

Our characters close to such events struggle with them morally, Paul as an aide to Leclerc. Josh Littlefield, on MacArthur's staff planning the invasion of Japan, sees casualty estimates as high as a million Allied soldiers.

—Our characters are modest, selfless, heroic and committed. There's no postmodern agonizing about how 'we're just as bad as they are'. There's zero graphic sex. Amelie and Chantal's wartime romances are characterized by denial and long separations. Claire and Paul Littlefield have each lost love interests to the war and neither has hurried to find a new one.

—We sense our writer won't break our hearts by killing off fave characters. And that after all the suffering (various have been POWs, been tortured, seen concentration camps, gone through months of hellish combat, etc.) they'll all live to see the end of the war and be reunited.

This book starts at New Year's 1945, with the Battle of the Bulge still being fought but the Germans now on the defensive. The Allies are poised to cross the Rhine into Germany. Hitler wants fanatical defense and executes officers who aren't aggressive enough. The Germans are blowing up Rhine River bridges. The lives of countless civilians and prisoners are at risk. How many will be killed rather than liberated?

In the Pacific, Iwo Jima is beginning and later equally cataclysmic battle of Okinawa begins. We see Roosevelt at Yalta. Two months later he dies and Truman becomes president.

Various Littlefields continue to get in harm's way and find their way out of it even in the war's closing months. The war's impending end will of course bring various characters' personal dramas to a head.

Will Lance Littlefield, a POW escape artist, break out one more time?

Will Amelie Boucher find and rescue heroic Resistance spy Jeannie Rousseau, now in a concentration camp?

Will Josh Littlefield, shot down by the Japanese, withhold critical war secrets under the torture he knows is coming?

Will Zack Littlefield and Derek Horton survive the final months of ground war?

Can Claire, doing top secret code-breaking and intelligence analysis at Bletchley Park (she's the one that tracked the Bismarck!), keep custody of war orphan Timmy after his grandparents, well-meaning but too old to care for him, unexpectedly return?

Can the family matriarch, the Dame of Sark, endure the final months of German occupation? And what has happened to her American-born husband, a German prisoner for years?

[Mike Crooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The end of war in Europe in the ongoing story of the Littlefields...

I have rated the previous 8 books at least 4 stars (some 4 1/2) and I was thankful that all 8 were available and I could read at my leisure. #9, "Crossing the Rhine" made me wait quite awhile and was just released 5 or 6 days ago, was a touch disappointing...I rate it 3 1/2 stars. It's still a good read, but for me, it didn't hold up to the pace of most of the previous installments. When writing about the main characters (the Littlefields) and their friends, lovers, etc. the stories moved and flowed quickly. When writing about tangential historical occurrences, I feel the author erred on the side of too much info. Don't get me wrong, MOST of these occurrences were very informative and moved the stories along, but some were just not very entertaining or necessary. And I feel much of these fillers were in some of the later installments and especially this 9th volume.
As it stands now the next volume will be out in a year...I hope I'm still around for it for I want to know the conclusion of each of the Littlefield's stories...

[Diane J. Futer · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the edge of my seat

Being a WWII enthusiast, I have been reading the 'After Dunkirk' series with baked breath. I have developed a close association with the characters and I'm on the edge of my seat to see what's going on with each of them. Realizing 'Crossing the Rhine' would deal with the victory in Europe, the closer I got to the end, the more I realized there had to be one more installment in the series.
Having said that, the battles that took place to bring the war in Europe to completion were well described by the author. Both sides had to endure the lousy weather and the ground conditions it caused. I felt the coldness and dampness and the muddy ground all along not imagining a foot soldier surviving and able to function in those conditions.
I have as glad for the chapter of the battle at Utter Castle. Truly one of the unusual events of the war!
Looking forward to the next installment!

[rick chinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

it’s not the end of the story (yet)

I got pulled into this series and have enjoyed it immensely. I binge read as many as i could get, and I’m grateful for that. I am coming up on book 9 of 9 and i’n thinking i get to finish the tale, but book 9 arrives after a long and suspenseful wait and suddenly i find there’s a book 10, which i now get to wait for until next year.
That’s the “bad” news, such as it is.
The good news is that the epilog ties up most of the loose ends in the story (and there are many) to a mostly satisfactory degree, so we can now wait (hopefully) for the last and final segment of this fine story.
I have enjoyed this tale immensely and it’s taught me things that I resisted learning in history class.
Could there be a follow-on story, as the littlefields get back to the rest of their lives?

[KSue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the ninth book in the After Dunkirk historical fiction series. Although I don’t usually jump into the middle of a series, I’m glad I did this time. The story resonated with me because Jerry Littlefield reminded me of the wartime stories my favorite uncle shared about flying the Hump in the Pacific, as well as another uncle’s experiences with the RAF in Europe. Even though I thought I already understood a great deal about World War II, the author’s research, attention to all aspects of the war, and empathetic portrayal of the characters filled in gaps and deepened my understanding of how it all fit together. I’ll be definitely going back to the beginning and reading the entire series. This is a series I would highly recommend to others.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance copy of book #9 in Severn River Publishing’s Littlefield Family “After Dunkirk” series. I suggest starting at the beginning of the series to better understand the characters’ backgrounds. That said, it is a fast-paced novel that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
This WWII series follows the Littlefield family across the globe. Set from January to May 1945, this installment moves from MI6 in London to Europe and the Pacific Theater, focusing on eastern France and western Germany. Despite its many characters and settings, the story remains well organized and easy to follow.

[Gordon Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

No punches pulled in this man’s inhumanity to man book

I was attracted to this series because I was conceived in Lille, France on NYE 1939 and my mother was evacuated with my 3 siblings in May 1940 just before the Dunkirk in June 1940. I was born in Scotland in September 1940. Book 1 was all about the evacuation and from 2-9 is about a family’s experience throughout the war in Europe then in the book 9, with the suicide of Hitler and The 3rd Reich surrender, the author covers the war in the pacific. The author describes what the Allies found throughout the war zone left behind by the SS is difficult to read and rings true. No hint of the A bomb yet.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoyed all of the previous books in the series. I can’t believe this was written by the same author. He barely wrote about the main characters in the previous books. Instead he went through a lot of detail about various battles or parts of the war and there was a fair amount of information given by imaging conversations between FDR, Churchill and their daughters. Lastly, it seemed like every time a prior character came back into the story he spent pages summarizing the character from the prior books. I certainly hope is next book in this series is better.

[Vicki Averitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

sadly only one book left in this series.

This series is by far the most well written in this genre in my opinion. I have read many and these offer more military insight than most. The human love interest are intriguing and wonderfully written while not overwhelming the actual battles and human tragedy of war. This series exposed more of the Pacific theater to me. Much of my reading has been about the European theatre. Thank you Lee Jackson for this series. I have loved every sentence, page and chapter of each book and anxiously await the final addition.

[Peter Hendrycks]

There is a LOT going on in this book! As the war in Europe moves toward Germany, there are numerous fronts, battles, and logistics to sort through. Mr. Jackson had a huge job researching all of this, and compiling it into a story that was as factual as possible, and how it involved and affected the main characters. It was hard to keep straight, but man, what a story! I enjoyed reading this series, as it tells of one of the most horrific events in world history. Mr. Jackson is an incredible writer!

[Tara Bohner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another winner!

Every book in this series is well written and full of so much factual information that you get history lessons along with the story of an amazing family. The characters are gripping and you cannot forget them once you finish the last page. The Littlefields and friends stay with you and you wonder how they’re doing right up until the release of the next book. Is it wrong that I hope Lee Jackson continues this story indefinitely giving me a new fascinating book every year?

[Jim Flagg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy of this book for my honest review. This is a continuation of an outstanding series about a family and extended family during World War II. This book takes place mostly in Europe but, also covers the Pacific theater to include parts of Asia. The war in Europe ends and the return to the Philippines is documented. This is historical fiction at its best. I look forward to the next book in this series.

[Alicia Marsland · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent over

Excellent overview for those who did not grow up as I did hearing all about the war and watching war movies, this is well written and easy to understand in so far as something as huge and complicated as a war can be understood. The confusion and uncertainty of people facing unfamiliar peace is also well presented. Since every work contains within itself the next war, we would all do well to pay close attention!

[Rick Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent history, excellent characters. The short-coming of these books is the artificial dialogue used to explain, historically, what is going on. I choose to think of these "conversations" as the interludes by a narrator rather than fictitious characters or manufactured scripts of real leaders.

That being said, I am hooked and look forward to the last of the series so I can learn how the character end their wars.

[Douglas G. Shurts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great coverage up to the surrender of Germany

Crossing the Rhine ,takes us through the Littlefield family their friends, Comrades in arms In both the European and Pacific theaters. It also brings to light the plight of the key on this issue French resistance characters as well as all other characters. Well written excellent series of books and I can't wait for the next book that completes the pacific theater.

[Ellis lee Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best WW2 series I've read...

The saga of the Littlefields is an examples much like my family. My father's brothers, my oldest brother, and my mother's brother and several cousins scattered across the planet, serving in different theaters of war. Like the Littlefields they did their duty from bombing Germany, fighting in the hedgerows, or fighting in the streets of Manila. Most came home and lived the rest of their lives in peace.

[Lionel B. Dyck · Rating 5 out of 5]

could not put it down

This latest book in the After Dunkirk series was impossible to put down. The characters, both new and previously introduced, were fascinating to get to know and/or catch up with. The historical fictional accounts are well written showing outstanding research and care for authenticity.

This series could easily be a fantastic TV mini-series.

[Carey Mundy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 9 of this fabulous WWIi historic fiction novel! It starts in late 1944 and takes you through the end of the war in the European theatre. The Littlefield family is spread far and wide across the globe, all working in some capacity for the Allies. This is such a sweeping series and I have loved each book - so reminiscent of Wouk and his Winds of War/War and Remembrance. Outstanding!

[Laurie]

I've enjoyed every one of the books in this series. They are pretty detailed, but I'm a nerd and look up all the war-related info on Google. So these books take me longer to read, since I'm also researching along the way! I'm refreshing my memory on a lot of this, and learning more! Can't wait for the next book, which I believe will be the last.

[Lori Zenahlik · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Dunkirk

When the 10th and final book in the series comes out, I believe I’m going to start from book one and work my way through again as waiting so long between between them has left me a bit lost! I’ve forgotten much about each individual aside from The Dame of Sark and Claire Littlefield. It’s much too good of a series to miss even small bits of it.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed this series. However, after the fifth or sixth book I feel like the characters got lost. There was more description of the war, campaigns, and people who were integral to the war, but not necessarily the story. Amelie and Jeremy became after thoughts. I will finish the series but only because after 9 books I owe it to myself.

[CATHY BARBER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nearing the end

The war in Europe ends. Once again, Lee Jackson has run hi audience through battles, decisions, smiling and tearing up. Mr. Jackson, as in all his novels in the series, provides a wonderful story while incorporating facts of World War Two. I have read all of the series at least twice and still enjoy each volume. Thank you Lee Jackson!

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love all of them but time to conclude. I am interested in military history of the war but some gets too much as in Pacific theatre. Enjoyed the Remagen part. Littlefields are getting a little lost in the weeds!

[Diane Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keeps getting better

The stories of the Littlefield clan just gets better in the book. Exciting isn't enough to say the way it has been written. This book was very hard to put down. Waiting a year for the next will be harder.

[Majordad1984 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't wait for Book #10!

I've followed the Littlefields and the other amazing characters that bring the After Dunkirk series to life. Only one small criticism, and one I hope you fix in the next - machine guns don't rat-a-tat. Please...fix this.

[Gloria Wilhelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Europe ends

Exciting all the way thru..... Really could not put it down. Still have not gotten the Littlefields home and safe. Madam at Sark is such an elegant and brave woman thru it all.

[Mike Beason · Rating 5 out of 5]

War is hell...

As the war in Europe rushes to an end, even so the battles continue in the Pacific, leading to the awful conclusion of what the casualty count might be. In Europe, the concentration camps are discovered.

[joe harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

the adventures continue

Excellent read consistent with the previous books. His blending historical facts with fictional characters shows the personal effects that breathes real life emotions that history cannot.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable storyline

This series is informative, intriguing, and disturbing in graphic detail. I have learned about weapons previously unfamiliar to me. There are battlefields I have never read about in history.