#World War II: Battle of Hürtgen Forest

[reagent-leon]

GUYS!!! Stop saying Coyle is singing his ABCs wrong!!

"T, P, D, A, T, F, C, I, A, F, B, I, U, S, P, I, S, D, O, D, S, S, S, U, S, A."

He's not singing his ABCs he's just using the same tune, they're all acronyms

TPD = ?*

ATF = Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

CIA = Central Intelligence Agency, 

FBI = Federal Bureau of Investigation, 

USPIS = United States Postal Inspection Service,

DOD = United States Department of Defense,  

SSS = Selective Service System, 

USA = United States of America

Okay? So let's all stop saying he's uneducated or illiterate because he's definitely not. Pre-Sinyala Coyle kept "obsessively complete notes" according to Clyde Perry's account, and furthermore just look at his pretty handwriting on the evidence boxes, that's not an uneducated scrawl. Coyle is willfully ignorant, but he's not lacking in basic literacy skills.

"But Leon, why did he misspell Guilty as Giltee on the Scapegoat?"

Well, friend, I don't entirely know. But as he's spelt it correctly in other places, he probably did it on purpose, matching his dialect to emphasise his point. Maybe he just forgot about the U and by the time he'd started carving the L he knew he needed to commit to his fuck up.

*Sooo I have some theories as to what TPD could stand for.

Total Permanent Disability. In one of Coyles' dialogues, he mentions his Father losing his foot in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. That injury would likely see him permanently disabled and unable to work as he had before (it's implied that Coyles' parents were cattle ranchers), therefore he would be entitled to welfare checks.

Tulsa Police Department. Tulsa and Blackwell are within 2 hours drive of each other and it's very possible that Coyle completed his training at the Tulsa Police Academy before going on to work for the Blackwell Police Department. Tulsa also has history of violent racism, which would appeal to Coyle.

Tactical PSYOPS Detachment/United States Psychological Operations. There was extensive use of psychological operations in World War II, and given everything that the Outlast Trials are about I think this is a worthy contender.

Tobacco Products Directive. This was the only other thing I could think of that would make sense in conjunction with Coyle, but it's a European Union directive, and therefore I think it's unlikely this is what Coyle is referring to, but I still thought it was worth mentioning.

If you have any better ideas please feel free to share them!

A big big thank you to my friends in the Coyle Crew: @misa-bun @soggy-bean and @mortisdeth for their help in researching, theorising and giving me moral support when I thought I was about to lose it

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.19 (before 1950)

96 – Nerva, suspected of complicity of the death of Domitian, is declared emperor by Senate. The Senate then annuls laws passed by Domitian and orders his statues to be destroyed. 634 – Siege of Damascus: The Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from the Byzantine Empire. 1356 – Battle of Poitiers: An English army under the command of Edward the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures King John II. 1410 – End of the Siege of Marienburg: The State of the Teutonic Order repulses the joint Polish—Lithuanian forces. 1676 – Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces win a tactically expensive victory over the Continental Army in the First Battle of Saratoga. 1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget. 1796 – George Washington's Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public. 1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: French-Dutch victory against the Russians and British in the Battle of Bergen. 1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette.[6] 1852 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid Massalia from the north dome of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte. 1862 – American Civil War: Union troops under William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by Sterling Price. 1863 – American Civil War: The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, the bloodiest two-day battle of the conflict, and the only significant Confederate victory in the war's Western Theater. 1864 – American Civil War: Union troops under Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by Jubal Early. With over 50,000 troops engaged, it was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. 1868 – La Gloriosa begins in Spain. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The siege of Paris begins. The city held out for over four months before surrendering. 1893 – In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor, giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote. 1916 – World War I: During the East African Campaign, colonial forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of Charles Tombeur capture the town of Tabora after heavy fighting. 1939 – World War II: The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged. 1940 – World War II: Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp to gather and smuggle out information for the resistance movement. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Hürtgen Forest begins. It will become the longest individual battle that the U.S. Army has ever fought. 1944 – World War II: The Moscow Armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed, which officially ended the Continuation War.[ 1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.

[vomitdodger]

Just posted by a member of my extended military and friend circle. Please consider helping a true hero. The write up doesn’t due him justice. He’s on hospice care and lives alone. Donations are for in home care until his passing.

His write up:

I am Timmy Woods Lavin and have been in Jay's life approximately for 60 Years.

Jay is a kind loving talented individual.

Right now he needs help! After helping so many other people either by delivering hot meals or standing out in front of the Golden Coral on Hot or Rainy days asking people to help the wounded soldiers that are Disabled American Veterans. He has known that pain every day since being a young man who has been shot up. That never stopped him from helping others or for him to succeed thru the pain.

Now he really needs help and I love him and can only do so much with my limitations. I will give and do whatever is necessary to make his last journey respectful and with peace. I am asking you to help a good soul.

Jay Lavin (formerly Lavinsky) needs our help. At Age 98, he appears to be the last survivor of the US Army's Company B, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division in World War II. Jay fought in the Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. He received two Bronze Stars, one for Valor on December 22, 1944, when the 39th Infantry Regiment repelled the German 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division.

On February 28, 1945, while clearing the German village of Derkum at night, his squad in 3rd. Platoon was attacked by a German half-track; his foxhole buddy was mortally wounded and died in Jay's arms. On March 4, 1945, a German machine gun hit Jay with six bullets putting him in hospitals for the next six months. He was discharged from the Army with 100% disability.

Jay is in Hospice Care at home. {When we brought him home he smiled}.

The funds will be used for 24 hour care. Jay is 100% disabled.

Jay lives alone and was recently discharged from a Florida hospital after suffering a fall. He is now at home but needs 24/7 care which will continue for whatever time he may have left; care he cannot afford for long.

[demons]

A burning German tank pilot has just climbed out of his Tiger tank only to fall on the ground and pass away. I was a target as I took this photograph and drew fire. I took cover near him and read his Nazi belt buckle: "Got Mit Uns" - "God is With Us". He was saying "Mutter. Mutter."/Hurtgen Forest, 1944.

[wisconsinhistorian]

Some major events that occurred on September 19.

Photo One: George Washington’s Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public, 1796.

Photo Two: The Battle of Hürtgen Forest begins and will become the longest individual battle that the U.S. Army has ever fought, lasting from September 19 to December 16, 1944.

Photo Three: King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, the country’s current king, has his investiture, 1973. 

[nebris]

The Battle of Hürtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hürtgenwald) was a series of fierce battles fought from 19 September to 16 December 1944, between American and German forces on the Western Front during World War II, in the Hürtgen Forest, a 140 km2 (54 sq mi) area about 5 km (3.1 mi) east of the Belgian–German border.[1] It was the longest battle on German ground during World War II and is the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought.[7]

The U.S. commanders' initial goal was to pin down German forces in the area to keep them from reinforcing the front lines farther north in the Battle of Aachen, where the US forces were fighting against the Siegfried Line network of fortified industrial towns and villages speckled with pillboxes, tank traps, and minefields. A secondary objective may have been to outflank the front line.[citation needed] The Americans' initial tactical objectives were to take Schmidt and clear Monschau. In a second phase the Allies wanted to advance to the Rur River as part of Operation Queen.

Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model intended to bring the Allied thrust to a standstill. While he interfered less in the day-to-day movements of units than at the Battle of Arnhem, he still kept himself fully informed on the situation, slowing the Allies' progress, inflicting heavy casualties, and taking full advantage of the fortifications the Germans called the Westwall, better known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line. The Hürtgen Forest cost the U.S. First Army at least 33,000 killed and wounded, including both combat and non-combat losses, with upper estimate at 55,000; German casualties were 28,000. The city of Aachen in the north eventually fell on 22 October at high cost to the U.S. Ninth Army, but they failed to cross the Rur or wrest control of its dams from the Germans. The battle was so costly that it has been described as an Allied "defeat of the first magnitude," with specific credit given to Model.[8][9]: 391 

The Germans fiercely defended the area because it served as a staging area for the 1944 winter offensive Wacht am Rhein (known in English-speaking countries as the Battle of the Bulge), and because the mountains commanded access to the Rur Dam[notes 3] at the head of the Rur Reservoir (Rurstausee). The Allies failed to capture the area after several heavy setbacks, and the Germans successfully held the region until they launched their last-ditch offensive into the Ardennes.[2][10] This was launched on 16 December and ended the Hürtgen offensive.[1] The Battle of the Bulge gained widespread press and public attention, leaving the battle of Hürtgen Forest less well remembered.

The overall cost of the Siegfried Line Campaign in American personnel was close to 140,000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_H%C3%BCrtgen_Forest

[bantarleton]

On 19 September 1944, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest begins between the US & Nazi Germany. The engagement is best known as the longest battle on German ground during World War II, and the longest single battle the US Army has ever fought.

This scene shows a typical Hürtgenwald defense line such as that occupied by the German 89th Infantry Division while fighting against the US 9th Infantry Division in September 1944.

In this case, the defense hinges on a Westwall machine-gun bunker. There were relatively few bunkers built in the Hürtgenwald due to the difficulties of the terrain, and they were generally positioned to cover key firebreaks, river crossing points, roads, or other significant objectives. In many cases, accompanying trenches were built at the same time as the bunkers, though in other cases they were constructed in August–September 1944 when an effort was made to refresh the Westwall after years of neglect.

The trenches are log-lined to prevent their collapse during the incessant autumn rains. They were dug in a zigzag fashion to limit the damage caused either by a shell impact or the intrusion of enemy infantry. In the case of a straight trench, the artillery blast would devastate the whole section of trench, or an enemy infantry attack could likewise wipe out a whole detachment if exposed in a straight line.

These trenches also had small log-covered bunkers either built into the trench line itself or located nearby to provide the infantry with cover from artillery attack. Although not visible here, there were usually minefields emplaced some distance in front of the trench line, and on occasion, barbed-wire entanglements were added to cover especially important defensive positions.

Infantry defenses in the Hürtgenwald typically took advantage of hills, as seen here, since they provided the defenders with firepower advantages as well as presenting an attacking infantry force with greater difficulty in reaching the objective. Forest defenses were particularly effective against the US Army since they minimized the US advantage in artillery and airpower. Artillery strikes tended to detonate in the high fir trees above. While this could enhance the blast and splinter effect against exposed infantry, it actually had less effect on defenders in log bunkers than did detonations on the ground. Likewise the forest provided cover against air observation, which limited the effect of close air support. Eventually, the incessant fighting and repeated artillery strikes in the Hürtgenwald stripped away much of the tree cover, denuding the slopes and exposing the defensive trenches to artillery fire.

The infantry here shows the gradual shifts in firepower evident in the autumn of 1944, with wider use of Panzerfaust antitank rockets and new weapons such as the MP44 assault rifle.

[clio-muse-of-history]

November 16

In 1944, the city of Düren, Germany, was bombed into oblivion by Allied forces during the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest in World War II.  After the war, the city was rebuilt, but was known as Düren Düren, and I believe one Simon Le Bon was the first mayor of the reconstructed town.

[fuzzysparrow]

5 of 5 stars

This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

An epic tale of a reimagined World War II comes to an explosive end in this third and final book Purple Hearts. Michael Grant created an alternative history in which women were allowed to enter the army and fight alongside the men on the front lines in Europe. Having earned accolades, promotions and the right to go home to America at the conclusion of the previous book, Rio, Frangie and Rainy decide to stay for the remains of the war. It is 6th June 1944, and the battle on the sands of Omaha Beach is about to begin – D-Day. 

The story rushes into the horrors of the D-Day landings where Rio, now a Sergeant, is leading her platoon through the treacherous battleground, whilst Frangie, the medic, tries to patch up fallen comrades. The author teases the reader with the introduction of new characters who promptly get killed during this fateful day and battles further along the line.  There is no sugar coating the horrific experience of soldiers and civilians, regardless of whether the scenes are fictionalized or not.

The difficulty with writing a work of fiction about the final years of World War II is that the majority of readers will already know the facts. Therefore, it was impossible for Grant to compose a drastic alternative history. Despite the inclusion of women soldiers, the main events occur exactly as they did in reality, beginning with D-Day before moving on to Liberated France, the Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, and, eventually, VE Day.

The three main characters have undergone complete transformations since the beginning of book one. No longer are they the innocent girls mocked for the belief they could be as strong as male soldiers. As horror after horror unfolds, readers are left with only the hope that these three survive. 

Throughout book one and two, the narrative was interspersed with a commentary from an anonymous female soldier in a bed at the 107th evacuee hospital in Würzburg, Germany. As promised at the beginning of the series, readers finally find out which character this nameless voice belongs to, although it is dragged out until the final pages of the book. 

The title, Purple Hearts, refers to the medal earned by soldiers injured in battle. Rio, Frangie and Rainy have each received one, along with a few other characters. Unfortunately, many are killed in the battles, some who have been in the story from the start, making this an extremely shocking book. It goes to show how dangerous war is and the brutality WWII soldiers experienced. It is a surprise that as many survived as they did.

Although at this point the main focus of the story is the war, there is still the underlying theme of equality, both for women and for black people. Frangie provides the insight into the segregation of blacks, being assigned to black-only patrols and having white patients refuse to be treated by her. However, as the war gets more violent, these lines get blurred until it is (mostly) no longer important the colour of a soldier or medic’s skin.

Purple Hearts is a brilliant end to a challenging series. Readers become invested in the characters and are drawn into a story that is so true to form that it is easy to forget that women did not actually take part in the fighting. Evidently well researched, Michael Grant has penned a series that educates whilst it entertains, opening readers’ eyes to the truth about war. This is nothing like a textbook full of facts and figures, it is a moving, personal (forget the fictional bit) account of what WWII was really like. Written with young adults in mind, this is a great series for both teens and older readers.

[super-caribe-suomi1012]

On this day in 1944, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hürtgenwald) is the name given to the series of fierce battles fought between U.S. and German forces during World War II in the Hürtgen Forest, which became the longest battle on German ground during World War II, and the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought. The battles went on to 16 December 1944, over barely 50 sq mi (130 km2), east of the Belgian–German border. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2l-hO2DDFGclGNXtsRlSZax245OaR2RjdwJwk0/?igshid=16rcjao6uwbrl

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.19 (before 1950)

96 – Nerva, suspected of complicity of the death of Domitian, is declared emperor by Senate. The Senate then annuls laws passed by Domitian and orders his statues to be destroyed. 634 – Siege of Damascus: The Rashidun Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid capture Damascus from the Byzantine Empire. 1356 – Battle of Poitiers: An English army under the command of Edward the Black Prince defeats a French army and captures King John II. 1410 – End of the Siege of Marienburg: The State of the Teutonic Order repulses the joint Polish—Lithuanian forces. 1676 – Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces win a tactically expensive victory over the Continental Army in the First Battle of Saratoga. 1778 – The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget. 1796 – George Washington's Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public. 1799 – French Revolutionary Wars: French-Dutch victory against the Russians and British in the Battle of Bergen. 1846 – Two French shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, experience a Marian apparition on a mountaintop near La Salette, France, now known as Our Lady of La Salette. 1852 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers the asteroid Massalia from the north dome of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte. 1862 – American Civil War: Union troops under William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by Sterling Price. 1863 – American Civil War: The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga, in northwestern Georgia, the bloodiest two-day battle of the conflict, and the only significant Confederate victory in the war's Western Theater. 1864 – American Civil War: Union troops under Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by Jubal Early. With over 50,000 troops engaged, it was the largest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. 1868 – La Gloriosa begins in Spain. 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The siege of Paris begins. The city held out for over four months before surrendering. 1893 – In New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor, giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote. 1902 – A stampede at Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, leads to the death of 115 attendees. 1916 – World War I: During the East African Campaign, colonial forces of the Belgian Congo (Force Publique) under the command of Charles Tombeur capture the town of Tabora after heavy fighting. 1939 – World War II: The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged. 1940 – World War II: Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp to gather and smuggle out information for the resistance movement. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Hürtgen Forest begins. It will become the longest individual battle that the U.S. Army has ever fought. 1944 – World War II: The Moscow Armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union is signed, which officially ended the Continuation War. 1946 – The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.

[newingtonnow]

Connecticut Servicemen in the “Bloody Bucket” Division

Nicknamed the “Keystone Division,” the United States Army’s 28th Infantry Division came together in 1917 by combining units of the Pennsylvania National Guard. By the end of World War II, however, there were over 200 soldiers from Connecticut serving in the 28th Division. The 28th saw action in some of the most intense fighting of the Second World War and earned the nickname the “Bloody Bucket” division.

Training for the 28th Division took the men all over the country—and then the world. From August of 1941 until March of 1942, the division trained in Indian Gap, Pennsylvania, then at the A.P. Hill Military Reservation in Virginia, and, finally, at Camp Livingston in Louisiana. In 1943, they received amphibious training in Carrabelle, Florida, and practiced fighting on mountainous terrain in West Virginia. They left the United States for Europe on October 8, 1943. Once overseas, they received nine more months of training in Wales and England.

The 28th Infantry Division Enters the War

On July 22, 1944, the 28th Division entered the war with a landing on the beaches at Normandy. All about them, the men witnessed the aftermath of the D-Day landings. The area around Normandy remained covered in refuse from the Allied invasion, and the division’s soldiers passed through fields lined with white crosses honoring those already lost.

The 28th began fighting in northern France, but the men found themselves unprepared for combat among the thick hedgerows that dominated the area. This resulted in heavy early casualties. Walter Burke of Terryville saw his first action in Fôret de St. Sever, a wooded area in Normandy where his H Company lost 30 men, including their company commander. The fighting was so bitter that the 28th Division suffered 700 casualties on one day alone.

In August the 28th moved on Paris, from which the Germans readily retreated. By August 19th, 833 German prisoners were in the hands of the 28th. It was because of this success that the Germans bestowed upon them their “Bloody Bucket” moniker.

The 28th then crossed the Meuse River into Belgium and Luxembourg. There, in mid-September, they began hammering at the Siegfried Line, a miles-long system of bunkers, barricades, and defensive weapons designed to protect the German border. In November, the 28th was temporarily called away to attack Germans in the Hürtgen Forest. With the Germans entrenched in the forest, free from having to fight on open ground and protected from US air attacks, the fighting took on a renewed intensity. Harry Foss of Bristol, who fought in C Company, remembered losing 100 replacements a day to small arms, mortar, and artillery fire. What US forces did not know was that part of the German resistance stemmed from a desire to use the Hürtgen Forest to protect their northern flank for an upcoming offensive of massive proportions.

The Battle of the Bulge

After having pulled out of the Hürtgen Forest at the end of November, the 28th Infantry Division found itself stretched along a 25-mile front from Luxembourg to the area around Wallenstein. It was then that the Germans launched their massive offensive, later known as the Battle of the Bulge. German Field Marshall Karl Rudolf Gerd von Runstedt initially sent five divisions across the Our River in the direction of the 28th Division. The 28th eventually faced nine divisions in all, holding their ground wherever possible against the onslaught of German military forces.

US troops of the 28th Infantry Division, Bastogne, Belgium – US Army Center of Military History

Von Runstedt’s offensive caught the Americans by surprise and he rapidly overran numerous positions held by the 28th. Robert Foraker of Hartford quickly found himself trapped behind enemy lines in Luxembourg. He and approximately 60 others held the town of Munshausen until their ammunition ran out. At 4:30 one morning, the group slipped past their enemy by crawling through and around a number of German half-track vehicles. They then spent the next week hiding by day and traveling by night, only stopping to eat the grass and roots they found along their journey, until they successfully navigated their way back to the American lines.

After the Allies halted the German advance and began pushing them back into Germany, the 28th Division moved on the French town of Colmar, near the German border. Robert Giesel of Windsor and his fellow soldiers marched 60 miles through knee-deep mud in less than four days to capture Colmar in early 1945. When the Germans surrendered soon after, the 28th was in Kaiserslautern, fighting the enemy on their own soil.

The 28th Heads Home

With the fighting in Europe over, the main body of the 28th Division sailed out of Le Havre, France, in July of 1945—headed for US shores. The ships carrying the Connecticut soldiers of the New England group of the 28th docked in Boston in early August. From there, the men went to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, with most on their way home within 24 hours. The Japanese surrendered before the 28th faced redeployment to the Pacific.

Support ConnecticutHistory.org through your purchase of this classic DVD – Home Front: CT During WWII (2001 w/CPTV – 1 hour 52 minutes)

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/connecticut-servicemen-in-the-bloody-bucket-division/

[helenalwrites]

I may be spending the day off from my day job likely relaxing or doing something writing related but I do always reflect on the true meaning of this day. I’m American and I live knowing that there wouldn’t be any freedom without those that fought and died for it. My great-grandfather died in World War II, was the biological father my paternal grandmother never knew. He was Private First Class Edward J. Miller of the US Army. He was born in 1922 and enlisted in Spring 1942 in New York City. He was from Westchester County, New York. My grandmother was born in South Carolina in March 1943. He was part of the group of army units under General Eisenhower. After D-Day, he was part of the troops fighting in the Battle Hürtgen Forest. This bloody battle is one of the deadliest in our history but it is overshadowed by the Battle of the Bulge going on further south. He lost his life in that forest on the border of Belgium and Germany. His body wasn’t recovered but someone in his unit brought his dog tags home to his mother. The US Army declared him dead in 1946. May we all remember those who fought and died for it with gratitude today. It may be a family member like mine who never returned or one who fought and lived out their days with their family but now no longer with us. Their sacrifice gave us so much more than we realize. Today we remember and honor them all. #memorialday #remember #honor #theyfoughtforourfreedom #theyfoughtforus #rememberthefallen #honorthefallen #theysacrificedforus #thereasonforourfreedom #memorial #allgavesome #somegaveall #writerslife #writersofig #writersofinstagram #myfamily #myfamilyhistory #writerscommunity #writersnetwork https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx-DSYJgg88/?igshid=1htwun8prinja

[demons]

A dead German soldier killed during the Battle of the Bulge is seen surrounded by family photographs, Hürtgen Forest, GER/December 1944

[itunesbooks]

Armageddon - Max Hastings

Armageddon The Battle for Germany, 1944-45 Max Hastings Genre: Military Price: $13.99 Publish Date: November 16, 2004 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Seller: Penguin Random House LLC This is epic story of the last eight months of World War II in Europe by one of Britain’s most highly regarded military historians, whose accounts of past battles John Keegan has described as worthy “to stand with that of the best journalists and writers” ( New York Times Book Review ). In September 1944, the Allies believed that Hitler’s army was beaten, and expected that the war would be over by Christmas. But the disastrous Allied airborne landing in Holland, American setbacks on the German border and in the Hürtgen Forest, together with the bitter Battle of the Bulge, drastically altered that timetable. Hastings tells the story of both the Eastern and Western Fronts, and paints a vivid portrait of the Red Army’s onslaught on Hitler’s empire. He has searched the archives of the major combatants and interviewed 170 survivors to give us an unprecedented understanding of how the great battles were fought, and of their human impact on American, British, German, and Russian soldiers and civilians.  Hastings raises provocative questions: Were the Western Allied cause and campaign compromised by a desire to get the Soviets to do most of the fighting? Why were the Russians and Germans more effective soldiers than the Americans and British? Why did the bombing of Germany’s cities continue until the last weeks of the war, when it could no longer influence the outcome? Why did the Germans prove more fanatical foes than the Japanese, fighting to the bitter end? This book also contains vivid portraits of Stalin, Churchill, Eisenhower, Montgomery, and the other giants of the struggle.  The crucial final months of the twentieth century’s greatest global conflict come alive in this rousing and revelatory chronicle. http://bit.ly/2Evqh4M

[topworldhistory]

Under cripplingly cold winter conditions, American troops proved their mettle.

On December 14, 1944, American GIs stationed in the Belgian-German border town of Bastogne were in a jolly holiday mood. Hollywood star Marlene Dietrich was in town on a USO tour performing songs for a crowd of fresh-faced new arrivals and war-worn infantry on much needed R&R.

It was six months after the D-Day invasion at Normandy and the Allies had reason to celebrate. The Americans and British had chased the Nazis out of France and the Russian army was quickly closing in from the East. The surrender of the German menace was in sight.

READ MORE: D-Day: Facts on the Epic 1944 Invasion That Changed the Course of WWII

But that’s not how Adolf Hitler saw it. The Nazi leader, paranoid and agitated after a failed assassination attempt by the Operation Valkyrie conspirators, believed Germany had one last chance to strike at the heart of the Allies in the West. Hitler ordered his commanders to prepare for an all-out offensive against a strategic soft spot in the Allied line located in the densely forested region known as the Ardennes.

Hitler’s last-ditch gamble would result in the largest land battle in American military history and cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides. But in the month-long slog known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Americans proved their mettle under frigid winter conditions to seal the fate of the Nazis for good.

Nazi Front Line Gives Battle of the Bulge Its Name

A gun motor carriage firing on enemy positions at night during the Battle of the Bulge, 1945. 

The Battle of the Bulge is the Allied name for the massive German offensive that the Nazis codenamed Wacht am Rhein or the “Watch on the Rhine.” More than 1 million Allied and German soldiers fought in the Battle of the Bulge, nicknamed for the westward bulge created in the Allied line after Nazi tanks and infantry temporarily captured territory during Hitler’s surprise attack.

The Allies were indeed unprepared for the German onslaught, says Martin King, a World War II historian and author of eight books about the Battle of the Bulge. The Ardennes region was known to American GIs as the “honeymoon sector,” a remote stretch of the Allied front line where new arrivals could ease into the war effort and battle-weary vets could recuperate and refit for battle.

“In December of 1944, there were only four American divisions in the Ardennes covering an 89-mile front,” says King. “Two of the divisions had never fired a shot in anger and two were recovering from the grueling Battle of Hürtgen Forest.”

Allied commanders dismissed intelligence from the British ULTRA codebreakers that large numbers of German troops and equipment were being pulled from the fight with Russia and amassing along the Western front. The assumption, soon proven wrong, was that the Nazis were simply bracing their defenses for the coming Allied push into Germany. No one thought that Hitler would have the gall to attempt a counterstrike with a German army already decimated by months of heavy fighting on two fronts.

Hitler’s plan was to power through the weak link at the Ardennes and then move northeast to take the Belgian port city of Antwerp. Without Antwerp, the Allies would have difficulty resupplying for their final push toward Berlin. With that strategic position secured, Hitler believed he could negotiate terms with the Allies and avoid an unconditional surrender, allowing him to continue the war with Russia in the East.

Hitler Counted on Cold to Help Defeat the Allies

Camouflaged tanks and infantrymen wearing snow capes move across a snow-covered field during the Battle of the Bulge.

Also, by attacking through the Ardennes in winter, Hitler bet on bad weather grounding the Allied air support. The Ardennes are famously fogged in during December, making it impossible for bombers and supply planes to hit their targets.

And so it was on the morning of December 16, with a thick mist blanketing the mountainous Ardennes Forest, that a German fighting force numbering 200,000 men and 1,000 tanks launched an all-out attack on the unsuspecting Allies. In King’s interviews with dozens of Battle of the Bulge veterans, they describe eerie red and purple lights streaking through the pea-soup fog followed by the bone-chilling sound of “screaming meemie” Nebelwerfer rockets and earth-shattering detonations in every direction.

Two regiments of the 106th Division were quickly surrounded by German infantry leading to the single largest field surrender of Allied troops in World War II. More than 6,800 American soldiers in the 422nd and 423rd regiments taken as prisoners. Elsewhere, near the Belgian town of Malmedy, 84 American prisoners were summarily killed by German Waffen SS in the largest mass execution of the war.

Just 24 hours after the initial bombardment, German tanks had broken through the thinly defended center of the Ardennes region and rolled West to the Meuse River, creating the infamous bulge in the Allied line that gave the battle its peculiar name. Using the weather and intelligence breakdowns to their advantage, the Nazi offensive appeared to be working.

But if Hitler thought that the outmanned Americans were going to lay down and let the German tanks roll all the way to Antwerp, he was mistaken. After the initial confusion and chaos of the Nazi surprise attack, American soldiers regrouped and relied on old-fashioned ingenuity to hold off the German advance until reinforcements could arrive.

American Troops' Capacity to Improvise Save the Day

American troops advance on a German machine gun position in the Ardennes region of Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge was Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front.

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“Talking to both American and German veterans, you realize how very different these two armies were in their methods and methodologies,” says King. “The Americans had this incredible capacity to improvise, to think on the hop and operate autonomously right down to the squad level. The Germans couldn’t operate below the regimental level without written orders.”

General James Gavin of the 82nd Airborne, already a hero at Normandy and during Operation Market Garden, shined yet again in defense of the strategic Belgian town of St. Vith’s. He hopped in his Jeep, spied on the enemy’s positions and divided his men into squads to hunt down the Nazis using the terrain to their advantage.

The Fighting 30th, nicknamed “Roosevelt’s SS,” used similar guerrilla tactics to halt the progress of the German army in the North.

“The Fighting 30th engineers were phenomenal—they blew up everything,” says King. “There’s a town called Trois-Ponts for the three bridges that crossed the Amblève River. Not after the engineers had been there.”

Albert Tarbell was a full-blooded Mohawk with the 82nd Airborne who was “the best scout you could possibly have,” says King, when you’re up to your knees in snow and hunting the enemy through the forests. Nazi commanders thought their soldiers were hallucinating when they swore they were taking fire from “Indians.”

Surrender? 'Nuts!' 

Battle of the Bulge (TV-PG; 2:52)

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But perhaps the most famous stand of the Battle of the Bulge happened at Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne was pinned down and surrounded by Nazi infantry for five long days. The Americans dug trenches in a wide perimeter around Bastogne, and relied on locals for warm clothing and rations.

Temperatures plunged to -20°C (-4°F) and soldiers who didn’t die of hypothermia were crippled by frostbite and trench foot. When medics ran out of supplies, life-saving amputations had to be performed with kitchen knives and cognac as the only anesthesia.

When things looked worst for the Americans, the Nazi field commander issued an official call for surrender. General Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne replied with one of the most famously blunt rebuffs in the history of warfare: “Nuts!”

(King says that there’s more to that much-told story. While McAuliffe’s gut reaction was indeed to yell out, “Nuts!” to the Nazi’s demands, he tried the more conventional approach. A West Point graduate, he dictated a two-page response to the German commander. When McAuliffe’s intelligence chief read back the formal letter, he said he liked McAuliffe’s first response better. So they scrapped it and went with “Nuts!”)

The 101st airborne held out long enough for the skies to clear and the first supply drops to arrive from Allied bombers. Within days, General George Patton had turned his 350,000-man army North and punched through the German flank to relieve the beleaguered 101st Airborne and turn the tide of the Battle of the Bulge.

By January 13, 1945, the Allies had fully repelled the German attack and ironed out the bulge on the Western front. But the Allied forces, particularly the Americans, paid a high price for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. All told, 19,000 U.S. soldiers died, 47,500 were wounded—many from the brutal conditions—and more than 23,000 went missing.

It’s estimated that more than 100,000 German soldiers were killed, wounded or missing in action as a result of Hitler’s ill-fated final gamble. 

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/35n4LKo December 13, 2019 at 10:12PM