Road To Huertgen

Author : Lt. Paul Boesch
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1782898468
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Road To Huertgen: Forest In Hell [Illustrated Edition] written by Lt. Paul Boesch and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes 100 illus. Speak of the Huertgen Forest and you speak of hell. During a seemingly interminable three months, from mid-Sep. to mid-Dec. 1944, six American infantry divisions-the 1st, 4th, 8th, 9th, 28th, and 83d-and part of the 5th Armored fought at one time or another in the Huertgen Forest. These divisions incurred 28,000 casualties, including 8,000 due to combat exhaustion and rain, mud, sleet, and cold. One division lost more than 6,000, a figure exceeded for a single World War II engagement-if indeed it was exceeded-only by the bloody Marine battle on Tarawa. The name Huertgen Forest is one the American soldier applied to some 1,300 square miles of densely-wooded, roller-coaster real estate along the German-Belgian border south and southeast of Aachen....The forest lay athwart the path which the First U.S. Army had to take to reach the Rhine River, and thus American commanders considered it essential to conquer it. By the time both American and German artillery had done with it, the setting would look like a battlefield designed by the Archfiend himself. The Huertgen was the Argonne of World War II. One day not long ago another personal manuscript, much of it about the Huertgen fighting, crossed my desk. This one, I soon discovered, was different. This was a lengthy narrative written by a former lieutenant, Paul Boesch. It was obviously too long for publication, yet the combat sections of it revealed a genuine, first-hand grasp of what war is like at the shooting level and what it does to the men involved. It was too human a document to be ignored. It too faithfully mirrored the experiences, not of one man alone, but of millions, to go unnoticed. It too sharply underscored the innate faith, humor, devotion, and even the weaknesses of the American soldier to be forgotten. With Paul Boesch’s permission I went to work with him to prepare this combat portion of his manuscript for publication. The result is The Road to Huertgen.

Author : Paul Boesch
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781497434479
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Road to Huertgen written by Paul Boesch and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Road to Huertgen-Forest in Hell, originally published in 1962, chronicles the 1944 combat experiences of U.S. Army Lieutenant Paul Boesch. The setting is the Huertgen Forest, a 1,300 square mile, densely wooded, hilly region along the German-Belgian border south and southeast of Aachen. From mid-September to mid-December 1944, six American infantry divisions-the 1st, 4th, 8th, 9th, 28th, and 83d-and part of the 5th Armored Division fought at one time or another in the Huertgen Forest. These divisions incurred 28,000 casualties, including 8,000 due to combat exhaustion and rain, mud, sleet, and cold. The forest lay across the path the First U.S. Army had to take to reach the Rhine River, and thus American commanders considered it essential to conquer it. German troops had prepared an elaborate defense of Huertgen, resulting in a struggle where tanks, infantry, and artillery dueled at close range. The battle for the forest ended in December, when a sudden German offensive through the Ardennes to the south forced the Allied armies to fall back, regroup, and renew their attack. By the time both American and German artillery had done with it, the setting would resemble the Argonne battlefield of World War One-a bleak scene of near total devastation. Included are 16 pages of maps and photographs.

Author : Charles B. MacDonald
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 9780812218312
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Battle of the Huertgen Forest written by Charles B. MacDonald and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2002-09-10 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the first setback suffered by the Allies following the invasion of Europe.

Author : Robert Sterling Rush
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 0700613609
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Hell in Hürtgen Forest written by Robert Sterling Rush and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2001-11-27 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the most brutally intense infantry combat in World War II occurred within Germany's Hrtgen Forest. Focusing on the bitterly fought battle between the American 22d Infantry Regiment and elements of the German LXXIV Korps around Grosshau, Rush chronicles small-unit combat at its most extreme and shows why, despite enormous losses, the Americans persevered in the Hrtgenwald "meat grinder," a battle similar to two punch-drunk fighters staggering to survive the round. On 16 November 1944, the 22d Infantry entered the Hürtgen Forest as part of the U.S. Army's drive to cross the Roer River. During the next eighteen days, the 22d suffered more than 2,800 casualties-or about 86 percent of its normal strength of about 3,250 officers and men. After three days of fighting, the regiment had lost all three battalion commanders. After seven days, rifle company strengths stood at 50 percent and by battle's end each had suffered nearly 140 percent casualties. Despite these horrendous losses, the 22d Regiment survived and fought on, due in part to army personnel policies that ensured that unit strengths remained high even during extreme combat. Previously wounded soldiers returned to their units and new replacements, "green" to battle, arrived to follow the remaining battle-hardened cadre. The attack halted only when no veterans remained to follow. The German units in the Hrtgenwald suffered the same horrendous attrition, with one telling difference. German replacement policy detracted from rather than enhanced German combat effectiveness. Organizations had high paper strength but low manpower, and commanders consolidated decimated units time after time until these ever-dwindling bands of soldiers disappeared forever: killed, wounded, captured, or surrendered. The performance of American and German forces during this harrowing eighteen days of combat was largely a product of their respective backgrounds, training, and organization. This pre-battle aspect, not normally seen in combat history, helps explain why the Americans were successful and the Germans were not. Rush's work underscores both the horrors of combat and the resiliency of American organizations. While honoring the sacrifice and triumph of the common soldier, it also compels us to reexamine our views on the requisites for victory on the battlefield.

Author : William F. Meller
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101613459
Total Pages : 189 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Bloody Roads to Germany written by William F. Meller and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-12-04 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He never planned on becoming a leader—or a hero... In November 1944—Sergeant William Meller was just twenty years old. Very soon into the fighting in Huertgen Forest, he found himself promoted to squad leader by attrition, since every single officer in the rifle companies had already been killed or wounded. Meller and his men, living in freezing foxholes and armed only with rifles and a few machine guns and grenades, fought against the Wehrmacht's battle-hardened soldiers and its juggernaut Panzer tanks, all while under withering barrages of artillery fire. The bravery and determination of Meller and the soldiers of Meller's 28th Infantry Division allowed them to survive what would become the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought in its history. But they would get little respite from the carnage. Almost immediately, they were sent to fight the Germans in the densely forested and bitter-cold Ardennes. Again, Meller and his GI's were vastly outnumbered and out-equipped in the fight which would soon become known as the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's final offensive. The vaunted Wehrmacht threw everything they had in their arsenal against the American dogfaces. This is the true story of a man in combat who continuously adapted to his circumstances with grace and courage, ultimately transforming himself from an ordinary young GI to a leader who helped show his soldiers, by example, how to survive war.

Author : Gerald Astor
Publisher : Presidio Press
ISBN 13 : 0307755231
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Bloody Forest written by Gerald Astor and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2010-06-02 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive account of one of World War II’s bloodiest campaigns—the five-month battle between American and German forces in the Huertgen Forest—told through the words of the men who were there. From the preface: “In the course of research and interviews while writing a series of books on World War II, I became increasingly aware of the campaign for the Huertgen Forest. While survivors of other battles sometimes criticized the strategy and the orders they were given, there was a depth of anger about the Huertgen that surpassed anything I had encountered elsewhere. The unhappiness with what occurred and the absence of much objective coverage in the memoirs of those in the top command slots convinced me to produce this history. As I have reiterated in all of my books, which rely heavily on oral or eyewitness reports, there are always the dangers of flawed memory, limited vantage points, and the possibility of self-interest in such accounts. But the almost universal condemnation of their superiors’ critical decisions by individuals who were under fire in that ‘green hell’ offers a cautionary note on the accuracy and the truths of histories that draw from the official documents and the personal papers of the likes of Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Courtney Hodges (who apparently left little in the way of records), J. Lawton Collins and others in similar positions. . . . Each new war differs from that of the past, but to ignore what happened in the Huertgen enhances the possibilities for another bitter victory, if not a defeat.”

Author : Charles Whiting
Publisher : Spellmount, Limited Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9781862273962
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Battle of Hurtgen Forest written by Charles Whiting and published by Spellmount, Limited Publishers. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Battle of Hurtgen Forest

Author : Charles Brown MacDonald
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 710 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Siegfried Line Campaign written by Charles Brown MacDonald and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Charles Brown MacDonald
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Three Battles written by Charles Brown MacDonald and published by . This book was released on 1952 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : George Wilson
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0307775259
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

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Download or read book If You Survive written by George Wilson and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2010-11-10 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If you survive your first day, I'll promote you." So promised George Wilson's World War II commanding officer in the hedgerows of Normandy -- and it was to be a promise dramatically fulfilled. From July, 1944, to the closing days of the war, from the first penetration of the Siegfried Line to the Nazis' last desperate charge in the Battle of the Bulge, Wilson fought in the thickest of the action, helping take the small towns of northern France and Belgium building by building. Of all the men and officers who started out in Company F of the 4th Infantry Division with him, Wilson was the only one who finished. In the end, he felt not like a conqueror or a victor, but an exhausted survivor, left with nothing but his life -- and his emotions. If You Survive One of the great first-person accounts of the making of a combat veteran, in the last, most violent months of World War II.