World War 2 In Review

Infantrymen man their .30 caliber machine gun, 84th Infantry Division, Odrimont, Belgium, 6 January 1945. by Theodore Draper, Sergeant, U.S. Army If we did nothing else in the Ardennes, we de­stroyed the myth that the woods and hills of that historically famous battle region are “im­pene­trable.” The Ger­mans began the dem­on­stra­tion in 1940 but their feat was too one-sided to be con­vinc­ing. They proved it was possible for an army to go through the Ardennes but they did not prove it was possible to fight through it. They met real opposition only twice and both times it was a fight of a few hours in clearings within the forest. Above all, the Germans carefully chose the very best time of the year, in May, as if to emphasize that special con­di­tions were necessary. In January 1945, however, we had to fight for practically every hill, wood, village, and road, in the very worst time of the year, on ice as slick as grease and in snow waist-high, against skillful and stub­born op­...

American soldiers of the 289th Infantry Regiment march along the snow-covered road on their way to cut off the Saint Vith-Houffalize road in Belgium on 24 January 1945. by August A. Stellwag Christmas Eve, 1944: For many of the green, young foot-soldiers of the 289th Regimental Combat Team, this would be their first Christmas away from home. Just a short two months ago they had been boarding troopships on the Hudson River at Camp Shanks, New York. Now they found themselves marching along a rutted dirt road leading to the small village of Grandmenil, Belgium. Grandmenil, at this time, had been momentarily raised from obscurity to become a pivotal point on the northern perimeter of what would soon be described in Stateside newspapers as the "Battle of the Bulge." The 289th was one of two regiments of the recently arrived 75th Infantry Division which had been hastily detached and assigned to the 3rd Armored Div. in an attempt to stem the German advance now reaching its zenit...