Check this out, US soldiers checking out a German MG nest in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest just before the Battle of the Bulge. 33,000 US dead 28,000 Germans dead.

I don't think many people know how vicious and bloody the Hurtgen Forest was. One US Army Ranger veteran of both Normandy and Hurtgen said that Hurtgen was worse.

I've been reading charles whitings Siegfried line. Lots of dio potential.

Those figures include wounded.

Gary

I don't think so...what I was reading said "dead". It was a wicked forest battle just before the Battle of the Bulge. They even used tanks...blasted pathes in the forest for M-10'S,Shermans etc..

U.S. divisions

1st Infantry Division
4th Infantry Division
8th Infantry Division
9th Infantry Division
28th Infantry Division
82nd Airborne Division
83rd Infantry Division
104th Infantry Division
3rd Armored Division
5th Armored Division
2nd Ranger Battalion
366th Fighter Group

German divisions
3rd Fallshirmjager
85th Infantry Division
89th Infantry Division
275th Infantry Division
344th Infantry Division
347th Infantry Division
353rd Infantry Division
3rd Panzergrenadier Division
116th Panzer Division
12th Volksgrenadier Division
47th Volksgrenadier Division
246th Volksgrenadier Division
272nd Volksgrenadier Division
326th Volksgrenadier Division

This is interesting reading

http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/HuertgenForest/HF.htm

Mike

So the Fallshirmjager were present? That would explain why US casualties outweighed the German.

Turned into a horrendous battle and for very limited returns. The weather and terrain were atrocious and most US non battle casualties were from hypothermia and frostbite. The dead were left in the open for a long period of time and the US replacement units had to walk past them. Not good for moral at all. There was criminal miss management at many levels facing stiffening and determined resistance from the Germans,who had their backs to the wall,literally,at this point. Tree bursts were very common and produced plenty of casualties,enough to make one vet remark that the safest thing to do was to stand up as you then presented a smaller target! One of Dads' cronies was captured during this battle and he has some choice words for the US command involved in it.
The sad thing is,the whole thing was needless because the area could of(and should of been) bypassed!!
Out of all the things the the USArmy did right during that war,this was one they got really really sadly wrong. The classic example of"mission creep".
J