The bloody forest

by Gerald Astor

"For nearly five months, starting in mid-September 1944, American GIs battled for the Huertgen Forest, a fifty-square mile tract of extremely inhospitable terrain. Unfortunately for the American soldiers involved, the Huertgen Forest campaign turned out to be one of the deadliest of the war. During its first month, the 9th Infantry Division supported by the 3d Armored Division managed to eke out a gain of only 3,500 yards. This paltry advance was at the cost of 4,500 American casualties, less than a yard per man. One has to go back to the charnel houses of World War I to find comparable ratios.". "Surprisingly, little has been written about this bloody battle. Its beginning was overshadowed by Field Marshall Montgomery's audacious and ill-fated Operation Market Garden (September 17), "the bridge too far." As the battle for the Huertgen Forest neared its end, the massive Nazi attack that became immortalized as the Battle of the Bulge (December 16) exploded into Belgium. Also, as a purel