Walter S Zapotoczny Jr – författare

The five-month Battle of the Hürtgen Forest (September 1944–February 1945) cost the U.S. Army more than 34,000 casualties, a tremendous number, and yet historians have rarely given it the attention it deserves, lending it the epithet “the Forgotten Sacrifice.” The reasons are clear. Not only was this one of the bloodiest and most disastrous U.S. campaigns of the war, its strategic importance was eclipsed twice over: first by Field Marshal Montgomery’s Operation Market-Garden, which aimed to open a route of advance into Germany via the capture of a series of Dutch bridges, and second, by Germany’s surprise attack in mid-December through the Ardennes in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. This hard fought and well-earned Allied victory overshadowed the debacle that was occurring less than 20 miles to the north of the Ardennes.The 28th Infantry Division bore much of the pain in the Hürtgen Forest, losing 6,840 men killed, wounded, or missing. But despite these losses, the division played a crucial role in the broader Allied effort to repel the German forces in the region. Drawing on many first-hand accounts, The 28th Infantry Division in the Hürtgen Forest: Forgotten Sacrifice tells the story of the most gruelling and costly chapter of that supreme effort.

This book is not another battle chronicle. It is an examination of how the motivations of individual soldiers to fight and win can make the difference in battle, especially in the face of overwhelming odds. In December 1944, the American 28th Infantry Division occupied an 85-mile front extending along Germany's borders with Belgium and Luxembourg. There they repelled a desperate attempt by Hitler to drive a wedge through the Allied lines to the port of Antwerp, which he believed would buy his scientists the time they needed to complete development of the super weapons forecast to turn the tide of the war. This book explores the first-hand accounts of men of the 28th Infantry Division, who, with extraordinary tenacity, held the line through December 1944 and January 1945, and the chaplains who attended their religious needs. It assesses the efforts of the U.S. government to inspire its soldiers to fight for the American way of life, and how these efforts filtered onto the battlefield, shaping the resolve of the men asked, if necessary, to make the ultimate sacrifice.