A Dark and Bloody Ground: The Hurtgen Forest and the Roer River Dams, 1944-1945

This work examines the ominous prelude to the Battle of the Bulge and reveals one of the US Army's bloodiest nightmares of World War II. In late 1944, the American army had pushed through Belgium almost unopposed. As small units advanced into the hilly woods south-east of Aachen, Germany, they encountered a forest bristling with German troops. The face-off took place in some of Germany's most rugged territory and in rain, sleet and freezing temperatures. For weeks US commanders ordered units of as many as seven divisions into the woods to be chewed up by German infantry and artillery. The book's description of the battle is based on government records, a large selection of first-hand accounts from veterans of both sides, and the author's visits to the battlefields.