Hurtgen Forest was bad, bad stuff. Meat grinder.
Kind of got overshadowed in history books because the Bulge happened so soon afterwards.
Krauts were damned good on the defense. They knew their sh*t, no doubt. Chewed up quite a few units badly in Hurtgen.
This uncle was also first wave at Normandy and managed to get into the Hurtgen fight, then was sent to a “quite” sector to recuperate in the Ardennes. I have read about the Hurtgen Forrest campaign, what a waste of men and effort. On a scale of the disaster of Peleliu in the Pacific which should have just been by-passed.
The other uncle in 3rd Army, would have been at D-Day but he got his ship torpedoed in Operation Tiger, one of the disastrous D-Day training exercises. He was ordered to stay silent about it. All he would say is his ship was torpedoed by a Uboat. He later fought in the Bulge as well when Patton’s turned his division north towards Bastogne. He said there was a crossroad and a lieutenant came up and told him to set up his AA gun in the middle of it, a panzer would be coming and he was to engage it. Yes sir he replied! The LT left and he promptly moved his gun back into cover near the crossroads and one of his buddies was like you heard the LT’s order! Yes I did and you see all those burning vehicles sitting out in the open don’t you? Yeah was the reply, well I don’t want to join them, but from here I can still engage with some cover and possible get off the first shot. He said the panzer never showed.