My old man was there. Said he’d never been that cold, ever before. And hated winter ever since.
And he absolutely HATED SS troops. Said his unit never took them prisoner.
My late Uncle Fred served with the 84th. Infantry Division during The Bulge. He was wounded near Soy, Belgium in early January ‘45 and evacuated to England. 88mm. shrapnel almost took his head off. Never talked about it much.
I had two uncles there. One was recovering from frostbite in the Hurtgen Forest and the other was an AA gunner in the 3rd Army. The AA gunner felt the same way about the SS. He said the only thing to do was kill the SOB’s.
I was stationed in Schewinfurt but we did our winter war games at Grafenwoher and in December of 60 {or 61, not sure of the year} it was 26 below and we were living out side in pup tents, on top of a damn mountain.
The wind was blowing so hard the tents blew over and we all went under the gun tarps.
Never been so cold and we had many men with serious frost bite.
I couldn't sleep for about 2+ days.
I'm glad that the memories of cold don't bring back the feeling.