I think you’re right about pulling tanks out of Bastogne. I think they wanted to place them in a location to head off the Germans. It turned out they realized they should have left them around Bastogne but by that time it was too late.
Yes, it was Col. Koch. He was the best G-2 in the ETO.
Bradley was one of the most over-rated generals of WW II, imo.
BTW, I was in the 101st in Vietnam 27 years later.
I don’t dislike Bradley, I just think he was an example of The Peter Principle in action. He was great with logistics and by-the-book tactics, but owed his fourth star to the fact that, as senior to Patton, he’d have to go up a star, as Patton could scarcely be denied his fourth star after his masterpiece in the French theater. :^)
Neither Bradley nor Eisenhower fired a shot in WWI, when Patton was already commanding troops in the field. He thought a lot of both of them, but must have been frustrated with them a lot of the time.