as far as i can remember, this movie takes place in the far west of the "third reich". this particular area lies ca. 9.5 mi to the southeast of the german town "aachen".
the movie tells the events of the battles at the "hürtgenwald" between sept. 1944 and feb. 1945.
This movie takes place in hürtgenwald forest along the border of belgium and germany and it takes place in semptember 1944.
share
The battle, one of the bloodiest in the history of modern warfare and one of the most unneccessary, was fought near Aachen in a forest approximately 14 miles square. It was fought mostly by the 12th, 8th and 28th Divisions all of which were nearly decimated. Because of its tactical uselessness the United States Government all but denied the entire affair ever happened until we involved ourselves in Viet Nam, an affair Hurtgen should have warned us against entirely. The uselessness ended only when the German's pulled their forces out of the Battle to engage themselves in the Battle Of The Bulge.
The General (a Washington DC Richboy who flunked out of West Point but progressed through the ranks entirely due to family connections, entirely responsible for the debacle was one Courtney Hodges but Hodge's plan was supported by geniuses Ike and Bradley and the needless blood shed in "the Meat Grinder" belongs to them as well.
Only George Patton realized the futility of the engagement and said so from the beginning. But he was ignored thus causing the needless and at times tortuous death (by "secondary shrapnel" from the tree bursts blown thriugh the air by German artillery)
HBO robbed the original screenplay (written in 1987) from Roger Watkins ([email protected])and Eddie Straussberg...who didn't really give a *beep* since the Battle Of The Hurtgen Forest became known as more than a mere footnote to a footnote in history.
For those even slighly intereseted in The Batte of Hurgten Forest, Charles Whiting has written an excellent book on the subject. The one I've got has ISBN 0-330-42051-8. It's in the Pan Grand Strategy Series from Pac Macmillan.
Also found it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1580970559/ref=pd_sxp_f/103-0863074-9559039?v=glance&s=books
Other URLs:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/hurtgen.html
http://members.aeroinc.net/breners/buckswar/hist_toc.html
Yeah, the Whiting book on Hurtgen forest is a great read. His other books are excellent too.
shareI finished reading this book yesterday in fact, and it was an incredible book. Very moving. Really makes you think about the futility of war, especially unecessary battles like Hurtgen. This battle should be mentioned more often, so people never forget.
share[deleted]
The Somme was something different. It was a major offensive that involved large parts of both armies, while the Hürtgenwald battle was on a much smaller scale. And though it cannot compare in terms of absolute losses (60.000 British casualties in one day), it certainly qualifies as one of the bloodiest battles in US history. Some claim the US death toll was about 55.000, but this is being disputed and it is probably closer to 25.000. Still, this is a large portion of all US losses in the European theatre in just one part of the front, a comparatively insignificant part too.
"Birds don't crawl."
- Turanga Leela