Foreword
To many an Allied soldier and officer and to countless armchair strategists, World War II in Europe appeared near an end when in late summer of 1944 Allied armies raced across northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg to the very gates of Germany. That this was not, in fact, the case was a painful lesson that the months of September, October, November, and December would make clear with stark emphasis.
The story of the sweep from Normandy to the German frontier has been told in the already published Breakout and Pursuit. The present volume relates the experiences of the First and Ninth U.S. Armies, the First Allied Airborne Army, and those American units which fought under British and Canadian command, on the northern flank of the battle front that stretched across the face of Europe from the Netherlands to the Mediterranean. The operations of the Third U.S. Army in the center, from mid-September through mid-December, have been recounted in The Lorraine Campaign; those of the Seventh U.S. Army on the south will be told in The Riviera to the Rhine, a volume in preparation.
Unlike the grand sweep of the pursuit, the breaching of the West Wall called for the most grueling kind of fighting. Huge armies waged the campaign described in this book, but the individual soldier, pitting his courage and stamina against harsh elements as well as a stubborn enemy, emerges as the moving spirit of these armies. In the agony of the Hürtgen Forest, the frustration of MARKET-GARDEN, the savagery of the struggle for Aachen, the valor of the American soldier and his gallant comrades proved the indispensable ingredient of eventual victory.
James A. Norell
Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Military History
Washington, D.C.
24 May 1961
The Author
Charles B. MacDonald, a graduate of Presbyterian College, is the author of Company Commander, an account of his experiences as an officer of the 2nd Infantry Division in the European theater during World War II. He is coauthor and compiler of Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt and a contributor to Command Decisions. Since 1953 he has supervised the preparation of other volumes in the European and Mediterranean theater sub-series of UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II and is currently writing another volume in the European theater subseries. In 1957 he received a Secretary of the Army Research and Study Fellowship and spent a year studying the relationship of terrain, weapons, and tactics on European battlefields. A lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, he holds the Purple Heart and the Silver Star.
1 Washington, 1947.