Huertgen exchange on Forum back in Aug

[ReconPAL]

I just got back and found my way into this beautiful new format. And just to get a handle on it I thought I would publish a letter I received from Spence Toll, a friend, whom I mentioned in the Huertgen exchange was at Schmidt crossroad during the battle. I had sent him Col Nash's post on the Kall Trail and some of the other replies and mine in which I expressed my dismay at the lack of complaining by suvivors of that action of the decision to fight through the forest while at the same time praising the quality of the German defense. The letter follows:
9 Sept.2002
Dear Paul,
(reference to time delay in delivery of reply because of vacation)
I don't know the reasons for the silence of the 28th Division's WWII veterans , but the scholars who study Huertgen apreciate what a disastrous episode it was. For example' my friend (perhaps yours too) Russell Weigley, Temple U.'s distinguished military historian, likens the 28th's Huertgen involvement to the Civil War's Wilderness or WWI's Argonne.I came into Huertgen after most of the 28th's blood had been spilled, but I have a vivid memory of what a frozen version of hell it was.
(He then quotes an exerpt from Ernest Hemingway's account published in Collier's issue of November 1944 describing the fighting. Hemingway was a war correspondent with the 28th at that time. The account is the usual description of tree bursts, darkness and fighting in wooded area.He continues) To give our division a chance to recover from its savaging, the strategists sent us to a quiet place on the front. It was the Ardennes.
Cheers! and kindness regards to you and Marie
Spence
The irony of the last sentence is striking. I'd like to post a thought on the German defensive actions from Huetgeg to the Ardennes if anyone wants to read it? Paul

[Philip S]

ReconPAL,

Please do. I am currently trying to read about a dozen or so books (simultaneously) on the fighting along the German border and sometimes I just get too caught up in the micro-battles to appreciate the whole scope.

PS

[ReconPAL]

I'll work on it Rhillip! I'm reading (studing) Col Nash's, Hell Gate, with a Nat. Geo. Atlas permanently open.and reminiscing about the war. But it's the maps that focus my thoughts I always had an affinity for maps. Thank you Paul

[Simon H]

Hello Reconpal!
Nice to see you back again. I'm still eager to read your own account of the fighting in the Hürtgenwald.

[Jason Pipes]

I'll be interested to read the account as well!

[Rob S.]

ReconPall, the battle of Hürtgen Forest, was that against the 116th Panzer division "Windhund"?