A nervous American GI moves out of a tree line with his comrades following behind somewhere in the Hürtgen Forest, December, 1944.

A nervous American GI moves out of a tree line with his comrades following behind somewhere in the Hürtgen Forest, December, 1944. Photo shot by WW2 veteran and renowned photographer

At 4:00 AM on December the 16th, 1944, German artillery and aircraft began a mass bombardment of American lines - primarily in the area of the Ardennes.

The Ardennes was considered a quiet front by the US Army, a place where battered divisions - primarily chewed up and spat out from the Hürtgen Forest - could rest and recuperate with little chance of a major engagement.

One of these such divisions was the 30th, the heroes of Mortain. They had breached the Siegfried Line north of Aachen at a hefty price and were subsequently moved to the Ardennes.

The supply situation in the ETO was still poor despite the opening of Antwerp and the clearing of the Schledt. Much of the Army did not have the proper winter equipment or ammunition to wage an effective defense against massed units of German armor and infantry.

As such when on the 16th they attacked, many of those battered American divisions were pushed aside and nearly annihilated, valiant though they fought.

Thus began a campaign that would last more than a month and cost the lives of over 80,000 Americans and 100,000 Germans.

It would be the last major offensive they mounted in the Western European Theater of Operations and forever go down in history infamously.

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