I am interested in collecting and sharing information on the Battle of the Bulge. My area of expertise is the Northern Salient area of Losheim to Manderfeld. I have a great deal of data on the 14th Cavalry Group and their activities in the area. I am always in search of more. Additionally, I am trying to locate information on the activities of LTC Harpers and the location where he died outside Bastogne. Trust we can get an interesting exchange going.
Thanks
DJ

Battle of the Bulge Photos

Another

Airborne Sergeant

Infantry Lieutenant

Tank Crewman

War Diary

I have a small collection of history books specifically covering The Bulge. I also have the Army's official history. Be glad to help. ALso had the opportunity to tour the southern part of the battlefield in 1984. Went to the museum and memorial ar Bastogne in '78 while on Reforger. For anybody wanting to tour the battlefield in the spring, wait till after Easter, All teh small local museums are closed during the winter, at least they were in '84.

I'll sign on to this, although my knowledge is decidedly secondhand. Call me an amatuer historian with an interest and a slowly growing library: Eisenhower's Bitter Woods, Cole's official history, MacDonald's Time For Trumpets, Danny Parker's books on land and air ops at the Bulge, and the Goldstein/Dillon pictorial. As a wargamer, I also have the simulations on the topic by Avalon Hill (horrible simulation, but a waypoint in the history of the hobby), The Gamers (fun to play, but Germans move too fast) and probably best of all the old SPI monster game Wacht Am Rhein. Probably the best simulation out there; battalion level with unit breakdown to companies. A real tough go for the Germans, particularly as the American artillery wakes up. Haven't had the opportunity to walk the battlefield, due to inadequate road maps and not enough time during my only trip to Europe. As a footnote, if anyone is interested, I HAVE crawled all over the Market-Garden operational area.
Greg

Greg---I recently returned from a tour of the Market Garden area and we can get into that fiasco if people are interested. The amazing story of the 14th Cavalry in the Losheim Gap is one of the truly heroic episodes to come out of the war. Theses guys were magnificent despite the weather, abysmal leadership, and the German's overwhelming force ratio. I can ask Jim to post my latest write up on the action if there is an interest. The best book I have (believe me I have dozens) on the Bulge is MacDonald's "Time for Trumpets." Well written and concise account of the entire battle. I'd stay away from anything Charle Whiting writes on the Bulge. Terrible. Official Army Green Book is a superb starter. Although when you take the MacDonald book and balance it against the official history you'll observe numerous conflicts of information. I attribute that to recent versus initial reports on the who and what of the area. Great subject to study. Let me know if anyone would like to read the article. I can also post the Market Garden photos with Jim's permission.
DJ

the guy who live a round the block from me was in d- day amd his brother was killed in the beach landing ....

the guy who live a round the block from me was in d- day amd his brother was killed in the beach landing .... they where in the new paper here and every thing

Another interesting take on the Battle is "The Damned Engineers" by Janice Giles. It is the story of the 291st ECB around the area of Malmedy, Trois Ponts, and Ambleve in front of Kampfgruppe Peiper and the 1st SS Panzer Corps (the North shoulder of the Bulge). A remarkable story, and enlightening as to how the German advance was thwarted by a relatively small group of soldiers. The book is likely OOP, but was available from USACE a few years back.

From the previously posted site:

251 in US service?

Are these captured and reused, or are these part of the German deception plan? could be a unique subject, either way.

DJ, I'd certainly like to read your article on the 14th Cavalry Group. I agree about MacDonald; far more accessible than Cole's official history and also benefiting from some additional distance in time. The whole thorny mess about C3I at St. Vith, Col. Devine's steadfast march to the rear, and other issues really needed to wait for some of the participants to pass away before reason and analysis could override recrimination and butt-covering, IMO. Eisenhower's book isn't a bad one, either, but is getting a bit dated. I find it interesting to read the changing nature of historiography regarding this battle; books from the 50's and 60's are very different from those written in th 80's and 90's.
Greg

DJ - the 14th CAV was the first speed bump in the way of the 1SS PZ Corps. They slowed them down sufficiently, I recall to force the deployment of German infantry to dig them out. Classic case of a good screen mission. There was just no reserves to back them up.

Ooooooooohhh, now we're getting into my field of interest. Good! Just love a good historic debate. ::::::::turning around in chair, and pulling books off shelf:::::::::::::::.
I agree with DJ's observations about McDonald. 'A Time for Trumpet's" is a great book on the subject. A bit dryer reading than say, an Ambrose book, but still excellent stuff.
Presently I'm rereading 'the Bloody Forest' about the Huertgen, but if a discussion about the Bulge is about to brew, I'll put it down and dive back into jumpstarting my Battle of the Bulge synapses. Gotta be honest here, I just 'deleted' a whole bunch of ramble I'd already typed. I'm more interested in where everyone else's going to take the thread

Tread.

This is going to be great! The people here are such great enthusist's about the subject. I'm going to enjoy this!! :-) :-) :-)

As alight weight history freak and an ex engineer with service in germany in the 70s.
I delight in seeing this post and were its going. My intrest is engineering equipment
of that era,and the 291st which is ledgendary in the engineers.
Sooooo write on I"ll read on and drag some books of the shelf


The horse The gun The Man

ponysoldier

A little bit of Battle of the Bulge Info for you from a personal level..My late Father-in-law served with 3rd battalion,14th Parachute Regt,5th Parachute division (German) and was captured by the US Army Dec 25th 1944 in the Town of Remouville after a fierce pounding by the US Army,300 men from his Battalion were captured that day.He was then transported to France and onto the States to a POW Camp at FT Knox where as he told me he had his first Coca Cola :-) In 1946 he was transported to England where he remained until 1948 as a POW,He and I toured the Battlefields of Belgium and Luxembourg quite a bit in the 1980's.
So there you are a wee bit of Bulge info.
Have a good one

Appreciate the fine input to this interesting topic area. The 14th Cavalry Group is given the mission of screening the area between the 99th Division to the north and the newly arrived 106th Divsion to the south. A screen is a security type mission in which the screening force litterally yells "here they come" and then performs a passage of lines into a superior friendly force. Now the trick here is that this Cavalry Group has two only squadrons (18th and 32nd). Each squadron has three cavalry troops of M-8 Armored Cars and jeeps, one tank company of 17 M-5 Stuarts, and one M-8 HMC company. No infantry troops. The forward squadron is the 18th. The 32nd is replensihing some 20 miles back. The snow forces them to go from a security mission of mobility to a static strong point defense of several villages. They quite ably position themselves supplemented by the fire power of a company of 76mm anti-tank guns. The problem is that there is no superior force behind them only people north and south of them. Once the Germans attack, this force has no where to go except rearward. Terrible tragedy caused primarily by everyone (I'm being cynical, but not too much) making themselves warm and comfortable in the rear while the guys on the line are sweating bullets trying to save their lives. More to follow.
DJ