The 28th Infantry Division in the Hürtgen Forest

Forgotten Sacrifice

Walter S Zapotoczny Jr

• Publisher: Fonthill Media
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781036156664
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

The five-month Battle of the Hürtgen Forest (September 1944–February 1945) cost the U.S. Army more than 34,000 casualties, a tremendous number, and yet historians have rarely given it the attention it deserves, lending it the epithet “the Forgotten Sacrifice.” The reasons are clear. Not only was this one of the bloodiest and most disastrous U.S. campaigns of the war, its strategic importance was eclipsed twice over: first by Field Marshal Montgomery’s Operation Market-Garden, which aimed to open a route of advance into Germany via the capture of a series of Dutch bridges, and second, by Germany’s surprise attack in mid-December through the Ardennes in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. This hard fought and well-earned Allied victory overshadowed the debacle that was occurring less than 20 miles to the north of the Ardennes.

The 28th Infantry Division bore much of the pain in the Hürtgen Forest, losing 6,184 men killed, wounded, or missing. But despite these losses, the division played a crucial role in the broader Allied effort to repel the German forces in the region. Drawing on many first-hand accounts, The 28th Infantry Division in the Hürtgen Forest: Forgotten Sacrifice tells the story of the most gruelling and costly chapter of that supreme effort.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Abbreviations and Definitions
• Brief Chronology
• Introduction
• 1 The Need to Secure the Roer River Dams
• 2 The Battle for Aachen and the First Attempt in the Hürtgen Forest
• 3 The Terrain and Preparations
• 4 109th Infantry Operations
• 5 110th Infantry Operations
• 6 112th Infantry Operations
• 7 707th Tank Battalion
• 8 630th Tank Destroyer Battalion
• 9 893rd Tank Destroyer Battalion
• 10 1340th Engineer Combat Battalion
• 11 20th Engineer Combat Battalion
• 12 146th Engineer Combat Battalion
• 13 Reflections from Veterans’ Memoirs
• 14 112th Infantry Medical Evacuation Report
• 15 German 89th Infantry Division Mirror
• 16 Analyses and Lessons Learned
• Epilogue
• Appendix A: Letter of Instruction from V Corps to Commanding Generals of 4th, 9th, 28th Infantry and 5th Armored Divisions, and V Corps Artillery
• Appendix B: M29 Weasel
• Appendix C: M4 Sherman Tank
• Appendix D: M10 Tank Destroyer
• Appendix E: 28th Infantry Division Casualties
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Plates