US Infantry

= personal recollection

2nd Infantry28th Infantry30th Infantry75th Infantry83rd Infantry84th Infantry87th Infantry90th Infantry99th Infantry106th Infantry

2nd Infantry

Halland W. Hankel (2nd Infantry Division), "Letter to my wife January 9, 1945"

George R. Gaut (2nd Infantry Division), "My Memory of Liege, Belgium"

James Branch (2nd Infantry Division) "A story of the battle that took place there in Krinkelt, Belgium"

28th Infantry

"Buying Time At The Battle Of The Bulge" by Gary Schreckengost, World War II (n.d.)

"Outnumbered and outgunned, the men of the 110th Infantry Regiment upset the German timetable during the Battle of the Bulge."

30th Infantry

Frank Warnock (30th Infantry Division), "The story of a small town in Belgium, Stavelot" on fighting in Stavelot and a German attrocity against the civilians:

"It was … near vicinity that we came across the butchery by perhaps these same S.S. of the 23 civilians of the city. Perhaps if we had known of this massacre at the time of capture, they would not have been taken prisoner. I heard and read long later that they were tried by military court and hanged. Good!"

Edward C. Arn (30th Infantry Division).

"Major General James Gavin, Commanding Officier of the entire and very famous 82nd Airborne Division, out ahead of the whole division with a jeep and a driver! I was dumfounded and so were my men with me."

Henry M. Stairs (30th Infantry Division), "I was in Stavelot"

Tom Bailey, (HQs, 143rd A.A.A. 30th Infantry Division), "V-1 Buzz Bombs, Liege, Belgium"

Thomas Bailey (30th Infantry Division, 143rd AAA Bn)

Howard Froberg MRE(743rd Tank Battalion, attached to the 30th Infantry Division) recalled by Lucille Froberg, "Coincidences"

75th Infantry

Jack Graber (75th Infantry Division). Battle diary, with recent recollections added in.

Daniel R. Shine (75th Infantry Division), told to his son who contextualized it and cast in in third-person. Includes four vignettes, from December 26th to January 1. Also on Grunts.net.

Russell R. Vedeloff (75th Infantry Division)

"Battle of Grand Halleux" by Steve Graber, son of Jack Graber.

83rd Infantry

Bob Conroy on three days of battle (Private, 83rd Infantry) and on the death of Gordon , from The American Experience: Vets Remember .

Luther Strunk (83rd Infantry Division), "Battle of the Bulge at Fraiture"

84th Infantry

Ed Stewart (Sergeant, 84th Infantry) on artillery fire The American Experience: Vets Remember . On artillery fire from 88s:

"You almost begin to like the sound because this gives you some information of what you might do, or what's going to happen."

Theodore Draper (84th Infantry Division),"Battle in the Bulge with the 84th Infantry Division." Begins with an excellent description of the terrain and the tactical problems it presents.

"Liberation of La Roche-en-Ardenne" January 11, 1945. Recollections from participants in the meet-up between the 84th US Infantry Division and the Scottish 51st Highland Division (Black Watch).

87th Infantry

Jim Hennessey (87th Infantry Division), deserves quoting:

"In the confusion of the battle none of our patrol members knew the password. Knowing German soldierswere using captured American uniforms the right password meant life or death I had to think fast. Whatever made me answer this way, I will never know, I yelled out, 'We are Americans. We don't know the password. But if you are a GI, we'll kiss your f--k--g a-s.' The sentry knew no German could curse like that, we were allowed to enter our lines."

E. Samuel Dudley (87th Infantry Division), "Link-up between American and British Troops at Noir Bras, Champlon. January 14, 1945"

Marvin Cernohous (87th Infantry Division), "A Battlefiled Angel." More of Cernohous' recollections are at My Story of the World War II.

"For me there was no Battle of the Bulge, the fighting, and all, it made no difference what you called it. To me it didn't end until the War was over and I returned home and was out of the service."

"Towns and Villages in the Ardennes" 87th Infantry Division Operations Summary by Cecil G. Davis.

H.L. Aronson (87th Infantry Division). Met up with the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry of the 51st Highland Division. This impressed me:

"I suddenly realized that our two little groups had closed our part of the bulge! Probably, the Highland Division's greatest moment was in the Western Desert of Egypt against Rommel at El Alamein, so this little episode did not mean too much to them. For me, it was momentous! Most platoon leaders don't experience much of the big picture in war. They just know about what is going on immediately around them. I suspect that even today, with all the sophisticated communications equipment, it is not much different. All we knew was that we were there to stop breakthrough, and that we must have helped with some of the stopping."

"The Power and the Glory: The 87th Division Attacks" by Mitchell Kaidy, from the 87th Infantry Division Association Website, on the Dec. 30 "meeting engagement" between the 87th and German forces.

Cecil G. Davis (87th Infantry Division) "History of the anti-tank companies of the 87th Division" A mixture of personal recollection and historical reconstruction.

Lennie Husa (87th Infantry Division)

Bill Jasper (87th Infantry Division), "I was at Andler and Manderfeld"

90th Infantry

Dent Wheeler, "Axis Sally" mocks GIs in the snow, from The American Experience: Dispatches.

"Your wives and girlfriends are probably home in a nice warm building, dancing with some other men. You're over here in the cold."

Donald Carl Chumley, "A Replacement's Story." From The American Experience: Dispatches.

"A combat infantryman just does not last forever under combat conditions."

99th Infantry

Amazon. Infantry Soldier: Holding the Line at the Battle of the Bulge by George W. Neill. Neill was a rifleman in the 99th Division, on the northern flank of the German attack. Publisher's Weekly writes, "Vignettes of heroic virtues, youthful innocence, formative experiences, fateful chance happenings and indiscriminate slaughter are credible and compelling."

B.C. Henderson (99th Infantry Division), "Suicide Patrol." Harrowing account of a patrol gone awry. Hans J. Wijers's Battle of the Bulge site.

Don Wallace (99th Infantry Division) from Hans J. Wijers's Battle of the Bulge site. Parts also on CRIBA and Joek's Bulge site.

Donald Wallace (99th Infantry Division) "Overseas With the 99th Division"

Russell E. Guerra (99th Infantry Division), "My Diary." Minimal, sometimes desperate diary of a POW.

"Remember these things as you read. Remember too that the American spirit proved stronger than the efforts of those bastards who bruised us but could not break us."

106th Infantry

I have created a special section for Lt. Eric Wood.

William M. Slayden II, "The Battle of the Bulge." This is a excellent detailed account with both local and global perspectives. Shortly before the battle began Col. Slayden, normally of 11th Armored Division, had been given the special mission of helping the 106th division, which had not been in combat, get "oriented to combat operations." He was embroiled in the carnage and confusion, moved all over the battlefield, and privy to and had considerable voice in meetings with the commander of the 106th, Gen. Jones.

A German news photograph of a ruined US vehicle and a body leads Jack Roberts (U.S. 106th Infantry Division) to the spot where he was ambushed on Dec. 16, 1944, from Hans Wijers's Battle of the Bulge site.

Amazon. A Teen's War: Training, Combat, Capture by Hal Richard Taylor. Author's blurb elsewhere states:

"The story is unique compared to most war books, for it contains none of the pedantic pretenses of most military histories, filled with strategy or the so-called 'Big Picture.'"

John Kline. As a 19 year-old machine-gun seargant in the 106th Infantry Division was captured by the Germans:

"We received the initial thrust of the German counter-offensive. I was captured on 19 December, 1944. I spent four months as a Prisoner of War, walking over 525 miles, with a loss of 50 pounds of �fighting� body weight. I was only in a sheltered camp for one month and one week."

The 106th Infantry Division Association website has a wealth of information on the division, which took the initial thrust of the Ardennes Offensive, suffering terrible losses. Highlights include:

• Select articles from their magazine, The Cub of the Golden, published every quarter since 1946
• The Story of the 106th Infantry Division, published in July 1945, by the U.S. Army Information and Education Services.
• The service diary of Sergeant John P. Kline's, captured in action by the Germans.

Hans Wijers's Battle of the Bulge site, a collection of resources of various types, mostly personal accounts and narratives of action (linked to separately elsewhere on this site). He also has some photographs of battle relics from the war-zone.

John Schaffner, "589th Field Artillery Battalion, Battery A"

Jack Sulser (106th Infantry Division). Quotes from an account of his experience, surrounded and a POW, from Hans J. Wijers's Battle of the Bulge site.

Three-part narrative of the 106th Infantry Division in the Schnee Eifel: 1. Dispositions of the 106th Infantry Division, 2. The Attack, 3. Disaster in the Schnee Eifel, from Hans J. Wijers's Battle of the Bulge site.

Amazon. St Vith: Lion in the Way : 106th Infantry Division in World War II by Ernest Dupuy.

Amazon. Saint Vith: Us 106th Infantry Division by Michael Tolhurst (Men-At-Arms Series).

Thomas "Mac" Barrick (106th Infantry Division), "Holy Night in Hell Frozen Over."

Just before dawn we were challenged by a dug-in and camouflaged American outpost on the edge of a woods.
"What's the password?"
"We don't know. We've been cut off for ten days."
"Like hell – you Kraut bastards aren't going to pull that one on us again!' And with that they called in a heavy mortar barrage right on top of us. We were totally exposed and helpless.

Thomas "Mac" Barrick (106th Infantry Division), "Rage Kills." Barrick is pretty card-core.

Randolph Pierson (106th Infantry Division), "Parker's Crossroads Revisited"

Richard D. Sparks (106th Infantry Division), "A Walk Through the Woods," first published CUB Magazine (Jul-Aug-Sep 1997). Detailed, gripping narratives.

John Gatens (106th Infantry Division) also ended up a POW.

"A Marshy Country Crossroads in the Storm: Baraque de Fraiture in December 1944 or Parker's Crossroads" by Lucien Cailloux, for CRIBA.