Военная история / Patton's Pawns: The 94th US Infantry Division at the Siegfried Line

Издательство: The University of  Alabama Press
Автор: Tony Le Tissier
Название: Patton's Pawns: The 94th US Infantry Division at the Siegfried Line
Язык: английский
Год издания: 2007
Количество страниц: 378
ISBN: 978-0-8173-1557-3
Формат: True PDF
Размер: 4 мб

The 94th U.S. Infantry Division was an organization formed late in the Second World War, made up largely of draft-deferred university students as enlisted men and an officer corps pulled together from various domestic postings - with unfortunate consequences for mutual trust and respect. Initially used as part of the force blockading the Brittany ports after D-Day, in December of 1944, the division was incorporated into General Patton's Third Army south of the Moselle-Saar Triangle, the base of which was a portion of the Siegfried Line known as the Orscholz Switch. Its first combat experience came in battalion-sized attacks during that terrible winter while the Battle of the Bulge raged to the north, and the Division suffered heavy casualties, many due to the ferocity of the winter weather. Patton, with characteristic zeal, excoriated the division's officers and senior NCOs for the rate of non-combat casualties.