How the Battle of Hurtgen Forest became one of the biggest US losses

Gray clouds hung low, and a steady drizzle dripped through the tall fir trees of the Hürtgen Forest along the German-Belgian border early on the morning of Thursday, Nov. 16, 1944. As sporadic artillery volleys thumped in the distance, batches of shivering German soldiers ventured from the forward foxholes and bunkers of Lt. Gen. Hans Schmidt’s 275th Infantry Division, scouting for signs of an expected American attack. Less than a mile away men of the 22nd U.S. Infantry’s rifle and weapons companies rolled up their blankets and ate breakfast.

Commanding the regiment was 42-year-old Colonel Charles T. “Buck” Lanham, a wiry, graying graduate of West Point’s Class of 1924 who led from the front and expected the same of subordinates. The 22nd was responsible for a three-mile front in the Hü