Rush, Robert Sterling, Hell in Hürtgen Forest: The Ordeal and Triumph of an American Infantry Regiment. The U.S. Army regards the Hurtgen Forest as one of the most desperate battles it has ever fought. Battle Of Hurtgen Forest (West Wall) [Charles Whiting] on Amazon.com. I was unaware of author Charles Whiting before, and after reading just a few chapters, I did a little research to find out just who he was—I downloaded … Get this from a library! [Charles Whiting] -- Thirty thousand American GIs were killed or wounded in the longest battle ever fought by the US Army - a battle that should never have been fought. By the time the smoke cleared, nearly 30,000 GIs had been killed or wounded. Tribute video to the men of the US 9th Infantry Division. The little known Battle of Hürtgen Forest was fought from October 1944 to February 1945 south and east of Aachen, Germany. IN LATE OCTOBER 1944, the U.S. First Army set up its winter headquarters in the Belgian town of Spa. A Google Web search returns a lot of false positives it is necessary to to to the last page returned to see the true figures: But the gist of it is that the Huertgen Forest was one hugely difficult military challenge to overcome and according to this author the way it was overc a battle that seems to have been overshadowed by the subsequent Battle of the Bulge. The Battle for Hurtgen Forest was a difficult book to finish, not because the subject matter (the bloodiest and most futile American campaign of the war in Western Europe) was so disheartening, but because the book is so poorly written. In September 1944, three months after the invasion of Normandy, the Allied armies prepared to push the German forces back into their homeland. Buy The Battle of Hurtgen Forest (PB) First Thus by Charles Whiting (ISBN: 9780330420518) from Amazon's Book Store. The ferocity and horrors of this long running engagement rank near the top for World War II. In The Battle of the Huertgen Forest, Charles B. MacDonald assesses this major American operation, discussing the opposing forces on the eve of the battle and offering a clearly written and well-documented history of the battle and the bitter consequences of the American move into the forest.