J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [65]
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On December 8, Salinger arrived at his new post, an area in Luxembourg described as being “a paradise for weary soldiers.”34 Evidence shows that he was deployed in the area of Echternach, a town across the Sauer River from Germany. For the first time in weeks his unit would sleep on actual beds, eat real food, shower, and change their clothing at will. Some were even promised passes to Belgium or Paris. Most comforting, the new position was chosen because it was quiet, away from the heat of combat, which some believed would break these soldiers.
On December 16, after a short week of relative calm and inactivity, the 12th Infantry Regiment—still far from having been rebuilt—was suddenly engulfed by German forces. At dawn, Echternach and surrounding towns came under artillery fire, destroying the regiment’s communications centers and essentially cutting it off from the rest of the division. At 9 A.M., the force of two German infantry regiments—complete and fresh—slammed into the 12th head-on. The troops were stunned. Entire companies were surrounded. Whole platoons were isolated and lost.
This was Hitler’s great counteroffensive, the first day of the Battle of the Bulge, initially focused almost exclusively on the 12th Infantry Regiment. While the 12th fought for its existence, both regiments adjacent to the 12th (the 8th and 22nd) reported little or no enemy activity on December 16.35
The Battle of the Bulge was the costliest engagement in American military history. For Salinger and his comrades it must have seemed like an extension of Hürtgen. It meant more nights sleeping in the snow. It meant more fighting in the forest—this time the Ardennes. It meant more exhaustion and blood.
The 12th struggled bravely against the odds. In Echternach, E Company was encircled on December 16 and survived only by finding refuge in the ruins of a hat factory. For three days, the company fought the encroaching Germans as other troops from the 12th struggled to relieve them. On December 19, just as Echternach was being overrun by German forces, an armored task force rammed its way into the town to rescue the besieged men. To the surprise of the task force, the leader of E Company refused to leave the hat factory and insisted upon defending it with his remaining soldiers. Cut off from communications, he had received no orders to relinquish his position. Unable to persuade the unit to retreat, the task force stayed with it in the hat factory until nightfall, when they were forced to withdraw to protect their tanks. As they withdrew, they could see enemy soldiers swarming over the factory. The opportunity for E Company to escape had vanished.36 No one would survive.
The situation was chaotic. The regiment had been sliced into segments, many no larger than platoons of twenty men that were forced to react as independent fighting units. Although Echternach fell briefly to the enemy, the 12th Regiment successfully defended surrounding towns, preventing the Germans from advancing to Luxembourg City and thereby saving the nation.
In the end, Hitler’s offensive failed—not because it was ill planned or because the Allies outmaneuvered him but due to attrition. In the winter of 1944, the German army dealt the Allies a blow that nearly toppled them, with Salinger and his regiment receiving the lion’s share of the punishment. But the Allies regained the ground they had lost because they had the ability to replace the fallen. The Germans did not. The troops and equipment lost by the Germans