If you’ve ever read the Grimms Brothers fairy stories of Hansel and Gretel or Snow White, then you’ll already have a really good feel for the dark, sinister Hürtgen Forest that Omar Bradley’s First Army entered in September 1944. Journalist, William Walton, of Time/Life magazines told its story in the 1stJanuary 1945 issue of Life magazine, under the headline “A Gloomy German Woods Takes Its Place In U.S. History Beside The Wilderness And The Argonne.

This fight is essential in understanding the character and military skills of Omar N. Bradley, and I’m going to start to tell that story right now.

Tag words: Brothers Grimm; Hürtgen Forest; Omar Bradley; US First Army; Time/Life magazines; The Wilderness; The Argonne; David Irving The War Between the Generals; Hank Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Rick Atkinson; The Guns at Last Light; Roer River; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants;