The Command Is Forward

The so-called lull in October 1944 in Lorraine was anything but that. It was Hell for the infantrymen of the 101st Regiment. We lived like animals in our holes in the ground in the mud, cold, wet, and rain under artillery barrages and sniper fire. Men were killed every day. Then came the Third Army offensive of November 8. It was Hell all over again, but there was no lull. We were still covered with mud and we were wet, cold, hungry, and miserable. After attacking one day, we had to get out of our holes and do it all over again the next morning against an enemy that contested every few yards of ground. And we did this for the next five weeks in the same conditions in the fortifications of the Maginot Line until the brief respite in Metz.

The story of the 101st Infantry Regiment in Lorraine is told through first person narrative accounts of bloody and violent combat engagements.These are blended with the war diary of the 101st Infantry from August 1944 to May 9, 1945, and the first person campaign reports of the commanding generals of the two main German divisions against which the 101st fought up to mid-November, the 11th Panzer Division and the 361st Volks Grenadier Division. Photographs and maps portray some of these actions.