At Least It’s Quiet Here

Corporal Cecil Hannaford was not happy. As the assistant squad leader in the 3rd Platoon, A Company, 110th Infantry Regiment, he had just learned that his platoon had been ordered to leave the warm safe shelter of their buildings in …

1944-12-12

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Corporal Cecil Hannaford was not happy. As the assistant squad leader in the 3rd Platoon, A Company, 110th Infantry Regiment, he had just learned that his platoon had been ordered to leave the warm safe shelter of their buildings in Heinerscheid, to set up a roadblock nearly a mile away in Kalborn. Reluctantly, Hannaford and the others moved out into the cold night. “We ran a phone line to our outpost as our only communication with the company HQ” in Heinerscheid. When they got to their OP position, Hannaford was dismayed to see that it was “in plain view of the road on the next hill.” As he and his foxhole buddy dug in and set up their position, Corporal Hannaford could only think of the rest of the company, cozy and dry back in Heinerscheid. They finished digging in, and Hannaford took the first watch. Oh well, he thought, at least it’s quiet here.

Kalborn, Luxembourg

Operation Queen was an American operation during World War II on the Western Front at the German Siegfried Line. The operation was aimed against the Rur River, as a staging point for a subsequent thrust over the river to the Rhine into Germany. It was conducted by the First and Ninth U.S. Armies. The offensive commenced on 16 November 1944 with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombings of the war. However, the Allied advance was unexpectedly slow, against heavy German resistance, especially in the Hürtgen Forest through which the main thrust of the offensive was carried out. By mid-December, the Allies finally reached the Rur and tried to capture its important dams, when the Germans launched their own offensive, dubbed Wacht am Rhein. The ensuing Battle of the Bulge led to the immediate cessation of Allied offensive efforts into Germany until February 1945.

Wikipedia: Operation Queen

American

German