Hürtgenwald

The Americans completely miscalculated North Eifel region’s rugged terrain. They became disoriented in an area the German forces, the Wehrmacht, had crisscrossed with trenches and peppered with anti-personnel mines, making the wood into a veritable fortress. Continual rain and fog, followed by snow and frigid temperatures turned the battle into a scene of dystopian butchery.
Author Ernest Hemingway spent 18 days on the front in the Hürtgen forest. He wrote later, “It was a place where it was extremely difficult for a man to stay alive even if all he did was be there”.