Behind the History

The barrage

The German artillery opened at 0530 on December 16, 1944, and lifted at about 0615.

“Artificial moonlight”

Manteuffel’s 5th Panzer Army bounced searchlights off the low clouds to light the way for its infantry. That places Stalker in the center of the offensive, aimed at St. Vith and Bastogne.

A thin, green line

The 106th Infantry Division had taken over its stretch of front only days before the attack. The 4th and 28th Infantry Divisions had been sent to this quiet sector to recover from the Hürtgen Forest. Two regiments of the 106th, the 422nd and 423rd, surrendered on the Schnee Eifel on December 19.

American voices on the radio

The infantry’s SCR-300 backpack radio worked on FM between 40 and 48 MHz, inside the PRC-158’s band, so Webb could hear 1944 traffic. On the first morning, units reported artillery on every position. The book paraphrases this and does not quote real messages.

Horses, bicycles and half-tracks

Volksgrenadier divisions moved their guns and supplies with horses; trucks and half-tracks mostly went to the panzer and SS divisions. By late 1944 each had a fusilier company for reconnaissance, issued a large number of bicycles. The Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track ran a six-cylinder Maybach gasoline engine.

No Waffen-SS here

On December 16 the Waffen-SS panzer divisions were with the 6th Panzer Army in the north. The 5th Panzer Army’s sector held army and Volksgrenadier units.

FictionThe SS sweep Stalker runs into, which is outside the normal order of battle.

Hitler at Adlerhorst

Hitler arrived at his western field headquarters near Ziegenberg on December 11, 1944, and left in mid-January 1945.

Rogers’ Standing Order 17

The 1750s rule every Ranger learns: if someone is trailing you, circle back onto your own tracks and ambush the ambushers.

Marvie

Held by the 2nd Battalion, 327th Glider Infantry, with Team O’Hara of the 10th Armored Division. Panzer Lehr struck on December 20. On December 23 its 901st Panzergrenadier Regiment attacked at about 1730 with roughly ten Mark IV tanks, taking Hill 500 first. The fight ended in a stalemate, each side holding part of the village.

FictionThe attached unit with no insignia, and the copied rocket launchers it carries.

“NUTS!”

On December 22, German envoys came through F Company, 327th Glider Infantry, with a surrender demand. McAuliffe’s first reaction was “Aw, nuts.” His G-3, Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard, suggested making it the reply, and Col. Bud Harper delivered it.

FictionCole’s part in what McAuliffe knew that day.

Relief

Patton’s 4th Armored Division broke through to Bastogne on December 26, 1944.

The M16 and its powder

Designed around stick powder, the rifle fouled and failed to extract when the Army switched to ball powder around 1964. Congress investigated in 1967. The M16A1 added a forward assist, and chrome-plated chambers followed.

FictionGerman copies loaded with period propellant, and the jams that give them away.

The M60’s German ancestry

The M60 combined the MG42’s belt feed with the FG42’s operating system. German engineers would have found it strangely familiar.

The M72 LAW

A 66mm one-shot disposable rocket, effective to about 200 m against stationary targets. One man, one light tube, thrown away after firing.

The 6th Panzer Army in Hungary

Pulled out of the Ardennes in January 1945, it fought at the Gran bridgehead and in Operation Spring Awakening around Lake Balaton in March. It became the 6th SS Panzer Army only on April 2, 1945. For secrecy, SS divisions sent to Hungary were ordered to take off their cuff titles and the markings on their vehicles.

FictionHow the SS battalion reached the Budapest front.

Operation Osoaviakhim

On October 22, 1946, the Soviets moved more than 2,000 German specialists to the USSR in a single operation, alongside the documents and laboratories their trophy commissions had seized.

The skull in Moscow

In 2009, University of Connecticut researchers tested a skull fragment the Russians held as Hitler’s. It came from a woman.