WELCOME TO SPACESHIP HARVEY

First, I would like to thank you for your visit. In Spaceship Harvey you'll find posts and links which interest me and, hopefully, you as well. This blog will mainly - but not always - concentrate on topics of general interest such as current events, sports, national and international political news. I'll also include off the cuff stuff which have nothing to do with anything and stuff that I just make up. This blog will also carry my personal opinion on a variety of subjects of interest to me, ranging from military history to politics, environmental wackos, dangerous animals and religious nuts. As you will see my opinions will sometimes be controversial, but I make a lot of stuff up. Profanity and abusive language will not be tolerated- that includes the use of gratuitous insults but no topic is off limits. Unlike many other blogs Spaceship Harvey will contain my views on the subject, not just a copy and link to a news item - unless I post a lifted article that I liked. This blog encourages feedback by use of the comment link.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

U.S. Army 42nd Infantry Div. in Op. Nordwin

It was bitter cold with a foot of snow on the ground and no moonlight the night of January 24, 1945, as the green GIs of the 42nd ‘Rainbow Division’s 222nd Infantry Regiment strained to see the enemy. But a low ground fog covering the firebreak between their positions in the Ohlungen Forest and the Haguenau Forest before them made this an almost useless exercise. More chillingly, they could hear sounds from the woods beyond, sounds of tramping feet and loud talking. Water turned to ice in the bottoms of their foxholes. Anxiety built as they waited for the unseen enemy to come swarming out of the woods.

By January 1945, Adolf Hitler’s Ardennes offensive was faltering, and in a last-ditch effort to break through Allied lines, the Führer scraped together what forces he could to launch an offensive into Alsace. Earlier German attacks in the area had created two small salients above and below Strasbourg and had forced the U.S. Seventh Army back on an arm that pivoted on Bischwiller, not far from the Rhine River, and extended northwest along the Moder River.

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