Customer Reviews

The Ardennes Offensive US V Corps & XVIII (Airborne) Corps: Northern Sector (Order of Battle)

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I was very surprised to find that the Table of Organization Quarrie provides for each of the six infantry divisions involved includes radical errors in the battalion makeup. Quarrie correctly shows three infantry battalions in each regiment. But his listing of companies within each battalion is quite wrong, as follows:

1st Bn.: A, B, and C Cos.

2nd Bn.: D, E, and F Cos.

3rd Bn.: G, H, and I Cos.

In fact each of the three infantry battalions was composed of three rifle companies and a heavy weapons company (armed with Browning .30 cal. water-cooled machine guns and 60mm and 81mm mortars), as follows:

1st Bn.: 3 rifle companies, A, B and C, and D Co. (heavy weapons).

2nd Bn.: 3 rifle companies, E, F and G, and H Co. (heavy weapons).

3rd Bn.: 3 rifle companies. I, K and L, and M Co. (heavy weapons).

(To avoid confusion, 'J' was not used as a company designation.)

Quarrie's T/O charts make no mention of the three heavy weapons companies in each regiment, D, H and M, one assigned to each battalion.

This fundamental error raises real questions as to Quarrie's account of the Ardennes offensive, insofar as he references specific infantry units below regimental size.

My knowledge of this is first hand. From May 1944 through December, 1944, I was a member of H Co., 2nd Bn, 393rd Inf. Regt., 99th Infantry Division. This period includes its engagement in the Battle of the Bulge and on Elsenborn Ridge. After a hospital stay in Wales I rejoined H Co. in March, just after it had crossed the Rhine at Remagen.