WESTERN FRONT`45 - Old Hickory - THE WAY TO THE RHINE: 30th I.D. (German Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

The last great battle of the winter campaign, the Roer crossing, finally began during the pre-dawn hours of February 23. It was long overdue. For almost three months American sentries had glared sourly and gloomily across the river from their outposts on the west bank. The attack had been postponed many times and it sometimes looked as though they would sit there forever. Newly returned from the vicious fighting of the Ardennes, many of the assault troops worried about how successful their attack over that long-standing barrier, the Roer, would be. Weeks later, when a newspaper correspondent tried to coax some words of exultation out of some 30th Infantrymen who had just assaulted across the Rhine, he found they preferred to talk about the Roer. The Rhine battle was big and complicated and spectacular. But the success of the Roer assault gave men proof that the long grinding winter battle was over, and hope that the end of the war, perhaps, was in sight.