but he ordered the hurtgen operation to proceed of pace. that meant that for two weeks across the 170-mile front of the u.s. first and ninth armies, the 28th division would be the only attacking u.s. unit. attracting the undivided attention of german defenders. the tactical plan for the 28th was imposed by fifth corps staff officers squinting at a map far from the front and it required general norm coda, the division commander, to splinter his force and attack on three divergent axis. so november 2nd, 1944, g.i.'s heed themselves try dough boys going over the top and 11 raked german regiments, but the two american regiments were chewed up by machine guns and mines, hardly making a dent. however, the main attack by the 112 regiment with tanks went through to valsenak, a village on a ridge, two miles from schmidt. you can see an aerial photo of the village. on november 3rd, the attack resumed. from there, the ridge plunged into a gorge. a deep ravine crossed by a cart track. one too many. well, take my word for it. an infantry battalion pushe

e battles at hurtgen and peleliu. this event was part of a three-day conference hosted by the national world war ii museum in new orleans. it's 75 minutes. >> so welcome back, everyone. for those of you who are frequent attendant dees at our conferences, the next three panelists need no introduction but i'm going to anyway. first, we have rick atkinson, three time pulitzer prize winner and author of the "magnificent trilogy." having conquered western europe and africa, rick has moved back in time and is working on a trilogy on the american revolution. but we're fortunate and grateful that he can come back down to be with his friends here and followers. rick is joined by one of the useum's other key advisors and presidential counselors rich frank. he is the author of "guadl canal" which is one of the definitive stories of this battle. moderating the session is tom crane who has been a long-time friend of the museum and a colleague of mine from our army war college days. khan's book is an updated version of his previous

ninth division tried to outflank aucke through the hurtgen forest. the division had suffered 45,000 and that's a man down every two feet. and they were nowhere near their objectives. this is the ninth division. attacking into a dense wood neutralized american advantages in irma, artillery, airpower and mobility. but general hodges believed no drive to the roar river was prudent without securing the hurtgen and the high ground across it especially around the village of schmidt , from which every approach to n wasiver from aucke visible from the so-called stoberg corridor. nobody was willing to challenge hodges. the historian russell widely later wrote that the most likely way to make the hurtgen forest a menace to the american army was to send american troops sh.acking into its dept no consideration was given to either bypassing or screening the forest, or outflanking schmidt by sending fifth corps in the lowerw, left corner of this map. a flanking attack would have permitted the capture of seven dams on the rural. you can see the reservoirs on this m

e battles at hurtgen and peleliu. this event was part of a three-day conference hosted by the national world war ii museum in new orleans. it's 75 minutes. >> so welcome back, everyone. for those of you who are frequent attendant dees at our conferences, the next three panelists need no introduction but i'm going to anyway. first, we have rick atkinson, three time pulitzer prize winner and author of the "magnificent tril

on american history historians rick atkinson and richard frank talk about to world war ii battles, hurtgen f peleliu, but resulted in high american cap -- casualties. the talk about whether these battles are necessary and if they impacted the larger campaigns. was part of a larger three day campaign hosted by the american world war ii museum in new orleans. >> welcome back everyone. for those of you who are frequent attendant dees at our conferences, the next three