Hurtgen Forest trip 2010

Hi Jagdpanther,

Interessting topic, I offcourse also visited the places that you have shown here in this topic.
On your last series of photo's; the "MG Schild" at Wahlerscheid, a local forester told me that after the war he found a couple of hunderd "glass mines" in the valley just below the location of that small bunker.

The monument for the American soldier at Wahlerscheid / Heartbreak Crossroads has been founded by a german who lives in Vossenack, he has helped a friend of mine and me to find a American MIA at the town of Vossenack, unfortunally without succes.
The fighting for Heartbreak Crossroad occurred early december. After a lot of casulties the Americans conquered the crossroads with roads leading to Monschau / Rocherath / Schleiden only to be given up at 16 december when the Battle of the Bulge started and the Americans were pushed back all the way to Elsenborn Ridge.


With the best Regards,

 

Good to see you back, Nick - I thought we'd lost you !

 

Greetings Martin,

Yes I come and go.
I see that the forum has a new layout while I was gone, looks superb.

And about the remnants of that shoe JagdPanther find it is indeed US and not German.
Found one a few weeks ago with nice markings on it.

 

Thanks for the info, Nick and like Martin has mentioned - it is good to see you back here.

The thought of there being mines still buried in the ground in the forest is always in my mind when i'm there. The glass mines being the most concern as my metal detector would not pick them up!

I didn't inspect the boot in any great detail so I don't know if there were any markings on it. With hindsight, I should have brought it back with me.

 

Just did some digging in old archives and found some pictures from the bunker 139/40 at Der Buhlert dated from FEB 2006, back then the bunker was without the modern graffity....

 

It winds me up so much to see graffiti on these 'monuments'.

The inside of the bunker was defaced just as much as the outside!

Nick, looking at your photo it appears that it was taken late/early in the year. Do you find this a better time to visit the area?

 

Absolutly... in the summer its a complete horror!! Musquito's, ticks, flies you name it. Excspecially when you are digging due to body heat insects come swarming around you. Best time is in the fall and in the spring.
Last weekend it was very could, -9 degrees and we slept in the woods without a tent! The second night we ran to a hotel...
The picture was taken in feb 2006, when you visit my old topic in Living History; Abwehrschlacht im Hürtgenwald, you see on page 1 the pictures of the bunker in Der Buhlert with findings, and on page 5 pictures and findings near that MG schild at Heart Break crossroads.


Regards,

 

I have only ever been to the region in early September and the mosquitoes and flies are a real problem then!

You are brave to have slept in the forest in those conditions, it doesn't bear thinking about what it must have been like there in the winter of '44.

 

Well the cold doesn't matter if you see this coming to the surface.

 

Ohh! Don't tease us, Nick.

Show us the completely unearthed find!

 

My first, US Fixed Bail.

 

Great stuff!

Is the liner still present?

 

What a find...quite amazing.

 

Unfortunally no liner was present. But still quite happy with it.

 

Ah, super find 272VGD, Im sure your happy!

 

We Stumbled upon this memorial to a US soldier purely by chance. It is situated near to what was known as Heartbreak Crossroads.

I was one of the 3 folks that put this one in the ground. The other 2 were the local Buergermeister and German Army Retired Command Sargeant Major Bernie Henkelmann from Vossenack. I do have photosso,mewhere I can dig out of us putting it im. Glad to see it is still there.

 

Hi HW digger, how is it with Bernd? Didn't spoke with him in a few years, after his stroke...
Hope he is doing well.

Nick

 

Oh and last time I checked the copperplates with tekst were missing... dirty thieves.......no respect at all.

 

Unfortunately not an uncommon occurence these days the thiving scum get everywhere !!

 

I got a call from the state of Virginia this morning. John is the one that provided the info for this action. The sister of Jahr is visiting John today and I sent him all the photos I had taken when we cemented this cross in the ground. As much as I woujld like to return to Germany and continue my Huertgen Forest research I may be headed to Afghanistan for a few years instead.