Follow Me and Die

FOLLOW ME AND DIE is one of the best books written about the five month campaign in an area since known, at least in US military History, as the Huertgen Forest. After having read Charles B. MacDonald and Charles Whiting's books on the same subject, I was intrigued by the battle. Prior to my research into the subject, I incorrectly assessed the Huertgen campaign as an insignificant precursor to Ardennes Offensive. After reading FOLLOW ME AND DIE I came away with a greater appreciation for the battle and the devestation inflicted on American divisions that were fed into the bloody forest. In military history the Huertgen Forest has been defined as 50 miles of woodland running from Monschau to the former Roman colony of Duren. Up until 1944 however, Huertgen Wald was technically nothing more than the woodlot adjacent to the minor crossroad village of Huertgen. As the Huertgen crossroads were an American intermediate objective, the whole forested zone, to the Americans, became the Huertgen Forest. Even today the area is studded with the remains of pillboxes, concrete anti-tank dragon's teeth obstacles, and hundreds of cuts and depressions in the forest floor of what used to be American and German foxholes. FOLLOW ME AND DIE primarily focuses on the 28th Infantry Division's struggle to seize both sides of the Kall Gorge. In doing so the US 1st Army would gain a dominating position overlooking the Roer River and the Roer dams. At least that was the way the mission was portrayed after the war. As it turns out, discussion about the Roer as an objective -- of any sort -- was not mentioned or documented until well into the Huertgen battle. The battle for the Huertgen begins with a handful of scratch German units holding off superior American forces. After some particularly tough fighting the Americans slowly overwhelm the German positions on the Weisser Weh and fight their way into Vossenack. With initiative on their side, the 28th Division pushes elements, including tanks, down the the Kall trail and up the other side of the gorge. In briefly capturing Schmidt the US Army threw the German high command into panic as the Roer/Rur was threatened and a major roadway was cut. For the GIs their difficulties were only just beginning as much needed reinforcements to exploit and hold the Schmidt position arrived piecemeal. The Germans quickly reinforced the area and boxed in the Americans holding Schmidt and its neighboring town. Eventually the American postion became a hedgehog defense in a meadow just outside of town with several Sherman tanks and the surviving infantry staving off German attacks. This was at a time when the 28th Division had actually passed through both belts of most of the formal Westwall defenses. The remainder of the German defenses were recently dug fighting positions, obstacles, and minefields. The greatest aid to the German defense was the rugged terrain. The book highlights the fact that the Kall trail, the precar

I just read "A Dark and Bloody Ground" about the same battle and it made me get out this book, which I had read years ago. I think I like Follow Me better. It goes into a little more narrative detail and the maps are better. I also got a better feeling for the battle, and especially General Coda's incredable mistakes in this book than the newer work. Both are good but I think this one is a tad better written.

I found this book to be an extremely readable and informative account of the Hurtgen Forest battles. You get a feeling for both the terrain and the battle itself and an understanding of the effect of the Kall Trail on the battles around Schmidt and Vossenach. Excellent.