Description
While headline writers in the ETO were naturally focused on events in Normandy and the Bulge in the north, equally ferocious combats were taking place in southern France and Germany during 1944–45, which are now finally getting their due. The US 14th Armored Division—a late arrival to the theatre—was thrust into intense combat almost the minute it arrived in Europe, as the Germans remained determined to defend their southern flank. Like other US formations, the 14th AD, after advancing through France, was hammered to a standstill at the Westwall in the autumn of 1944. Nevertheless, it had gained experience, and when the Germans sought to turn the tide, with Operation Northwind, they found a hardened formation against them. This book explores in detail what happened in the month of January 1945 in the snow-covered Vosges Mountains, when the Wehrmacht's attempt to destroy the Sixth Army Group failed. As a result of the rapid advance of Seventh Army and the 14th, German POW camps like the ones at Hammelburg and Moosburg were liberated of over 100,000 prisoners, an achievement which gave the division the nom de guerre The Liberators. About the Author Timothy O’Keeffe, a Professor Emeritus from Southern Connecticut State College, whose brother-in-law serving with The Liberators lost his leg, has devoted years of effort to unveiling the crucial, yet heretofore unwritten, role that they played in the ultimate Allied victory.
