Hello everyone. When we were fighting in the Ardennes Forest we had short supplies and most of there were'nt even enough winter coats to go around. I heard that our troops crossed enemy lines and raidied Nazi supply depots to get food,clothing,weapons, and ammunition. If this is true, how did our guys know who was who if they were all dressed in german clothing and using german weapons. Thanks.
Whose we? I know in my case, I was never anywhere near the Battle of the Bulge, and quite glad I am about it too!
I think you are making something up. But you can always give me the source where you got this information. I know the Germans used American uniforms and tanks and ... to bring confusion on the American front.
I haven't read anywhere of the Americans taking German supplies in any quantity. Guns were certainly taken as 'trophies', especially the MP44. The Germans, however, were expected to forage as they advanced and there are many photos of German troops enjoying looted US issue foodstuffs, cigarettes, chocolate etc as well as the famous photo of boots being taken from dead GI's in Honsfeld.
As others have said, it was the Germans who were scratching around for gear and supplies, not the US troops. There can, in fact, have been very few American units that were close enough to German depots in the first place, considering how far they advanced in the early stages of the Bulge. Sure you're not a Holywood script writer?!
Sommer: Only after the start of the Bulge battles. German infantry/armor did quite well for the first 50 or so kilometres then it was the want of fuel making them dig deeper into the American lines for that vital life blood. E
G'day The Ardennes offensive depended in its plan the picking up of Allied supply's to use to get further on into battle. The Germans were low on supply's after the first part of the battle, the food wasn't too good so Americaans could only be souvenir hunting on Jerry stuff. Popski
Just came across this about the supply situation : - 'Kampfgruppe Peiper carried enough ammunition to last it four or five days and fuel for an even shorter period, as two entire trainloads of gasoline never made it to the assembly points. Additional supplies of fuel would have to be captured, taken from Allied dumps'. This from Astor's 'A Blood-Dimmed Tide' ( OK, not the greatest source but it happens to be the one I'm reading at the moment )
While it would seem like a good idea to do such things as raid the Germans they would ave probably only taken things that would not cause any confusion. ie:socks, underwear, gloves and rations. Anyone correct me i i'm wrong.
I would have to go with the Capatin here-I only know of Americans using Lugers when they were captured, even then it wasn't really to use in combat. Mostly all the Americans took, was medical supplies and some rations-they didn't even take coats after incidents in Normandy involving American soldiers wearing Zeltbahns-so I can only imagine what wouldv'e happened had they used Kraut weapons!!!
Furthermore to that-it was commonplace-especially in the fog and dense woods, for Germans (from what I know-especially in the Bois Jacques woods)to wander up on the 101st and crap in the US slit trenches, taking with them whatever they could scrounge... The Americans could not have done this as teh German line was not spread as thin as the American line, and thus could not have gotten through without detection unlike the Germans.
There are photos ( certainly in 'Battle of the Bulge : Then & Now' ) of GI's openly carrying captured MP44's but these were taken after the main fighting was over.
If you ever played Medal of Honor Spearhead (suppose to be based on true events) there is a mission in the Ardennes Forest where you and a group of solders are suppose to find a German supply truck and take it
Yeah, I think that they may have been where I thought to believe that we did this. I guess Medal of Honor is not to historically accurate after all. From now on I'm going to look into these things before I start asking questions.
