Ardennes | Battle of the Bulge | World War II | US Army

Ardennes, Battle of the Bulge: Appendix

Bibliographical Note

Two historically valuable books dealing specifically with the Ardennes Campaign are: Robert E. Merriam's Dark December (New York: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1947) and John Toland's Battle: The Story of the Bulge (New York: Random House, 1959). Merriam's work subsequently was reprinted in a paperback edition under the title The Battle of the Bulge (New York: Ballantine Books, 1957). These two interesting and useful books show quite different approaches to the story. Merriam, while in the U.S. Army, participated in the task of organizing materials for a future Army history of the Ardennes Campaign and subsequently made use of these documents in his own work. Toland, who wrote his volume on the basis of extensive interviews with veterans of the campaign, stresses the human interest aspects of the battle.

There is a surprising dearth of published memoir literature from officers in a position of command during this operation. In part this lacuna is filled by the very large body of unit histories compiled by the American divisions, regiments, and even battalions, which fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Extensive collection of unit histories will be found in the New York Public Library, the Army Library (Washington, D.C.), and the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army.

The bulk of the American documents used as source material in the present volume, as well as microfilm of the pertinent German documents, are in the keeping of the National Archives, or in the Office of the Chief of Military History. Much of the source material is in the form of reports made during or after battle by approximately 1,600 Army units in the European Theater of Operations. The story of this monumental effort in research and acquisition has been written by Royce L. Thompson, in his History of the Historical Section, ETO (May 1947), a manuscript in OCMH files. The American combat interviews, on which the author has drawn so freely, can be found listed in a manuscript Catalogue of Combat Interviews maintained by OCMH.

Most of the historical manuscripts prepared by German officers who took part in the Ardennes Campaign are catalogued in the Guide to Foreign Military Studies, 1945-54, published by Headquarters, U.S. Army, Europe, Historical Division, in 1954. Since this publication, there have been a few additions to the German manuscript collection and these are catalogued by OCMH. The history of the early attempts to trace German officers who served in the Ardennes, transfer them from prison cells, and elicit their cooperation as historians makes fascinating reading. Brig. Gen. S. L. A. Marshall has given a brief sketch of this venture in his introduction to The Fatal Decisions, edited by Seymour Freidin and William Richardson (New York: William Sloane Associates, 1956). A full and dramatic account of the attempt to obtain German cooperation has been written by one of the main actors in this little-known episode, then Maj. Kenneth W. Hechler. His manuscript is entitled The Enemy Side of the Hill: The 1945 Background on the Interrogation of German Commanders (Historical Division, Special Staff, U.S. Army, 30 July 1949). Finally, any student who delves deeply into the U.S. Army operations in western Europe during World War II must come inevitably to the Order of Battle of the United States Army, World War II, European Theater of Operations: Divisions, prepared under the direction of Capt. Robert J. Greenwald and Chief Warrant Officer Meyer M. Cahn in the Office of the Theater Historian, ETO (Paris, 1945).

Glossary

A-2	Intelligence officer or section of an air stafff
AAA	Antiaircraft artillery
AAR	After action report
Abwehr-Schlacht Im West	Defensive Battle in the West
AIB	Armored infantry battalion
Anlage	Appendix or annex
Ann.	Annex
AT	Antitank
Aufmarschanweisung	Revised outline plan
AW	Aircraft warning; automatic weapons
BAR	Browing automatic rifle
Bn	Battalion
CATOR	Combined Air Transport Operations Room
CCA	Combat Command A
CCB	Combat Command B
CCR	Combat Command Reserve
Chasseurs Ardenais	Belgian military unit
Christose	One of several code names for the Ardennes offensive
CIC	Counter Intelligence Corps
C-in-C	Commander in Chief
CO	Commanding officer
CP	Command post
DAGGER	Ninth Army operation intended to clear the Germans from the west bank of the Roer River once the dams were destroyed.
Div	Division
DSC	Distinguished Service Cross
Engr	Engineer
Ersatzheer	Replacement Army
ETO	European Theater of Operations
FA	Field Artillery
Feldherr	Great general
Festung	Fortress
Feuerwalze	Rolling barrage
Flak	Fliegerabwehrkanone (antiaircraft artillery gun)
Fremde Heere Ost	OKH Intelligence Section East
Frontsoldat	Front-line fighter
Fuehrer Reserve	Central officers' reserve
Fusilier battalion	Separate infantry battalion performing both reconnaissance and support in German division
FUSA	First United States Army
G-2	Intelligence section of divisional or higher staff
G-3	Operations section of divisional or higher staff
G-4	Supply section of divisional or higher staff
Greif	German deception operation in support of the Ardennes counteroffensive
Herbstnebel	Autumn Fog (Army Group B plan)
I and R	Intelligence and Reconnaissance
Inf	Infantry
Interv	Interview
Jabo	German slang for jagd-bomber (fighter-bomber)
Jnl	Journal
Kampfgruppe	German combat group of variable size
K-Tag	12 December
KTB	Kriegstagebuch (war diary)
L-Tag	13 December
Martin	Code name applied to operations plan drawn up by OB WEST for Wacht am Rhein for submission to conference at headquarters Army Group B on 27 October 1944
Nebelwerfer	Multiple rocket projector
Null Tag	D-day (16 December)
Oberquartermeister	General staff officer at headquarters of an army (in charge of supply and administration)
OB WEST	Oberbefehlshaber West (Commander in Chief West or his headquarters)
OKH	Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command)
OKL	Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (Luftwaffe High Command)
OKW	Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command)
OMAHA Beach	Normandy beach assaulted by troops of U. S. V Corps, 6 June 1944
Ord	Ordnance
O-Tag	D-day (16 December)
Panzerfaust	Recoilless German antitank rocket, hand-carried
POL	Petrol (gasoline), oil, and lubricants
POW	Prisoner of war
RCT	Regimental combat team
Regts	Regiments
Reichsautobahnen	The German superhighway system
Reichsbahn	German state railroads
S-2	Intelligence officer or section of regimental or lower staff
S-3	Operations officer or section of regimental or lower staff
Sec	Section
SHAEF	Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force
SHAPE	Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers, Europe
SS	Schutzstaffel (Elite guard)
TAC	Tactical Air Command
TC	Troop carrier
TD	Tank destroyer
T/E	Tables of equipment
T/O&E	Tables of organization and equipment
TOT	Time on target, a method of timing artillery fire from various points to fall on a given target simultaneously
TUSA	Third United States Army
VHF	Very high frequency
V-Leute	German agents
Volksdeutsche	Citizens of a country other than Germany who were considered Germans racially
Volkssturm	A people's militia, partially organized in one of the last steps of German mobilization for total war
Wacht am Rhein	Watch on the Rhine (Ardennes code name)
Waffen-SS	A mechanized Army-type force originally made up of volunteers from Nazi party organizations
Wehrmacht	German Armed Forces
WFSt	Wehrmachtfuehrungsstab (Armed Forces Operations Staff)
Werfer	Rocket launcher
(-)	Understrength