Evening star., 1944-12-22
Arena of Nuzi Counteruttuck
Has Scenery of YuIetide Cards
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS X. HENRY.
I would like to call this great Ger
man counterattack the battle of
Santa Claus Land.
The general picture Of the Mons
chau-Malmedy region along the
Rhineland- Belgium border which
was invaded by the American lst
Army early in September with rela-
lively little severe fighting appar-
emily has changed little in the two
months since I entered Monschau
with 1t. Col. John Rhoades of 1928
Cleveland avenue NV, commander
of a motorized cavalry troop which
was probing for resistance pockets
1t is land of great. dark forests
covering low mountain sides, inter
spersed with mediveal villages The
scenery Is the scenery of Christmas
cards. The towns are like incunabula
woodcuts, especially Monschau,
which 1st Army troops are reported
to have recaptured after they were
driven out Sunday This is a town
Of about 5000 people. whose chief
industry Is textile mill Many CEN
turies old, it lies in a deep hollow
of the hills on the swift, cold Lau-
fer River which comes foaming and
roaring out of the Schnee Eifel, the
beginning Of the thickly forested
Eifel Mountains.
Death Trap in Any Attack.
Monschau had just been taken
over by battalion of the Goth In
fantry who had walked into a prac-
tically deserted town. But already
the people were drifting back out of
the great, dark forests which
stretched in every direction. They
were proving very cooperative. The
first Allied Civil Affairs Administra-
ton in Germany was being set up at
the City Hall. 1t occupied what had
been the municipal movie theater.
The Town Crier was walking about
the streets ringing his bell, as his
predecessors have done for a thou
sand years. reading the Civil Affairs
proclamations to apparently apa-
thetic groups.
This town, 1t would seem, would
be a death trap for anybody who
stayed there when an attack started
and 1T is natural to assume that
whatever American troops were
there Sunday left in a hurry when
the counterattack started. 1t is hard
to see how Monschau could have
any tactical value On the contrary
lit would be a liability to any one
holding it and presumably the Ger
mans also ran when there was any
threat of an American return.
1t is fearsomely haunted land
this pine-wooded transition zon,
between the Eifel and the Ardennes
buried most of the time in a ghostl,
| Ifog-which the Germans selected a.
the weakest point against which tt
throw apparently q major part OF
their hitherto boarded reserves. II
was country where. with the bene-
ut of a few days of bad weather
preventing air observation, the
enemy could shift and mass troops
with relatively. little fear OF de-
lection. One OF these great pine
forests easily could conceal a divi-
sion.
This is the third German counter
attack against the American lines
since D day. The two Others, of
course, were on nothing like so grand
scale.
The first of these was early in
July. 1t was undertaken apparently
by a single panzer Grenadier divi-
sion with some attached troops Just
after the capture of st. Lo and its
purpose was to recapture the little
seaport city Of Isigny, where opera
tions OF the 1st Army were centered.
The breakthrough was Just south Of
st. Jean de Daye. This had been
essentially a gap In the lines. a fact
presumably well known to German
intelligence.
Even had this counterattack sue
ceeded 1t would have been prac-
tically a suicide gesture for the
troops involved, because divisions to
the east and west simply would have
closed in around them and behind
them. But II 1t had gone through
according to schedule it might very
well have eliminated 1st Army head
quarters In q few hours. The attack
was launched about midnight. For
tunately-apparently without Ger
man intelligence knowing anything
about tan American infantry and
an American armored division had
been moved into the gap within the
preceding "a hours.
The result was one of the most
horrible sights / have seen in the
war-Gernan tanks scattered along
the road for miles with their crews
burned alive inside them.
Operation Robert"
The second counterattack was on
a much bigger scale and came about
three weeks later, with its focus
around the city of Mortain, then
held by the American 30th Division.
The 1st Army was holding the Ger
man Army In Normandy, while the
Sd Army had started its two-pronged
movement into Brittany and toward
Lemans and Alencon-the latter
movement intended Is an outer en-
circlement. Public attention was
focused on these two movements,
which, meeting essentially no re-
sistance, were progressing with I
speed hitherto lnheard q IN Nor
MANDY. d 4
The coufiterattAcE thu so-ca1led