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A unique account of combat in World War II provides parallel day-to-day records of the same events as seen by two men in the same company, one an enlisted man, one an officer G Company’s War is the story of a World War II rifle company in Patton’s Third Army as detailed in the journals of S/Sgt. Bruce Egger and Lt. Lee M. Otts, both of G Company, 328th Regiment, 26th infantry Division. Bruce Egger arrived in France in October 1944, and Lee Otts arrived in November. Both fought for G Company through the remainder of the war. Otts was wounded seriously in March 1945 and experienced an extended hospitalization in England and the United States. Both men kept diaries during the time they were in the service, and both expanded the diaries into full-fledged journals shortly after the war. These are the voices of ordinary soldiers—the men who did the fighting—not the generals and statesmen who viewed events from a distance. Most striking is how the two distinctly different personalities recorded the combat experience. For the serious-minded Egger, the war was a grim ordeal; for Otts, with his sunny disposition, the war was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, sometimes even fun. Each account is accurate in its own right, but the combination of the two into a single, interwoven story provides a broader understanding of war and the men caught up in it. Historian Paul Roley has interspersed throughout the text helpful overviews and summaries that place G Company's activities in the larger context of overall military operations in Europe. In addition, Roley notes what happened to each soldier mentioned as wounded in action or otherwise removed from the company and provides an appendix summarizing the losses suffered by G Company. The total impact of the work is to describe the reality of war in a frontline infantry company.

This unique account of combat in World War II provides parallel day-to-day records of the same events as seen by two men in the same company, one an enlisted man, one an officer.    G Company's War is the story of a World War II rifle company in Patton's Third Army as detailed in the journals of S/Sgt. Bruce Egger and Lt. Lee M. Otts, both of G Company, 328th Regiment, 26th infantry Division.  Bruce Egger arrived in France in October 1944, and Lee Otts arrived in November. Both fought for G Company through the remainder of the war. Otts was wounded seriously in March 1945 and experienced an extended hospitalization in England and the United States. Both men kept diaries during the time they were in the service, and both expanded the diaries into full-fledged journals shortly after the war.  These are the voices of ordinary soldiers--the men who did the fighting--not the generals and statesmen who viewed events from a distance. Most striking is how the two distinctly different personalities recorded the combat experience. For the serious-minded Egger, the war was a grim ordeal; for Otts, with his sunny disposition, the war was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, sometimes even fun. Each account is accurate in its own right, but the combination of the two into a single, interwoven story provides a broader understanding of war and the men caught up in it.  Historian Paul Roley has interspersed throughout the text helpful overviews and summaries that place G Company's activities in the larger context of overall military operations in Europe. In addition, Roley notes what happened to each soldier mentioned as wounded in action or otherwise removed from the company and provides an appendix summarizing the losses suffered by G Company. The total impact of the work is to describe the reality of war in a frontline infantry company. 

OPERATIONAL BACKGROUND The rumor going around on December 18 that the 26th Division had been alerted for a move was an example of how rapidly rumors can circulate in such an environment, since the decision to send the Yankee Division to Luxembourg had only been made that same morning. This had come in response to a military crisis of the first magnitude. In mid-December of 1944 the Allies were confident that the stubborn German resistance encountered that fall was bound to crack and that a major break-through would soon occur. On the far northeastern corner of the Allied line Montgomery’s

OPERATIONAL BACKGROUND In the III Corps sector the offensive launched on January 4 against the German salient southeast of Bastogne had encountered such stiff resistance and made so little progress that the attack had been temporarily suspended on January 6. The 26th Division had maintained defensive positions while the veteran 90th Division, then assembling in the corps area, prepared to attack on its left. With the 90th assuming the main effort to eliminate the enemy pocket, the renewed thrust got underway on January 9 (see Map 5).¹ [P.R.] EGGER Fockler went to the aid station yesterday morning with frozen feet,

OPERATIONAL BACKGROUND Following the invasion of France on June 6, 1944, and a protracted slugging match in the hedgerows of Normandy, the Allies had been able to effect a breakout at St. Lo in late July. Suddenly the war had been transformed from a series of bloody assaults into one of movement as the Anglo-American armies swept across northern France. Leading the way in this spectacular advance was General George Patton’s much publicized Third Army. But in late August, as a severe fuel crisis loomed, General Eisenhower had made the difficult decision to give first priority on supplies to Field

OPERATIONAL BACKGROUND At the conclusion of the Ardennes campaign the Third Army was stretched along a front of nearly a hundred miles, from the vicinity of St. Vith, Belgium, to Saarlautern, Germany (see Map 6). In the north, with hardly a pause, the trio of Third Army corps that had participated in clearing the Bulge pressed on across the Our River into the rugged Eifel region of Germany, between the borders of Belgium/Luxembourg and the Rhine River. Significant gains were registered during February in the southern half of that sector, where, operating over some of the most forbidding terrain on