They trained an uncle of mine to be a radioman, only to make him second scout in a rifle squad. As the Germans began the Ardennes offensive, his unit was hustled from NW of Düren to near Kalterherberg on N shoulder of the "Bulge," so his participation in the "BotB" was basically a stationary defense, repelling a few smaller attacks and - IIRC - rounding up the stray Germans who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
His previous three months on the edges of the Hürtgenwald were, by contrast, intense and horrific.
Daddy’s battalion only saw heavy combat three times. First was St. Lo, then the assault crossing of the Roer River then the Rhine which they bridged after the first battalion failed.
They did have a lot of interesting times tho. Once they shot down an FW-190 which was strafing them in a quarry. Another time they pulled 18 mines out of a six yard square piece of ground.
I have their over 400 page history.
Here is the map from the official US Army volume on the Ardennes Campaign that shows the north shoulder of the Bulge and the planned attack on 16 Dec. Holding the shoulder was key to delaying the German northern attack and forcing it to go further south than planned.
https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/7-8/notes/MapII.jpg
The 9th Inf Div and the 78th Inf Div were in the northern part of the shoulder. My late father-in-law was in an artillery battalion of the 78th Inf Div. And he too became a battery clerk because he could type, instead of being on a forward observation team, as he was trained for.
