The Luftwaffe had taken such a terrible hit in the spring and early summer of 1944 that it had to regroup and try something new. The result was the A-8 model of the Focke Wulf-190, which, in addition to its existing two 12.7mm machine guns and two 20mm cannons, often had a pod under each wing in which a 30mm cannon was mounted. It had an uprated Doppelstern BMW twin-row radial engine and some added armor protection. These A-8 models were assigned to units called "Sturmgruppen," which destroyed all those B-24s at Kassel. In fact, the FW-190 Sturm variants were considered too heavy to dogfight with the P-51s and P-47s, so the Luftwaffe planned to deploy Messerschmitt Me-109Gs to tangle with our fighters.

It also devised a new attack tactic. Instead of coming up a few at a time, the Sturm units flew in formations of approxi­mately 16 planes, coming from 6 o'clock low and perpendicular to the bomber stream. Then they all turned together and attacked line abreast so the bombers' machine guns could not focus on one fighter at a time, and the fighter only had to face the tail and ball turrets of the bombers.

Those 30mm cannons that impacted the fuel tanks set B-17s on fire, and they started rolling out of formation and exploding, obviously with few survivors. From our formation of 12, we lost 10 in a few seconds. I have a copy of the German gun camera film shooting me down (courtesy of the British Imperial War Museum), and some details about how it happened and who did it.

The New York Times reported that we had lost 49 B-17s and had downed 36 German fighter planes, so it had to be one of the better days for the Germans. Six of my crew were killed, three in the airplane and three on the ground. I was almost killed by a very irate civilian armed with a Luger but was saved by a German soldier. But that's another story.

William F. Miller
Corpus Christi, Texas

Hard Times in Hürtgen
I enjoyed reading the article on the Hürtgen Forest and the 9th Infantry Division ("A Warning From the Woods," December 2006). I was in the reconnaissance company with the 899th Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 9th. The Hürtgen Forest was a dark, cold and dangerous place. I would routinely go out on patrols, and one day our company captain asked if he could tag along.

I had acquired some captured German army maps of the area that showed where the pillboxes were. You could almost get right on top of them without knowing it because they were camouflaged so well. And for many of our soldiers it was too late when they realized it.

The captain and I were moving along a narrow trail in the woods when I spotted a pillbox. Sure enough, it was marked on my captured map. I pointed it out to him, but he couldn't see it through the thick brush. I told him not to worry because we wouldn't get fired on since the enemy didn't want to expose themselves just to pick off two soldiers. Bewildered, he turned white as a ghost. He then said that he had seen enough and it was time to go.

As we started back, the Germans began shelling the entire area with their infamous 88s, which would explode about treetop level. We got out just in time, but others were not so lucky. We had no idea so many of the enemy were entrenched in the area. For all of October and November it seemed we rarely got any rest. And as soon as things in the Hürtgen Forest started to wind down, wouldn't you know it that the Germans launched their offensive in the Ardennes. Hard times indeed!

Sergeant John Migliaccio (Ret.)
Lansdale, Pa.

As I read "A Warning From the Woods," by Mark J. Reardon, it let me know what it must have been like for my dad, Tech-3 Sgt. Gardner T. Wheeler, and his comrades in arms at that point in history. My dad was a rifleman squad leader in Company C, 112th Regiment, in the 28th "Bucket of Blood" Infantry Division. I know from an old map he left behind that he was at St. Lô, France, on July 28, 1944; Paris on August 29; Luxembourg on September 11; Yossehach and Schmidt and Aachen on November 1; and somewhere around Ouren on December 16. But the 112th was pushed all the way back to Verdun after abandoning St. Vith on December 23.

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