Road to Huertgen (Published in 1962) is written by Paul Boesch a decorated machine gun platoon leader beginning his war in France soon after the landings to the Battle for Brest and then the Battle of Hüertgen Forest (The longest battle in American Army history). I would put this book up there with "With the old breed" and "Helmet for my pillow" for how well it's written. no boot camp, first page he's diving in a shallow hole to avoid artillery shells. He details some urban combat from Dinard to Brest then the town of "Hüertgen". Highly recommended. comparable to Currahee! and Platoon leader.
(8th infantry division, 121'st Infantry Regiment) He was awarded a Purple Heart, two Silver Stars and a French Croix de guerre.
P. S. Pual Boesch has a wiki but it's mostly about his wrestling and wrestling promoting career. But it's the same guy. His last name is pronounced the same as Boche, a word used for German soldiers at the time.
It has a forward by Major general William G. "Gaulbet" Weaver (Commanding general, 8th infantry division during the "huertgen attack") and Major general Philip De Witt Ginder (Commanding officer of the 121st Regiment at the time- has a wiki). It also has a introduction by Charles B. Macdonald (Author of company commander -a book I have not read yet)
Here's a couple excerpts:
(during a bombing run)
"The cheers suddenly caught in our throats however as we saw one of the planes (B-17) swerve into another, knocking off the tail. Both the big ships seemed to fall apart in the air, and pieces hurried earthwards as harbingers of the remains. It seemed to take forever for the main body of the planes to crash to earth, and yet not a parachute appeared. From where we watched, untutored as we were of the problems of the men in the sky, it seemed that some of the crews should have been able to escape, and we prayed to the last for the billowing silk that would indicate that they had succeeded. The tragedy made us feel closer to the men of the Air Corps and impressed on us that we had no monopoly on death."
"Determined somehow to break the impasse, I kept a constant vigil on the hill ahead. My efforts finally paid off when I saw the sun glisten on german helmets in a communication trench. Alerting my men quickly we fired a series of deadly and accurate bursts on the trench. I was crouching close to one of our guns directing the fire of Jerry Schwartz, the gunner. Suddenly: Whoooompff! The terrific explosion blasted me flat on my back. A mortar shell had landed within two feet of us, directly on the other side of the low hedgerow we were hiding behind. It was almost unbelievable that none of us was hurt. Had the shell landed a foot closer it would had cleared the hedgerow and been in our hip pockets, a foot farther away and the nasty, deadly bits of broken metal would had flown over the hedgerow to hit us full in the face.
"That sonofabitch had an eye like an eagle," said Jerry Schwartz. "A few inches closer and they'd be picking up our dog tags right now." )
These are just the breadcrumbs
by Nearby-Suggestion219