German Officers Opened American K-Rations — And Instantly Understood They'd Already Lost скачать в хорошем качестве

German Officers Opened American K-Rations — And Instantly Understood They'd Already Lost

December 1944. During the Battle of the Bulge, Joachim Peiper commanded the spearhead unit racing toward the Meuse River. At Büllingen, his forces captured fifty thousand gallons of American fuel and discovered something else in the supply depot: K-rations. These individually packaged combat meals revealed the industrial capacity behind American military operations. But fuel remained Peiper's critical problem. Intelligence reported a major depot at Stavelot containing over three million gallons. Peiper's Kampfgruppe fought through American defenses, crossed the bridge, and searched the town. They found nothing. The depot was there, just three hundred yards from his route, stacked along the roadside in thousands of jerrycans. He drove past it and never saw it because he expected something different. Meanwhile, American Major Hal McCown, captured by Peiper's forces, spent three days observing conditions inside the encircled unit at Stoumont. He documented everything: soldiers wearing captured American uniforms, eating captured American rations, receiving medical treatment without morphine or antibiotics. When supplies ran out completely, Peiper abandoned seven Tiger tanks, fifty medium tanks, and over one hundred vehicles at La Gleize because the fuel tanks were empty. This is the documented story of how logistics determined the outcome of the largest battle on the Western Front, told through the firsthand accounts of the officers who lived it. Features verified testimony from Peiper's post-war interrogations, McCown's official after-action report, and General Hasso von Manteuffel's professional military analysis explaining why the offensive failed despite tactical successes.