December Uniform of the Month - The Battle for Elsenborn Ridge

Private Sill and Sergeant Rowe head into the woods around Elsenborn Ridge.  We started working on our positions around 1500 hours.

Sgt. Rowe begins work on our foxhole.  The initial inch or two of ground was frozen solid and took quite a bit of effort to break through.

Pvt. Sill and Pfc. Green working on their position.  The larger pick mattock came in handy.

Sgt. Rowe and I decided to go with the classic slit trench.  Our hole ended up about 7 feet long and about 30 inches wide.

Private First Class Krelle using a folding shovel on the foxhole.  We were actually quite proud of our work.

Pfc. Green tests out his foxhole.  You can get pretty warm while digging, so a field jacket isn't always necessary. 

Heating up a can of K-Ration ham on our campfire.  Warm food always tastes better on a cold night.

A night shot of Pvt. Sill preparing to move out.

This is the only known photo of our night patrol.  We worked our way down the creek bed as far as we could go.

My helmet with the 2nd Division's "Indianhead" insignia on the front and a gas mask bag used to carry supplies.

Hunkered down in our foxhole, Sgt. Rowe is heating up some water on our little alcohol stove. 

The sergeant gets a call from the other foxhole on one of our field telephones.

A great photo of Private Sill trying to warm up by the fire after our patrol.  It got down to 14 degrees overnight.

This one is just funny... checking my photos on an iPhone in my foxhole.  Well, we were authenticity minded most of the time.