AT THE TIME OF THIS REDACTED LETTER/REPORT GENERAL BRADLEY IS FOCUSED ON THE BATTLE OF HURTGEN FOREST JUST WEEKS BEFORE THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE

Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981) Signed War-Dated Redacted Document, "O. N. Bradley", signed as Lieutenant General, U.S.A., Commanding, 8 x 7.5, on "Headquarters Twelfth Army Group" letterhead, 20 September 1944, by American general who took command of the First Army in January 1944, which, constituting the Allied right wing, landed at Utah and Omaha beaches, Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. In August 1944, he became the Commander of the 12th Army Group, the largest force ever commanded on the field. Bradley served as the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1949-1953, being promoted to Five-Star General of the Army in 1950. At the time of this war-dated letter/report, which has been redacted to protect sensitive information, we are left without any idea of it original content. It could possibly be something to do with military intelligence, since we know from the date that General Bradley troops had just reached the "Siegfried Line" the west wall of Germany's defense system. Bradley's Army Group now covered a very wide front in hilly country, from the Netherlands to Lorraine. Despite having the largest concentration of Allied army forces, Bradley faced difficulties in prosecuting a successful broad-front offensive in difficult country with a skilled enemy. General Bradley and his First Army commander, General Courtney Hodges eventually decided to attack through a corridor known as the Aachen Gap towards the German township of Schmidt. The campaign's confused objectives, combined with poor intelligence resulted in the costly series of battles known as the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, a series of fierce battles fought from 19 September to 16 December 1944, which cost some 33,000 American casualties. This historic WWII, war-dated, redacted find is in fine condition, with minor age toning and irregular edges. 

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II, and took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. 

Redaction in its sanitization sense (as distinguished from its other editing sense) is the blacking out or deletion of text in a document, or the result of such an effort. It is intended to allow the selective disclosure of information in a document while keeping other parts of the document secret.   #11711