European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 1, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                He concluded that americans Quot fought a misconceived and basically fruitless Battle that could have and should have been  Gen. James Gavin whose 82nd airborne marched into the last stages of the bloodletting called the i Itgen Quot one of the most costly most unproductive and most ill advised Battles that our army has Ever  it was t exactly a picnic for the germans either As they stubbornly defended their own soil that had not been invaded since the Days of Napoleon. Even today what is left of the i Itgen is not a place one would wish to go idly picking mushrooms. In july alone 1,000 Quot live Quot shells were pulled out of the Earth in the Woods near Rotten. Quot daily the danger seems More obvious Quot says Karl Reiner Wahlen head of a civilian team contracted by the government to detect and remove dangerous rounds. Other teams have also worked Small sections of the Forest especially since August 1989, and the undead junk of War is weekly being pulled out of Germany s most fought Over terrain. As for the rest of the i Itgen Quot we Don t know How much danger is still in there Quot said Wahlen. Quot in the Rotten Section alone we have Only uncovered the tip of a Mountain of shells a whole underground ammo dump rounds jammed in Side by Side like wine bottles. It will take two or three years to Clear them  if no one knows what still is just below the Forest floor Wahlen stresses that Quot even rounds without fuses have not lost their Potency. The chemistry of the old shells becomes very sensitive and unstable with age. It Borders on a wonder there Haven t been More spontaneous explosions and  Klaus Schulz a German expert on the Battle who As a Schoolboy was Given a bicycle two anti tank rockets and dispatched by his commander into the i Itgen with the order Quot go kill tanks Quot Points to another Section of Forest and says Quot they took 3,000 bodies out of that area there a called the wild boar which is just one Square mile. It took them nine years to take out the bodies. There were so Many thousands of mines they did t dare  there were americans and germans All mixed up in their death struggle in the bloody Forest and the Bones of the missing Are still being found along with the stuff that killed them. A Klaus Schulz won the Iron Cross As a boy and later wrote a Book about the Battle called Quot the silent  in the Book a Man wandering through a cemetery full of comrades who fell like leaves in the i Itgen looks Down atthe rows and rows of Graves of the glorious dead shaking his head. Quot poor dogs Quot he whispers to no one Quot poor  army top left by december 1944 the Battle had devastated parts of the Forest. Top the remains of a battered German Bunker today. Above a group of gis March through a shattered town at the Edge of the i Itgen Forest. Left historian Klaus Schulz who fought there As a teen Ager. A amps Ken George november 1, 1990 stripes Magazine 77