There are probably very few if any American survivors left from the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest, fought between the US Army and the Wehrmacht along the frontier between Belgium and Germany in the fall of 1944. It doesn’t get nearly as much attention as Pearl Harbor, Midway, D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, and other major engagements during the Second World War. The 1998 HBO film above, When Trumpets Fade, may be the only depiction of it in cinema. And man is it every bit as dark and depressing as the real story of the battle. The brutality is a little muted relative to Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers (probably due to budget limitations) but where those were ultimately optimistic and purposeful, this one’s just about mere survival. It’s not to say that other World War II depictions are dishonest, this one’s just a little extra honest about what it was like during the hellish grind. That it might’ve been a just cause overall, but Hurtgen most certainly was not.

It was a fucking nightmare of a battle. The dregs of the German army – guys literally pulled out of translator school – using anti-aircraft guns pointed at American troops, using the terrain to defend themselves like they were the Spartans at Thermopylae. And US Army commanders just kept throwing wave after wave after wave against the Germans. Tens of thousands of casualties suffered with no significant gain. It was only the surprise attack of the Battle of the Bulge that ended it by causing the Americans to disengage and respond to the assault to the north in the Ardennes.

And that’s what makes When Trumpets Fade an appropriate pick for Memorial Day. It’s an ugly, sobering reminder of what soldiers actually went through – especially in a hellhole like the Hurtgen Forest, where survival alone was the only “victory” many could hope for.