Five Days in December, Part 2: Understanding My Father's Experience at Elsenborn

After sharing the story of those five days in December 1944, I found myself returning to the record again, this time with a different perspective.

Morning reports were never meant to tell a story. They are brief, structured, and filled with abbreviations that can feel impersonal at first glance. Lines of text. Short phrases. Numbers and codes.

But for me, they are anything but impersonal.

Within those lines is my father.

What follows is the wording from the morning reports for Company G, 393rd Infantry Regiment, dated December 19 and 20, 1944, along with a cleaned transcription and explanation of the abbreviations used.

These reports place my father, Bruce Glover, at Elsenborn during the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge. He was nineteen years old.

Nineteen.

When I read these reports, I am no longer just researching a unit. I am trying to understand what my father experienced as a young soldier, far from home, in freezing conditions, under constant fire.

MORNING REPORT 19 December 1944 Co G, 393d REGT INF 

STATION OR LOCATION Elsenborn K 902086 

RECORD OF EVENTS

13 Dec 44 to 19 Dec 44 inclusive Co departed Assembly Area at 0900 GWT Rocherath, 3 miles NE F 020089 Encountered enemy Pill Box Required mortar & small arm fire Prepared defensive position for the night Co organized an assault platoon for attack on enemy pill box Mortar & Machine Gun fire was used on pill box Co remained in defensive position & acted as Bn rear guard while Companies E F H 393d Inf Regt withdrew to high ground At 1400 GWT Co withdrew to high ground to the rear and dug in for the night

At 0700 GWT Co withdrew approximately 500 yards less 1st and 2d platoons which acted as rear guard for the Co At 0930 GWT Co made contact with 395th Inf Regt and prepared defensive positions 1 EM BC MIA Co underwent continuous barrage all night & day from enemy mortar fire & 88 MM 3 EM BC WIA Co traveled by foot approximately 4 miles & arrived Elsenborn K 902085 at midnight hours 19 Dec 44 

1 Officer BC WIA 
1 EM BI 
1 EM self-inflicted wound (NBC) 
3 EM NBC 

Understanding the Abbreviations

Morning reports rely heavily on abbreviations. Once understood, they reveal much more detail than first appears.

Co = Company
GWT = German War Time
NE = Northeast
F = Map grid coordinate reference
Bn = Battalion
Inf = Infantry
Regt = Regiment
EM = Enlisted Man
BC = Battle Casualty
MIA = Missing in Action
WIA = Wounded in Action
MM = Millimeter
& = and
1st = First
2d = Second

When I first looked at these reports, I saw what they were designed to show: movement, casualties, and position.

Now, I see something more.

I see a group of young men, including my father, moving through cold, mud, and fear. I see them encountering enemy fire, digging into frozen ground, withdrawing under pressure, and returning to defensive positions again and again.

I see exhaustion.

I see uncertainty.

I see resilience.

And I think about the man I knew. The father who lived a full life after the war. The man who never spoke in this kind of detail about these days.

It is hard to reconcile the two. The father I knew, and the nineteen-year-old soldier described in these reports.

But this is where they meet.

In these lines, so brief and technical, is a part of his life that I can now begin to understand.

The record is concise.

But what it holds is anything but.

Reference:

U.S. War Department. Technical Manual TM 12-236: Preparation of Morning Reports and Unit Rosters. Washington, D.C., 1945.

Golden Arrow Research. Guide to WWII Army Abbreviations. October 2020. https://www.goldenarrowresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Guide-to-WWII-Army-Abbreviations.pdf. Accessed 1 March 2026

Golden Arrow Research

For this research, I worked with Geoff at Golden Arrow Research, who assisted in documenting my father’s World War II military history, including locating and compiling the morning reports used in this post. His work provided the foundation that allowed me to focus on understanding and sharing my father’s experience. More information about his services can be found at https://www.goldenarrowresearch.com/

AI Disclosure

This post was researched and written by me as part of my ongoing work to understand my father’s WWII service. I used ChatGPT 5.2 to assist with title suggestions, proofreading, transcription of the morning report images, and defining abbreviations. All content has been carefully reviewed, edited, and reflects my own research and interpretation.