Major General Maurice ROSE

December 19, 1944, not a little proud that his 3rd armored division was the first Allied armored division in Germany, then stationed in the Stolberg region, after the battles of Aix-la-Chapelle, General Rose received the order to send urgently the bulk of his troops on the northern front of the Battle of the Bulge in the Hotton region, where he will establish his HQ.

Rose has absolutely no idea of ​​the enemy force deployed opposite.

To do this he sent 3 TASKFORCE towards the south
- HOGAN along the Ourthe
- ORR in the center
- Kane on the eastern flank

After all his attempts to not only resupply but also quite simply save Taskforce Hogan, then surrounded for 4 days in Marcouray, he ordered the Colonel to sabotage all his equipment and join the American lines 16 km further north, at on foot and through enemy lines.

As soon as he learned that Hogan's first men had managed to reach the lines, he waited passively for Samuel Hogan in Werpin until 2 p.m.

The general could not help asking the colonel
“How come you’re only here now Sam?”
and not having found a heroic response,
Colonel Hogan replied: “My foot hurts terribly, General.”

Rose smiled, and patted him on the shoulder before getting back into her jeep. The general being known to be always close to his men, he will travel during these famous 6 days from Hotton to Soy and vice versa..

This desire to always be as close as possible to his men will be fatal to him.

In fact, the general was killed in combat while going to rescue a unit that remained behind near Paderborn a few days after his division crossed the Rhine on March 30, 1945.

His death was a major blow to morale for all the men of the Division.

He is one of the rare American generals KIA (killed in action) during the conflict.

He is the most decorated soldier buried at the Margraten American Cemetery in the Netherlands.