Yeah, S5 is semi-autobiographical. It was cold and wet and the 106th was a new division put into a quiet part of the line to gain them some experience scouting and digging and whatnot. They were all pretty much cold wet and sick at that point.
The 28th ID had been beaten up in Hurtgen Forest, another attack of dubious merit by the US, and was also in the area and got hit hard but mostly managed with pull back into Bastogne. The main German attack was north of all that, initially, fortunately that attack was inexpertly handled and ran into two very good US divisions well entrenched.
At that point in the war, Hitler was right to gamble like this, I think, those troops would have made little difference in the East, and there was some remote chance they could cause significant issues for the Americans and British. It's a bit like Kasserine Pass in a way.