As fall drew on, endless drizzle turned the ground to mud. It was followed by the 9th Infantry Division, the 28th Infantry (Keystone) Division, and numerous supporting units as the Americans hammered with little success against the German pillboxes and bunkers deep in the damp, gloomy forest. It would be too perilous to send troops across the Roer while the enemy controlled the dams. There have been countless thousands of published works devoted to all or of it. The forest was not cleared until March 9. (re)Discover Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery 3,477 Views The Hürtgen forest (also: Huertgen Forest; German: Hürtgenwald) is along the border between Belgium and Germany. Nearly 8,000 soldiers rest there, most being killed in action during the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest and the Bulge. Their target was now the Rur Dam. Artillery slashes the trees like a scythe. By September 1944, the British, American, and Canadian Armies were crowding against the borders of Germany. The ferocity and horrors of this long running engagement rank near the top for World War II. Logan Nye. The Big Red One and 9th Infantry Divisions had to depend almost entirely on replacements after Hürtgen, and the 4th and 8th Infantry Divisions also had big manpower gaps to fill. The critics questioned Bradley’s wisdom in choosing to make his main effort through the Hürtgenwald instead of using the more open, easier going farther north on the Ninth Army front between the U.S. First and British Second Armies. During the autumn and winter of 1944/45, the longest battle of the Second World War on German soil took place in the Hürtgen Forest. From September 1944 to February 1945, American and German forces fought over the Hurtgen Forest, an area of wooded hills on the border between Belgium and Germany. This victory belonged to the Germans. The initial objective, to protect General Collins’ flank, was limited, and the high command failed to recognize that the Roer River dams would allow the enemy to flood any Allied advances made to the north. The fighting was often at such close quarters that hand grenades were the only decisive weapons. Battle Of The Hurtgen Forest-The Hürtgen Forest, located on the border between Germany and Belgium, was an area of about 129 square kilometers wide, completely wooded.And it was the scene of a battle of great historical significance: the well-known battle of the Hürtgen forest. "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. But they kept pushing. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was overshadowed by the American victory in the Battle of the Bulge, and as a result, few books and articles have been written about it. The Hürtgen Forest is a terrain well known by it’s defender. The fighting was bitter because the two forest dams controlled the water level of the Roer River flowing northward. Map showing the area of the battle. Some GIs ran from their positions when the enemy was not near; others refused to move without armored support, and some tank crews would not go forward without infantry protection. In February, the Americans launched their last substantial attack in the Hurtgen. Maurice Berzon, Buffalo, N.Y., SSgt. The Huertgen Forest was the perfect place to delay the Allies while preparing for his grand assault. “The toll was staggering,” reported one American survivor of the Hürtgenwald campaign. Besides the weather, the Allied armies were plagued by shortages of ammunition and supplies. This phase concentrated on the town of Schmidt, astride an important German supply route, within the southern part of the forest.The engagement began on 19 September 1944, with a probe by the U.S. 60th Infantry Regiment that entered the Hürtgen Forest but was beaten back by the terrain and opposition.On 5 October, the U.S. 9th Infantry Division attacked the town of Schmidt using the 60th and 39th Infantry Regiments while the 47th held a defensive position. General J. Lawton Collins, dashing commander of the U.S. VII Corps, a veteran of Guadalcanal and liberator of Cherbourg, called Hürtgen a “green hell,” while Maj. Gen. James M. Gavin, the youthful, gallant commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, characterized the forest as an “ice-coated moloch with an insatiable appetite.”. In at least one U.S. infantry battalion, morale cracked under the strain. Early in the morning of September 14th, 1944, elements of the 9th Infantry Division, supported by the 746th Tank Battalion started their advance across the Belgian – German border at the villages of Roetgen and Monschau. But there were also instances in which fear paralyzed men who had seen more combat than they could stomach. This film told the story of the battle of the Hürtgen Forest. The Hürtgen campaign was strictly a foot soldier’s war because the thick, ravine-creased woods, steep ridges, lack of a road net, mud, and weather conditions—rain, fog, sleet, and snow—negated the customary American superiority in armor and air power. In four days’ time, three company commanders lost their commands. In one rifle company, all of the officers were relieved or broke under the strain, while a platoon commander who refused to order his men into the line was put under arrest. The scrappy Lanham led from the front to the point of foolhardiness and expected his junior officers to do the same. Soldiers of all ranks broke down under the strain of continuous combat. Commanders of the three line companies had been either killed or wounded.”. The slaughter and misery dragged on well into December 1944, when the Americans were ordered to pull out of the forest. American soldiers faced no greater odds under such harrowing conditions in World War II than did the riflemen, machine gunners, and mortarmen who struggled through the Hürtgenwald. When Salinger entered Hürtgen, he crossed into a nightmare world. Overcoats soaked with moisture and caked with frozen mud became too heavy to wear. The Rur River runs along the eastern edge of the forest. On the 10th of February, the Americans took the dam, but it was already too late. Many GIs fell victim to their own artillery. Starting on October 6, two attacking regiments had to fight for five days to advance one mile to the first clearing in the forest. The forest has returned, and the tree lines are much as they were. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was a campaign that could and should have been avoided—a campaign of prolonged and bitter attrition in which U.S. infantrymen were challenged by stubborn, unyielding defenders, rugged terrain, and appalling weather. Many went without hot food for days on end. Mine fields in the forest were an additional peril, and keeping safe paths through them proved difficult. Also a poet and writer, his prewar work on infantry manuals had caught the attention of General George C. Marshall, and the Army chief of staff listed Lanham in his “black book” of up-and-coming officers. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataille_de_la_forêt_de_Hürtgen_(1944) Anxious to move quickly through the West Wall, Major General J. Lawton Collins, commander of the First Armys VII Corps, plotted an advance south and east of Aachen t… Yet, despite the many hardships and appalling losses, the U.S. infantry there were able somehow to maintain unit integrity and to persevere. The Allied high command was eager to breach the German border defense lines, vault across the Rhine, and push into the Reich, but the way was barred by the River Roer and the large forested area south of Aachen. Because it was so disastrous, and because Americans tend to remember only victories, the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest has been virtually forgotten. In the fall and winter, heavy rain and snowfall and a lack of roads made it extremely difficult to penetrate, either by foot or in vehicles. Only a mile away, men of the U.S. 22nd Infantry Regiment’s rifle and weapons companies rolled up their blankets and ate breakfast. This WW1 Battle was like Something out of a Horror Movie, Live Like a Bond Villain, 3 Remote Napoleonic-Era Forts For Sale, Eleven Military Uniforms That Got Soldiers Killed, French Couple Discovered WWII Cache of Weapons Hidden in Their Home, The Highest-Scoring Female Fighter Ace Ever: The Short but Daring Life of Lydia Litvyak, Exploring the wreck of the Bismarck – and it is in remarkable condition, RIP ‘Wild Geese’ Star and Battle-Hardened Veteran Ian Yule. By the 17th, the fighting had turned into a slow grind. The first engagements during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest were fought by Brig. The book also explains, in painful detail, why the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest is so little known: it is considered the greatest failure of leadership of US troops in Europe during World War II. In the annals of military history magazines, this is one of those moments. They lacked sufficient boots and winter clothing, and hot meals and a dry place in which to sleep were almost nonexistent. Good luck.”. It was one of the most costly and unproductive American operations of the war. The overall aim was an attack on the Aachen-Cologne axis designed to close with the River Rhine, as a first step toward the envelopment of the industrial Ruhr Valley. “Tubby” Barton’s 4th Infantry (Ivy) Division on June 6, 1944, and suffered heavy casualties in the Normandy campaign. You can bombard it with mortars or throw smoke grenades and run to their positions. 2021 - 2020 The author Charles B. McDonald was a highly decorated junior officer in WWII and was very aware of the conditions and mindset of leadership values utilized on the European battlefield of those times. Army/National Archives) IN LATE OCTOBER 1944, the U.S. General Cota’s 28th Division was trying to recover and regroup in the town of Wiltz in northern Luxembourg when it was struck by von Rundstedt’s advance columns on December 16. British troops played a minor part in the campaign, but they were able to gain new respect for the fighting spirit and fortitude of their allies. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was a series of battles fought between German and American forces in Hürtgen Forest. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was a campaign that could and should have been avoided—a campaign of prolonged and bitter attrition in which U.S. infantrymen were challenged by stubborn, unyielding defenders, rugged terrain, and appalling weather. In the end, the campaign absorbed some 17 divisions, caused dreadful casualties, and proved a heavy strain on troop morale. Despite this, the American commanders were confident that they could break through. The attack was originally launched to guard the flank of VIII Corps’ advance into Germany. The first American unit involved in the Hurtgen Forest battle was the 9th Infantry Division. HURTGEN FOREST TOURS . The Germans prepared it for battle years before the actual battle, during the construction of the West Wall building bunkers and trenches and anti-tank obstacles. The problems in this mission are: no additional ammo and fuel supplies as well as dense forest and hidden enemies. With German pillboxes spread throughout the forest, the Americans had to advance cautiously when they could advance at all. To the men who fought bravely and lost friends there, it would always be the Death Factory. Regular bursts of terrible combat took their toll on men’s minds. The roads were also mined, and a disabled tank or truck could block a whole column. Reinforcing combat groups were fed piecemeal into the Hürtgen cauldron. 4-nov-2015 - The Battle of Hürtgen Forest is fought between U.S. and German forces during World War II in a forested area south of the German city Aachen. One British Army officer reported, “What surprised us was the apparent indifference of the American commanders to the physical needs of their men in winter warfare. The most direct route to the dams lay through the Hürtgen Forest, a man-made forest preserve of densely packed fir trees in rough terrain. The bloodletting, particularly the fight around the villages of Hürtgen, Kleinhau, and Grosshau, may have altered the outcome of the Battle of the Bulge by presenting a strong shoulder that the German Sixth Panzer Army never broke. In December, the Germans launched a vast counter-attack through the neighboring Ardennes region. The offensive as undertaken placed the American forces at a severe disadvantage in the forest. In the Hürtgenwald, the U.S. First Army encountered a tactical nightmare. In their haste to enter Germany, the Americans underestimated this major obstacle on the path to the Roer River, the strongly defended forest with its dense trees, deep ravines, and lack of roads. One soldier fell for every two yards gained. The Battle of the Huertgen Forest began in September 1944 and culminated in mid-February 1945. Officers and sergeants made last-minute preparations for an assault. The Battle of Hürtgen was undertaken by US commanders trying to pin down German forces in the area to keep them from reinforcing front lines further north (Battle of Aachen, where the Allies were fighting a trench war between a network of fortified industrial towns and villages speckled with pillboxes, tank traps and minefields). A series of attacks in the forest were ill fated, and from the beginning the campaign reflected little credit on the senior American commanders. The German offensive in Belgium in mid-December, the Battle of the Bulge, halted any further advance into the Hürtgen forest. Many of them had fought in the forests of Russia and Finland. The two-mile advance cost almost 5,000 casualties. The attack into the Hurtgen was preceded by air attacks by the USAAF and the RAF. Everybody is cold and wet, and the mixture of cold rain and sleet keeps falling. Euphoria clouded sound strategic judgment, and some rude awakenings lay ahead. These had to be covered with logs and sod because of the tendency of artillery shells to explode in the treetops, showering them with shrapnel. WWII Quarterly, the hardcover journal of the Second World War that is not available in bookstores or on newsstands, and can only be obtained and collected through a personal subscription through the mail. Then there was the weather—either drenching wet or burning cold. The first engagements during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest were fought by Brig. They were the key to the river, but it would take a bitter struggle in the forest by several divisions before Hodges ordered an attack against them. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest echoed the horrors of the World War I killing grounds and brought much suffering to the enemy soldiers as well as the GIs. Living in cold, wet foxholes, many succumbed to trench foot, the bane of infantrymen in the previous war. They went for days without hot food, living off their packs of C and K rations. © Hello, welcome to The AceDestroyer and welcome to the ‘Hell in the Hürtgen Forest’ series. The 9th Infantry Division then took 10 days of intense combat to push another mile. By the night of November 20, after five days in action, the 22nd Regiment’s rifle companies had lost more than 40 percent of their strength. But there was never any question of his courage. The costly Battle of Hürtgen Forest seriously weakened Hodges’ First Army, with its extended front line unable to resist the German onslaught in the early hours of the Battle of the Bulge. It was a site of great heroism and futile tragedy, in which the fighting was so deadly that soldiers called it “the Death Factory”. La forêt de Hürtgen se caractérise par des bois épais, des collines dégagées et des gorges profondes. US troops who fought in the Hürtgen Forest nicknamed it the "Death Factory." The hapless Bradley responded cryptically, “You don’t make your main effort with your exterior force.”, Lieutenant Frank L. Gunn, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, which captured the village of Merode, said, “In retrospect, it seemed to me that the Hürtgen Forest could have been contained rather than assaulted, and a large flanking or encircling movement performed by corps. MERODE – a fine example of extensive German trenches can be clearly seen here, in the now peaceful forest. After the unexpected success of the Normandy breakout, the Allied high command believed that the enemy was virtually defeated. If the U.S. effort had bypassed the Hürtgenwald to the north in November 1944, it was reasoned, the forest could have served both as a hinge on which the German counteroffensive would pivot in December and as a natural shield to benefit the enemy. Left to right, Pfc. The misery, bloodshed, exhaustion, and violence nearly decapitated the morale of the US Army. Allied forces were eager to get into Germany. Nevertheless, Generals Collins and Hodges decided that it was necessary to clear the Hürtgen Forest. The regiment’s casualty rate was a staggering 86 percent of its normal strength of 3,250 officers and men. The focus of the fighting shifted away from the Hurtgen. There, the Germans were able to delay and wear down the Americans, providing security and buying critical time to prepare for the Ardennes counteroffensive. He was promoted to lieutenant general (Generalleutnant) in April 1940, and earned his first senior command posting in November that year, when he was assigned to lead the 3rd Panzer Division. Shells bursting in the tops of the 100-foot fir trees and mines planted in the forest floor made life particularly hellish for the American infantrymen in the Hürtgen Forest. During breaks in the fighting, the two sides called truces to retrieve the dead and wounded. The battle of the Hurtgen Forest. The Germans under Field Marshal Model had held them up for six months. Gray skies hung low and a steady drizzle dripped through the tall, dense fir trees near the German-Belgian border on the morning of Thursday, November 16, 1944, during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. The enemy troops also suffered severely from the shell bursts in the trees. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was replayed a few weeks later, shortly before the end of the European war, in the Battle of the Reichswald as Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery’s British 21st Army Group closed to the River Rhine. They also need a pair of dry socks every day.”. One reason for the intensity of the struggle in the forest was that the intention of General Omar N. Bradley’s U.S. 21st Army Group to reach for the strategic city of Aachen had been obvious to the enemy for some time. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." The battle claimed 24,000 Americans; killed, missing, captured and wounded, plus another 9,000 who succumbed to trench foot, respiratory diseases and combat fatigue. You can’t get protection. Like many other units engaged, the Double Deucers fought longer than normally expected in the gloomy Hürtgenwald, and few American combat outfits have ever experienced such severe casualties. Media in category "Battle of Hürtgen Forest" The following 24 files are in this category, out of 24 total. It was also one of the most heavily fortified areas of the Siegfried Line, some 200 square miles of dense woods, deep ravines, and high ridges. The Americans had finally broken through the forest, but it could not be called a victory. There were no strategic gains or operational values. Gen. Maurice Rose’s 3rd Armored Division in September 1944. The 2nd Ranger Battalion and the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment emerged from the bloody forest as skeletal units. It lasted nearly five months and it cost the U.S. Army more than 34,000 casualties.i It has largely been forgotten for the past sixty years for several reasons. Concentrate your attention to the town of Schmidt, just kilometers from the Siegfried Line, with its dragons' teeth tank stoppers. Casualties exceeded 33 percent. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hürtgenwald) was a series of fierce battles fought from 19 September to 16 December 1944, between American and German forces on the Western Front during World War II, in the Hürtgen Forest, a 140 km2 (54 sq mi) area about 5 km (3.1 mi) east of the Belgian–German border. Ill conceived in the Allied high command’s haste to reach the gates of Nazi Germany, the Hürtgen Forest campaign was a strategic blunder that could have been avoided—a five-month waste of American lives and resources. The attack was originally launched to guard the flank of VIII Corps’ advance into Germany. Beyond the Hurtgen, the war was moving on, and the Americans could simply have contained and moved around this impossible part of the German lines. The weather worsened that autumn and winter, and a series of bitterly contested battles—Walcheren Island, Aachen, the Saar Basin, the Vosges Mountains, the Reichswald Forest, and the Hürtgen Forest and the Roer River—was fought under the most trying conditions. Some led to small successes, though they were often swept away in counter-attacks. The rugged Vosges Mountains in northeastern France formed a traditional defensive barrier, while the Siegfried Line and the Rhine River comprised a significant obstacle to the Allied forces. A private in the latter days of WWII on the German front struggles between his will to survive and what his superiors perceive as a battlefield instinct. It's estimated that as many as 30 thousand US and German soldiers were killed in fighting in the northern Eifel region of Germany in the autumn and winter of 1944 and 1945. Ahead of them, stiff opposition from German forces lies in wait to stop the American advance dead in its tracks. Nonetheless, the Allies pushed into the rough and unfamiliar terrain in order to secure their advance towards the Rhine. It was added in Update 1.49 "Weapons of Victory". The historian of the crack British Guards Armored Division, which exchanged officers and men with the Americans, reported, “Their [the Americans’] methods might be somewhat curious and unorthodox, but there could be no doubt about the excellent results when put into practice. This would have reduced the casualties and still have accomplished the mission of capturing the dams on the Roer River.”, Lieutenant William Burke, a company commander in the 803rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, agreed: “Some of us with combat experience from the beaches to Hürtgen were hard pressed to understand the tactical wisdom of slogging it out in such an unforgiving environment instead of bypassing it.”, Major General Rudolph Gersdorff, chief of staff of the German Seventh Army, was quoted as saying, “The German command could not understand the reason for the strong American attacks in the Hürtgen Forest.… The fighting in the wooded area denied the American troops the advantages offered them by their air and armored forces, the superiority of which had been decisive in all the battles waged before.”. The region provided a shortcut for the Allies to penetrate Germany. 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