Operation Queen
| date | November 16th bis 16th December 1944 |
|---|---|
| place | Rurtal and surroundings |
| output | Tactical victory of the German Empire |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 100,000 | unknown |
| losses | |
|
approx.38,500, |
comparable to allies, |
.svg){kind=small}
1944: Overlord · Dragoon · Mons · Market Garden · Scheldt estuary · Aachen · Hürtgenwald · Queen · Alsace-Lorraine · Ardennes
1945: Nordwind · Bodenplatte · Blackcock · Colmar · Veritable · Grenade · Blockbuster · Lumberjack · Undertone · Plunder · Würzburg · Ruhrkessel · Nuremberg
Operation Queen was a joint British-American venture during the Second World War as part of the fighting between Aachen and the Rur in November 1944, which took place almost at the same time as the offensive on both sides of the Vosges , but was much less successful.
prehistory
After the Allied landing in Normandy in June 1944, the Americans and British drove the Germans out of France after fierce fighting and were now beginning to invade Germany itself. Due to supply difficulties and general exhaustion, the attackers stopped in front of the Siegfried Line to reorganize and reorganize. Although the Siegfried Line was out of date and disarmed , the Allies considered it a serious obstacle due to German propaganda that they did not want to face unprepared. The Germans took advantage of this breathing space and reorganized their battered armies, the population was also divided up to dig out entrenchments and the Siegfried Line armored with prey weapons. In the back of the fortification line a network of trenches and armored trenches as well as extensive minefields was created, which connected the numerous makeshift fortified villages with one another. When the Allies resumed their advance, they met with fierce resistance, and the advance, which had been rapid until then, turned more and more into a positional war . Despite the oppressive personnel and material superiority and the almost total air supremacy of the Allies, their advance to the Rhine made only extremely slow progress. The Germans fought a fierce defensive battle for each of the numerous villages in the region. The German resistance stiffened particularly in the area between Geilenkirchen , Alsdorf and Würselen west of the river Rur , where heavy fighting raged for weeks, causing heavy losses on both sides. Attempts to flank the defensive positions in this area with an advance into the Hürtgenwald ended in disaster . The Americans attacking head-on rubbed against the strong German positions in the impassable mountainous country, where they could hardly exploit their numerical superiority and air power. Violent counter-attacks resulted in high losses. This also had an effect on the morale of the Allied soldiers who, after the quick success in France, had hoped that the war would soon be over, and who were now faced with the most violent resistance to date.
The planning
The Allied High Command planned to start a major offensive against the Rur in the area of the 1st and 9th US Army , to cross them at Linnich , Jülich and Düren and to form bridgeheads . In the further course the Rhine was to be reached and bridgeheads formed at Düsseldorf and Krefeld in order to gain favorable starting positions for an advance into the heart of Germany next year. At the same time, units of the 1st US Army were to attack in the area of the Huertgen Forest in order to hold the Germans in their positions, so that no reinforcements could be sent from there to the Rur front, while the 2nd British Army was to attack further north. A large number of American and British bombers were supposed to destroy the supply centers of the German front with tactical attacks in preparation for this offensive and also to attack the enemy forces themselves. All of these endeavors were grouped under the code name Operation Queen . The heavy strategic bombers of the 8th Air Force were assigned the area of the fortified positions around Eschweiler and Aldenhoven , while the medium bombers of the 9th Air Force were assigned the second line of defense around Jülich and Langerwehe . Meanwhile, the RAF Bomber Command was to strike a hard blow against the connection centers Jülich and Düren, the smaller traffic hubs Heinsberg , Erkelenz and Baal were intended as alternative destinations . Originally the start of the offensive was scheduled for November 10th, but bad weather led to the postponement to November 16, 1944. The offensive of the ground forces was to begin immediately after the end of the air raids in order to prevent their own units from being hit at the same time ensuring that the enemy had as few opportunities as possible to recover from their shock.
However, the Allies had just chosen the most heavily defended section of the Rur front, because apart from the strongly developed positions and the units at the front, the 5th Panzer Army with considerable tank and artillery reserves was ready in the rear . Like all other units, it was well below target strength, but it was still a significant factor and could provide the defenders with strong support.
The offensive
Preparatory air strike
During the midday of November 16, 1944 between 11:13 a.m. and 12:48 p.m., the American bomber units carried out their attacks. 1,191 heavy bombers of the 8th Air Force occupied the places Eschweiler, Weisweiler and Langerwehe with a total of 4,120 tons of bombs, while 339 fighter-bombers of the 9th Air Force attacked Hamich , Hürtgen and Gey with 200 tons of bombs.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,188 heavy Halifax and Lancaster bombers as well as mosquitos of the RAF Bomber Command flew heavy attacks against Düren , Jülich and Heinsberg .
The attack on Jülich in particular was extremely violent, because French and American troop maps still showed the place as a fortress, but this was no longer the case - it was hoped that the attack would destroy the supposedly very strong defensive positions. Large quantities of high explosive and incendiary bombs fell on the city between 3:28 p.m. and 3:50 p.m. The following were dropped on high explosive bombs:
- 4000 lb .: 75 pieces
- 2000 lb .: 361 pieces
- 1000 lb .: 1945 pieces
- 500 lb .: 1613 pieces
A total of 3994 explosive bombs weighing 1,711 tons, plus 123,518 incendiary bombs, dropped individually or in containers of 106 pieces.
The city was completely devastated in the attack and burned for several days. The road and rail network, industry and infrastructure as well as the Rur Bridge were destroyed, as were around 97% of the houses and apartments, and there were high casualties among the civilian population and the armed forces. Düren fared little better, which was also almost completely destroyed in a firestorm, and Heinsberg also suffered severe damage.
Ground offensive
At 12:45 p.m. on November 16, 1944, after 80 minutes of preparatory barrage from 700 guns, the 9th US Army , supported by strong tank formations, went to attack. Despite the thorough preparation, the severed supply lines and the strong numerical superiority of the attackers, the weak German units essentially held out and only retreated very slowly. The Allies suffered heavy losses and were slow to gain ground. The previous area bombing had not done much against the well-developed positions, most of the bombs fell randomly, only destroyed what had already been destroyed and did not do much harm to the well-developed defensive positions, which were supplemented with buried tanks. Although the Allies were able to blind the German artillery observers with continuous fire with smoke grenades, the war-experienced German artillery was excellently targeted at the most important points in the area and had a terrible effect. On the first day the American offensive made little headway; the Germans held their positions, albeit with heavy losses. The attackers suffered particularly from the heavily mined area; high losses prevented infantry and tanks from advancing. Fortified villages were successfully attacked in places, but were often lost again in counterattacks. After two days the advance had stalled almost everywhere and the trench warfare began.
Fierce fighting on the west bank of the Rur continued for the next four weeks. Although the Americans gradually advanced to the river, there was still fierce fighting for every village and town. The only major success was taking Linnich . In the course of the fighting for the city there was also a major tank battle, in which the Americans maintained the field with great losses. However, they did not succeed in crossing the river and building bridgeheads, the stubborn resistance of the buried Germans, the heavy artillery fire and occasional air attacks by German attack aircraft prevented this. Bad weather troubled both sides, the groundless ground hindered all movement and brought advantages for the defenders; In addition, the river overflowed, making it difficult to cross. Low clouds and continuous rain often rendered the Allied air superiority worthless, but when the clouds broke up, the omnipresent Allied fighter-bombers paralyzed any movement on the ground and caused great losses on the German side. At the same time, the Americans attacked again in the Hürtgenwald, so that the German high command saw the Ardennes offensive being prepared in jeopardy by the fierce pressure of the enemy against the western front : if the Americans crossed the Rur or brought the Eifel under their control Allied flank attacks endanger the plan of attack. For this reason, the high command released some artillery, tank and infantry units from the provisions collected for the counter-offensive in order to hold the Rur front at all costs until the offensive began. Despite the lack of soldiers, ammunition and fuel and despite the fact that the units fighting on the Rur were bled and exhausted after months of almost uninterrupted fighting, the tactical goal was achieved. The decisive factor was the well-positioned heavy artillery fire, which the Americans could not silence because of the bad weather and which often nipped their attacks in the bud. Railway guns were also used on a larger scale . With the start of the Battle of the Bulge on December 16, 1944, the Americans, completely surprised by it, had to suspend their attacks as part of Operation Queen .
Result
Overall, Operation Queen was a failure. Despite careful preparation, the Allies failed to decisively defeat the German defense west of the Rur and to form bridgeheads for the advance towards the Rhine. Instead, the attackers were embroiled in loss-making house and position battles and had to wrestle for every meter of ground. The beginning of the Battle of the Bulge relieved the German defenders and forced the Americans to stop their offensive; They did not manage to cross the Rur until February 1945, but then the way to the Rhine was clear.
See also
literature
- Helmut Scheuer: How was that back then? Jülich 1944-1948 . Verlag des Jülich history association, 1985, ISBN 3-9800914-4-9 .
- Hans Karmp: Rurfront 1944/45 . Fred Gatzen Verlag, ISBN 3-923219-00-8 .
Individual evidence
- ^ RAF Bomber Command Campaign Diary, November 1944 ( Memento from February 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Scheuer, p. 59.