Rurfront
The term Rurfront denotes the front line of the western front in the final phase of the Second World War along the Rur River , where fierce fighting between mainly American and German units took place between September 1944 and February 1945 .
Spatial expansion
The term Rurfront refers primarily to the towns east of Aachen and west of the Rur (Dutch Roer ) north of the Rur dam and south of Roermond , but also to the towns and cities along the Rur that were the main focal points of the fighting. Particularly noteworthy are the cities of Linnich , Jülich and Düren , more than 90% of which were destroyed in the course of the fighting, but also the places Vossenack and Schmidt in the Eifel and the area around Heinsberg on the Dutch border.
history
Advance against the German western border
With the Allied landing in Normandy in June 1944 and the German withdrawal from France, the front line moved close to the Reich border. The Allies, who had hitherto been on the back of the neck of the Germans who were retreating in flight, stopped their advance on the Siegfried Line to take a much-needed respite and organize their supplies. In addition, due to the German propaganda, they overestimated the fighting strength of the almost completely disarmed bunker line and wanted to set up anew before the Siegfried Line was to be penetrated and further to Cologne and the Rhine . The Germans took advantage of this hesitation and regrouped their badly battered armies. They also dug up the rural population to create a dense network of anti-tank trenches and field fortifications. The Siegfried Line, the reinforcement of which had been expanded for use in the Atlantic Wall , was, as far as possible, poorly repaired and mainly armored with captured weapons. The landscape beyond had been turned into a network of trenches and tank trenches, and the many small towns beyond had been turned into makeshift fortresses. Countless minefields completed the defense. When the Allies finally began the attack, they found a well-prepared enemy who, in spite of being hopelessly inferior in almost every respect, put up stubborn resistance and caused heavy losses to the attackers. The Allies were not used to such fierce resistance and their attacks usually quickly lost momentum in the dense tangle of opposing positions. The rapid advance froze in trench warfare, and the attackers could only advance slowly and with all their strength. This also affected the morale of the Allied soldiers, who, after the rapid success in France, had hoped for an early end to the fighting and were now disappointed.
Trench warfare
The only major success for the Allies was the capture of the city of Aachen after fierce fighting on October 21, 1944, but otherwise advancement was very difficult and costly. The considerable superiority of armored vehicles and the almost complete control of the air by the allies did little to change this. Although the Jabos , as they were called, paralyzed almost every movement during the day and forced the Germans to stay under cover, on the other hand the defenders had meanwhile adapted to the constant threat from the air. The Germans for their part suffered heavy losses, but saw the stagnation of the Allied advance as a sign of weakness and prepared a last, desperate attempt to drive the attackers back to France. The preparations for the company "Wacht am Rhein", also known as the Rundstedt or Ardennes offensive , were carried out in the staging area south of the Rur front, which was still in German hands, and went unnoticed on the Allied side. They were one of the reasons for the fierce German resistance, because if the Rur front had given way, the whole plan of attack would have become obsolete. For this purpose, indispensable units were withdrawn from the Eastern Front, which dangerously weakened it.
Violent resistance
In an attempt to win the flank of the German front, the Americans launched a frontal advance on the German positions in the Eifel, especially in the Huertgen Forest, in October 1944 . So they hoped to outflank the Germans in the Jülich Börde plain and to spare their troops there from trench warfare by forcing the enemy to retreat or annihilating them. The attack developed into a disaster because of the fierce German resistance from well-developed defensive positions in combination with difficult terrain and the uselessness of air control in the mountains, and the Americans had to withdraw after heavy losses. The focal points of the fighting were again places near the Rur, especially Vossenack and Schmidt . The result was the planning of Operation Queen , which should break up the Rur front after heavy preparatory air raids and enable the advance to the Rhine. This offensive, which was launched on November 16, also failed due to fierce resistance from the Germans. The air attacks destroyed the cities of Jülich and Düren as well as part of the German infrastructure behind the front, but the subsequent ground offensive was not enough to break through the front, despite the oppressive superiority of the attackers. At least Linnich was captured on December 4th, and the attackers gradually advanced to the Rur; but the Americans did not succeed in forming a bridgehead on the other bank of the Rur. In the course of this offensive, a major tank battle took place near Linnich, which went down in history as the second battle at the Hubertuskreuz , almost 500 years after the first. When the German leadership saw the already prepared Ardennes offensive threatened by the energetic American advance, they released part of the OKW reserve of artillery and the associated ammunition provisions for defense, which made a significant contribution to slowing down the enemy advance to strengthen the fighting strength of the defenders. Tanks and infantry were also branched off to the Rur front so as not to endanger the attack that had been planned, and so the front could be held reasonably well. Due to the bad weather, the Allies were unable to turn off the strong enemy artillery support, which although hardly had any scouts, but could be used effectively against the attackers through fire plans drawn up beforehand. Railway guns were also used, and with the support of the artillery, the front could be held until the attack date on December 16, 1944. In the nights before the attack, a large part of the troops and artillery was withdrawn from the Rur front in order to take part in the upcoming offensive.
Company Wacht am Rhein
All attempts by the Allies to break through the German western front soon had to take a back seat to the efforts to repel the German Ardennes offensive , which broke out as a complete surprise to the Allies on December 16 and in some places brought the Americans into severe distress. They had to stop their attacks along the Rur and concentrate entirely on defending against this flank attack, so that the pressure on the front line initially eased. Only after the failure of the offensive and the return of the attack tips to the Siegfried Line could the Americans think of resuming their advance. With the desperate attack in the west, the Germans had used up their last reserves and could hardly do anything to counter a new Allied advance, the front had to give way when the first major attack occurred. In the event of an enemy attack, the Rurtalsperre was charged to be blown up, its water masses should cause the river to overflow and make it impassable.
Last obstacle before the Rur: Heavy fighting for the Inde
On the small river Inde , the Americans surprisingly saw heavy fighting when the 104th US. Infantry Division in the area of the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division penetrated into the small towns on the Inde , Altdorf (today an open- cast brown coal mine) and Lamersdorf . The attack took place surprisingly during the night without artillery preparation and rolled over the extensive German positions. The Americans invaded both towns. There was a counterattack in Inden by the 2nd Battalion of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Regiment with the 1st Company of the Heavy Panzer Division 103, which brought the village back into German hands through bitter night house fighting. The Americans suffered heavy losses and 84 soldiers were captured. Lamersdorf was recaptured by the 1st Battalion of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and the 12th Company of the 103rd Heavy Tank Division, taking 18 prisoners. To the south, in the village of Langerwehe , the fighting was even harder. After the 12th Infantry Division had been defeated by the 1st US Infantry Division , the 3rd Paratrooper Division , which was to replace the 12th Infantry Division, was dropped . The paratroopers, however, were wiped out immediately after they were caught in a tank attack. Another attempt to recapture Langerwehe was unsuccessful despite the use of assault guns .
Crossing the Rur - bitter fighting in Jülich, Düren and Linnich
As early as January 1945, a British advance ( Operation Blackcock ) cleared the northern section of the Rur front, the so-called Heinsberger pocket , and threw the German defenders back here on the eastern Rurufer. The final advance of the Americans was not long in coming. On February 8, the British began their advance on Wesel ( Operation Veritable ) further north . The V US Corps under Major General Ruebner was the first major American unit to attack the Rur dams on February 4th. The weak troops of the 15th German Army could not withstand the onslaught, and General Field Marshal Model gave orders to blow up the Rurtalsperre . The American advance was to be stopped by flooding the banks of the Rur. As a defensive measure against the advancing Allies, the Kermeter pressure tunnel of the Urft Dam and the closures of the bottom drainage tunnel of the Schwammenauel dam (Rursee) were blown up on February 10th. When the 9th US Army under General Simpson reached the Rur on February 9th, he could not cross the Rur, which has now become a raging river. He reported to headquarters that he could not cross the Rur before two weeks had passed and that any attack in the meantime would be pointless.
A drop in the water level could only be measured on February 15. When the level had sunk for another five days, the decision was made at the headquarters of the 9th US Army: On February 23, the crossing with assault boats and temporary bridges should be dared. Four American corps attacked between Hilfarth and Düren. The 16th Corps south of Hilfarth, the 11th Corps on both sides of Linnich, the 19th Corps at Jülich and the 7th Corps at Düren. The remnants of the 15th German Army had positioned themselves in the difficult terrain on the Eifelstrasse in the Roermond area to the south of Düren and were awaiting the major attack. All of them were weak units, far below their nominal strength, which were still called corps. This included the 12th SS Panzer Corps, which only consisted of army units, as well as the LXXXI., LXXIV. and the LXVII. Corps. In an order dated January 21, Hitler had the commanders declare that any abandonment of a position and any disengagement would be reported to him in good time, and that his counter-order would reach the foremost troops in time. So, contrary to the advice of the officers , who proposed an elastic defense, the order was issued to hold the position at all costs. In addition, the creation of rear defensive positions was prohibited. The soldiers should know that there was no security behind them. The success was already evident on the first day of Operation Grenade . General Simpson deployed six divisions over a width of 25 km. The 84th and 102nd Divisions of the 11th Corps had to carry out the main attack at Linnich, the 35th and 79th Divisions of the 16th Corps and the 29th and 30th Divisions of the 19th Corps continued to attack. A massive artillery attack initiated the attack. Under the protection of artillery , mortar and machine-gun fire, the Americans began crossing the river in assault boats, the current of which was still rapid. Many assault boats capsized. Most of the losses the Americans suffered from mines and booby traps like the dreaded shrapnel mine . 74 soldiers of the 102nd division, which had fought near Linnich, fell on the first day, 493 were wounded and 31 were missing.
The German air force attacked the American bridgeheads at Düren, Jülich and Linnich. The new Messerschmitt 262 were also used, but despite the at least 97 attacks by the Air Force, the American pioneers succeeded in building temporary bridges over the Rur. At 6 a.m. on the first day of Operation Grenade, the first soldiers crossed a makeshift bridge in front of Jülich. Fierce fighting broke out in the ruins of Düren, which had been completely destroyed, and two barracks were severely defended. By midnight the next day, all the resistance pockets on the river bank had been dug and the Americans had three bridges over the Rur in their hands. The 9th Army took 3,000 German prisoners in the first two days of Operation Grenade with their own casualties of less than 2,000 men.
Conditions at the front and in the rear
During the almost seven months of fighting in the Rur section, the conditions were very harsh on both sides, mud and bad weather made operations on both sides difficult and offered the defenders some advantages, while the Germans suffered particularly from the omnipresent Allied fighter-bombers , the movements and supplies on Days often made it almost impossible. The Americans, on the other hand, had never seen such fierce resistance. In particular in the impassable mountainous region of the Hürtgen Forest, but also in the trench warfare in the Jülich Börde, there were tough disputes. In particular, the German artillery and the extensive minefields, both from anti-tank and anti-personnel mines , were responsible for many of the Allied losses, including the dreaded S-mines . The Germans fought with the last of their strengths and threw the last of their reserves into the battle, were mostly clearly behind in numbers and equipment, and there were bottlenecks in ammunition and supplies. Often enough they also had to fall back on the Volkssturm and Hitler Youth groups , which were almost worthless in military terms , and which nonetheless fought well in the narrowness of the Rhenish villages and in the tangle of trenches and tank trenches and gave the Americans a serious headache. On their side, however, there was a certain advantage in terms of combat experience on the part of the soldiers who had survived the retreat from France or who came from the beleaguered Eastern Front, while this was often still lacking, especially with the Americans.
In addition to the strong field fortifications, the bad weather was an important factor in the slow advance of the Allies. Heavy rain and low clouds, especially in November, often made it difficult for them to demonstrate their air superiority, and vehicles such as soldiers were hindered by the deep mud while the defenders benefited from it. The Germans were also strongly supported by the few tanks , which were often clearly superior to the models of the Western Allies, but for which there was seldom enough fuel and which were therefore mostly used defensively in trench warfare or in short counter-attacks. Working together with infantry and artillery, they blocked attacks and carried out counter-attacks, which often undermined the success of the enemy attack. However, due to the high material superiority of enemy tanks and the opposing air force, there were high German failures that could no longer be replaced.
The civilian population of the affected areas also suffered severely from the extremely fierce fighting. Not only was she called on for work assignments and forced to billet the many soldiers, she also had to watch the homeland being destroyed. After the success of the Allies, many people in the area had hoped for a quick end to the fighting and Nazi rule, and this hope only gradually faded. Quite a few disregarded the evacuation orders in the hope that they would quickly be overwhelmed by the advancing allies, and were often bitterly disappointed. The civilian population paid a not inconsiderable toll in blood in the fighting and the countless air raids and often enough had to accept the loss of all belongings. Even after the end of the fighting, duds, abandoned ammunition and, above all, the minefields were a constant threat, the removal of which took a long time and still cost many victims.
Result and aftermath
From the landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944 to the meeting with Soviet troops at the end of April 1945 ( Elbe Day ), it took the Western Allies almost eleven months. They needed a full six months of this to defeat the positions of the Rur front. The fierce resistance of the Germans in this area prolonged the war by several months and enabled the Nazi regime's last desperate attempt to turn the tide once again with the Ardennes offensive and the Nordwind operation . In this respect, the Rur Front can be ascribed a military-historical significance; For the last time an organized defensive front succeeded in delaying the inevitable end of the war. In the course of the long and costly battles, almost all towns and cities in the region were badly destroyed; The cities of Jülich and Düren in particular were the focus of the fighting as supply centers and as places with Rurbrücken bridges. Other legacies are ammunition remains, bomb remains and duds from this time, and there are still thousands of mines in the Hürtgen Forest.
Associations involved
On the Allied side, mainly the units of the 9th US Army of the 12th Army Group and the British 2nd Army of the 21st Army Group were involved in the fighting on the Rur section , mainly the 84th US Division, 102nd US Division, 104. US Division, 29th US Division, 30th US Division, and the 2nd and 6th US Armored Divisions.
On the German side, the operations particularly affected the units of the 15th Army and the 1st Paratrooper Army / Student Army Group , later also the 5th and 6th Panzer Army and the 7th Army , all of which were subordinate to Army Group B ( OB West ). Special mention should be made here of the 340th Volksgrenadier Division , 363rd Volksgrenadier Division , 15th Panzergrenadier Division , 3rd Panzer Division , 9th Panzer Division , 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg , 116th Panzer Division , 75th Infantry Division , 47th Volksgrenadier Division , 12th Infantry Division , 246th Volksgrenadier Division , 105th Panzer Brigade and the 506th Heavy Panzer Division.
literature
- Hans Kramp: The Rur Front 1944/45 - 2nd battle at the Hubertuskreuz between Wurm, Rur and Inde . ISBN 3-923219-00-8 .
- Helmut Scheuer: How was that back then? Jülich 1944–1948 . Verlag des Jülich history association 1985, ISBN 3-9800914-4-9 .
- Har Gootzen, Kevin Connor: Battle for the Roer Triangle . ISBN 978-90-9021455-9 . [1]
- Wingolf Scherer : Desperate Defense - From the Rur to the Rhine between Cologne and Krefeld February / March 1945 . Helios Verlag, ISBN 3-938208-32-5 .
- Horst Siegel: 'All courage was in vain' 1944/45 - In the raging battles in the west - Aachen, Stolberg, Hürtgenforst, Rurfront: Düren, Jülich, Linnich, Lindern . - ISBN 978-3-938208-28-1 , Helios Verlag.
- Die Front an Rur und Inde , collected and compiled by Josef Rahier 1950, Verlag Josef Fischer, Jülich, 4th edition 2012, ISBN 978-3-87227-085-6 .