Battle in the Huertgen Forest

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The battle in the Hürtgenwald describes a series of three defensive battles of the Wehrmacht against the attacking US Army in the area of ​​the North Eifel during the Second World War in 1944. The forest fights around the Hürtgenwald are among the most difficult battles of the US Army in World War II. These forest fights are considered to be the first US Army engagements in this type of terrain. Individual aspects were processed literarily by Heinrich Böll , Kurt Vonnegut and Steffen Kopetzky , among others .

This battle, in which Ernest Hemingway and Jerome D. Salinger also participated, plays an essential role in American culture of remembrance . After the Battle of Aachen, it is considered the first major field battle of the Americans on German soil, was generally referred to as the longest battle of the US Army and compared with the Battle of Gettysburg in terms of the number of deaths .

From a military point of view, the attempt to cross the Eifel was a disaster and in retrospect it was difficult to understand; The US Army could easily have bypassed the area. The topography favored the German defenders massively, an effective deployment of armored units was impossible in the dense forests and on the narrow and steep paths. In the general staff courses of the US Army, this battle is treated as "Verdun in the Eifel" and as the "greatest disaster of the American troops in World War II". In some military considerations, the fight in the Huertgen Forest is seen as an anticipation of the later fighting in Vietnam , in which a mechanized army tried to fight in infantry areas.

landscape

The site of the battle was the Hürtgenwald , a 140 km² forest plateau northeast of the Belgian-German border, south of the Aachen - Düren line and west of the Rur . It consists of the Merode , Wenau , Hürtgen and Roetgen forests with dense forests, unwooded hills, deep valley cuts and sparse settlements.

prehistory

After the landing in Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944), the Western Allies fought as part of Operation Overlord to establish a solid base there and to push the Germans back from northern France. At first, the Allies were only able to achieve minor gains in terrain. It was only with Operation Cobra (also known as the "breakthrough at Avranches "; July 24 to August 4, 1944) that it was possible to break through the German positions in the west of the invasion area. In the following motorized war of movement in northern France, due to the unexpectedly rapid advance of the Allied forces, they were no longer able to ensure the necessary supplies and the advance in the Aachen area in front of the Siegfried Line stalled. This gave the Germans the opportunity to reorganize their troubled troops and to establish defensive positions. ( see also: German Western Front 1944/1945 )

The Allies wanted between Aachen and Monschau in a wooded area near Hürtgen (today municipality Hürtgenwald in Düren break) and along the Rurfront in the Jülicher Börde standing German units in the cross fall to their troops on the way to the Rhine where the trench warfare to save. Furthermore, they feared that in the event of a rapid advance to the Rhine they would be exposed to the risk of flank attacks from the Eifel and flooding by blowing up the Rur dam . Therefore, they tried to attack through the mountainous region without being aware of the conditions in this impassable terrain.

The German defense pursued two goals: In order to delay a feared American breakthrough in the Jülich Börde and to prevent a flank attack on the German units standing along the Rur front , the area and the access to the Rur dam should be defended because of the possibility of flooding. This was to prevent an Allied breakthrough to the Rhine. In addition, the Eifel was needed as a deployment area for the Ardennes offensive , which was already in preparation . The region therefore had to remain in German hands if one did not want to jeopardize secrecy and expose oneself to the risk of flank attacks. In addition, the Hürtgenwald offered good opportunities for defense because of the mountainous terrain.

Fighting

On the morning of October 6, 1944, the advance of the 9th US Infantry Division , belonging to the 1st US Army, under the command of the 5th US Corps against the German 275th Infantry Division began on the entire width of the attack area. In this forest area, however, it was hardly possible to find targets for the Allied artillery and air force . For the most part, the terrain made the use of heavy vehicles impossible, because the few paths were hardly or not at all suitable for heavy vehicles. Another obstacle for the US troops was the exact local knowledge of the Wehrmacht and their careful preparation of fire plans and positions for artillery, mortars and machine guns . The defenders had an advantage because of the mountainous and wooded terrain, which made the American superiority in terms of military equipment less effective; the fortifications of the west wall were also available to them. The Siegfried Line, built in the late 1930s, was in ruins and disarmed in many places. Nevertheless, the confusing German position system offered good defensive possibilities and represented a serious obstacle for attackers. The uneven and heavily forested terrain favored infiltration tactics and made it difficult to build a coherent front. The Americans also suffered from the fact that their mortar groups needed clearings to set up firing positions, which in many places simply did not exist; accordingly, their infantrymen all too often lacked the support of mortars.

The US soldiers were forced to wage trench warfare that was very exhausting for both sides. A complicating factor was the fact that the Americans had practically no experience in mountain and small-scale warfare, while the Germans were very familiar with it through the experiences of the previous war years. Many older officers also had experience from trench warfare in the First World War . In the forest and mountains there were few starting points for the air force and armored vehicles, so that the infantry bore the brunt of the fighting. The Germans turned the dense forest into a fortress with countless foxholes, trenches and the massive use of mines , snipers ("tree shooters") hidden in the trees claimed a steady death toll, and tree creakers (i.e. artillery shells that were set so that they were in Detonated at the top of the tree and thus also littered the ground with splinters of wood) proved to be very dangerous for the attackers who did not have sufficient cover. In some cases, the German artillery fired with grenades that had a double or time fuse and detonated in the air, which increased the fragmentation effect by one and a half times compared to conventional grenades with impact fuses. So the attack got stuck in the forest and the heights remained in German hands, although the Americans adapted to the circumstances very quickly. For their part, the Germans were faced with supply problems, the fighting units had suffered heavy losses on the retreat through France and replacements were hardly available. Due to the lack of fuel and vehicles, the supplies often had to be brought to the front with porters in the rough terrain. After ten days of heavy fighting, both sides were so weakened that the fighting subsided. At the end of the unsuccessful offensive, the Americans had gained 2.7 kilometers of land, and the losses were 4,500 men; the Germans lost 3,200 men.

An American half-track vehicle makes its way through the muddy streets of the Huertgen Forest

The All Souls Battle

In the end, the 9th US Division was exhausted by the extremely tough forest fighting and was replaced by the 28th Division on October 26, 1944. The sight of the dirty and torn-off-looking soldiers of the detached unit impaired the fighting spirit of the largely inexperienced replacement troops. The US High Command did not want to lose any time and planned an attack on the village of Schmidt , which was both tactically and operationally important as a crossroads of many roads and due to its high altitude in the so-called “ Stolberg Corridor” . The attack date was set for October 31, but had to be postponed to November 2 due to bad weather. The 28th Division was reinforced by additional engineer, tank and artillery units that should help with the breakthrough.

The Germans did not remain idle and transformed the forest area with numerous field fortifications and minefields back into a fortress. The German high command was of the opinion that the American thrust aimed at the Rur dams in order to prevent the Rur valley from being flooded by controlling them, which would have stopped an American thrust in this area. This would have endangered the German plans for the Ardennes offensive, which is already in preparation, quite apart from the risk of a flank attack if the mountainous region had fallen into Allied hands, so that the German leadership attached great importance to the defense of the dams and thus the Hürtgen Forest. The Americans, on the other hand, had not yet recognized the importance of the dams and probably chose the route of attack mainly to prevent their troops fighting further north from being hindered by reserves from the Hürtgen Forest during an advance on the Rhine. The primary goal was thus to hold on to the enemy and tie up his armed forces. The 275th Infantry Division as well as the 89th Infantry and the 12th Volksgrenadier Division were deployed on the German side in the mountains . The 116th Panzer Division was ready in reserve . All of these associations, however, were severely decimated and far below target strength. For example, the 275th Infantry Division had melted down to about 5,000 men.

The US attack began as planned and, despite heavy losses, reached Schmidt and the neighboring Kommerscheidt on November 3, 1944 via Vossenack . Strong German mortar and infantry fire could not be switched off in the rough terrain, and the advancing troops suffered losses from the extensive minefields and tree cracking. Of particular importance was the route through the Kall Gorge, which was the only supply route from Vossenack to Schmidt. Because of the poor roads, the peaks of attack had great problems advancing, in particular it was almost impossible to maneuver tanks over the narrow and winding forest roads. The same difficulty also hindered the defenders in building up reserves; the fall of the place Schmidt could not be prevented. However, the German leadership now saw the dams threatened and provided sufficient forces for a counterattack. The Americans remained under constant artillery fire, whereby the impenetrable and eerie forest landscape, which was still full of German snipers and combat groups, weakened the morale of the Americans who holed up in the conquered villages.

The 89th Infantry Division of the Germans led a counterattack on November 5, 1944 with artillery support from the 116th Panzer Division against Schmidt. Support by tanks was not possible due to the nature of the terrain. Nevertheless, after fierce fighting and with heavy losses, the Americans had to retreat, which in parts grew into an uncontrolled escape. The Americans' supply route was threatened by a simultaneous attack on Vossenack and constant German activity on the route itself, and it was not possible to pull out all the advanced troops. Many of the retreating soldiers fell or were captured. In the days that followed, the attacking Germans gradually pushed the Americans back to their original positions, with the US troops suffering heavy losses. But the Germans also paid a high price for the defense of the dams: The attack on Vossenack did not take hold, and it was not until November 8 that the Germans were able to partially occupy the village that had been cleared by the Americans. At this point, however, the battle had long been fought further back. The defense and recapture, which had to be undertaken using the reserves, were characterized by high losses. The fighting was extremely fierce, and at times neither side took any more prisoners. Poor planning, difficult terrain, deep soil, wet and cold weather, the bad weather-related lack of the usual air support and unexpectedly strong German resistance, together with the fact that the newly arrived soldiers of the 28th Division were not prepared for such conditions, contributed to the failure of the American Attack at. After this failure, the heavily decimated division had to be pulled from the front and refreshed. The fighting subsided a little temporarily. The battle for Schmidt alone cost the US Army 6,184 men, the German losses were around half.

Operation Queen

15 cm infantry gun 33 in the Hürtgen forest to repel US attacks, November 22, 1944

On November 16, 1944, the 1st ( Hodges ) and 9th US Armies ( Simpson ) launched a major offensive in the Hürtgenwald ( Operation Queen ), which simultaneously approached the Rur front further north. In this second phase of the fighting, the 4th US Division under the command of the VII US Corps was to break through the northern half of the Huertgen Forest and reach the Rur. Opposite her were still three German divisions of the LXXXI. Army corps, all of which were well below their nominal strength; The 275th Infantry Division with 150 guns, now increased to 6,500 men, was still in the Hürtgenwald area.

At the start of the American offensive, two attacking US regiments suffered heavy losses from the well-prepared Germans, who drove the attackers back with strong artillery and machine-gun fire. To enable tank support, US pioneers began blowing up tank roads through the forest. Nevertheless, supply and care of the wounded remained a problem, so that the attack was suspended for two days from November 19, 1944 in order to rescue the wounded and to regroup. The Germans, meanwhile, received reinforcements from the 344th and 353rd Infantry Divisions, which made the resistance even tougher.

The V. US Corps took over the command again, and on November 21st the 8th US Division attacked in the Wehebach area and slowly advanced to Huertgen. Despite their strong superiority, the Americans made slow progress against the dogged German resistance and were only able to take Hürtgen on November 29, 1944. The ruins of the Schwarzenbroich monastery near Merode, which were further destroyed, were of particular importance during the fighting in the Hürtgen Forest . A later attack on Merode was successful, but a German counterattack destroyed the two US companies that had occupied the village.

Components of the 8th and 28th US divisions then advanced to Brandenberg . Again, they made very slow progress. By December 12, 1944, they managed to conquer the places Gey and Straß . The Germans, however, managed to keep the Americans away from the dams until the Ardennes offensive began on December 16. This brought the battle in the Huertgen Forest to a temporary end.

Outcome of the battle

US troops in the Huertgen Forest

After the failure of the Battle of the Bulge on January 10, 1945, the fighting resumed. The reserves of the Germans were exhausted and they had suffered heavy losses, which is why the intensity of the fighting decreased somewhat and the attackers made progress. Schmidt finally fell on February 8, 1945, which ended the fighting in the Hürtgen Forest. Five months after the Americans had reached the western border of the Huertgen Forest, they were on the other side. However, the Germans opened the Rurtalsperre and the Urfttalsperre before they fell into American hands. It was not until February 10 that American troops captured the dam of the Rurtalsperre.

By opening the dams, the Germans created an artificial flood of the Rur. This delayed Operation Grenade and with it the American advance to the Rhine by two weeks.

Reviews and post-war

Crucifixion group in Vossenack in memory of the victims of the fighting
Memorial stone for Friedrich Lengfeld

The American writer Ernest Hemingway , who was an eyewitness to the battle in the Huertgen Forest for 18 days as a war correspondent, completely changed his opinion of the war, which he had glorified up to this point. He later processed his experiences in his novel Across the River and into the Woods (1950): "In Hürtgen, the dead froze, and it was so cold that they froze with red faces ..."

General James M. Gavin , the commander of the 82nd US Paratrooper Division, judged after the fight: "It was the most costly, most unproductive and worst-fought battle that our army has fought."

In the American Hürtgenwald as "was Hurt -genwald" ( to hurt = hurt) known and aptly called the snowy battlefield. Booby traps in the trees and fire had turned the forest into a nightmarish desert.

There are controversial estimates and opinions about the number of casualties (fallen and wounded) by the US Army and the German Wehrmacht. What is certain is that it was one of the most costly battles in Western Europe during World War II. The claim that the US Army had as many casualties as in the Vietnam War is not true. From September to early December 1944, American casualties in the Hürtgenwald area amounted to around 32,000 soldiers. US Army sources state that the 28th US Infantry Division, which was detached from the front in mid-November, suffered 6184 casualties when attacking and defending Schmidt and Kommerscheidt. The US 1st Army recorded 21,500 casualties between November 16 and December 15. The entire area of ​​the battle was difficult to access for years after the war. The heavy mines made even the recovery of the dead risky, which at first only happened on the initiative of Julius Erasmus .

Traces of the fighting can still be found in the Hürtgenwald. Tank traps can be seen in many places, and there are also a handful of unsurfaced bunkers. Several books have been published on these traces, showing front lines and remnants of the battle.

Numerous mines and other explosive devices are still suspected in the combat areas. Since many of the German officers and soldiers who created or had site plans at the time fell, there were no more records of the location or size of the minefields after the fighting. In addition, glass mines ( glass mine 43 ) and wood mines were used on a larger scale, which also made a complete evacuation impossible, since these cannot be detected with conventional detection devices (metal detection probes). Ordnance clearance services that use explosives search dogs then also had to learn that these specialized search dogs cannot, or only very rarely, track down glass mines. It is therefore still life-threatening in these areas to stay off the marked paths or hiking trails, especially in forest areas. Since the exact location of many mine strips is still unknown, not all areas are cordoned off or marked.

In the post-war years, the remains of Allied and German soldiers were found again and again, most recently on September 26, 2008 that of John Farrell Jr. and Edward T. Jones in Schmidt . Both belonged to the 28th US Infantry Division. Her remains were transferred to the American investigative service in Hawaii , which notified the descendants.

The Hürtgen cemetery of honor is one of only two memorials that the former opponents erected for a German soldier: In the entrance area there is a memorial stone for the German lieutenant Friedrich Lengfeld , who on November 12, 1944 tried to kill an injured American soldier to save the minefield "Wilde Sau", was seriously injured and died on the same day in the first aid station " Lukas-Mühle ". The plaque was erected by the Veterans Association of the 22nd U.S. Infantry Regiment.

Museum and film

The Hürtgenwald Museum in 1944 and in peace - run by the Hürtgenwald History Association e. V. - reminds in Vossenack of the war events of that time.

(2009) W wie Wissen ARD film about the rescue of private (rank) James Turner US Army in the Hürtgenwald

Achim Konejung presented his documentary You enter Germany on November 27, 2007 as part of the Konejung Foundation: Culture . Hürtgenwald - the long war on the Siegfried Line over the fighting in the Hürtgenwald, in which he incorporated previously unpublished raw material from the USA. He illustrates the terrible events through interviews with contemporary witnesses from Germany and the USA as well as film recordings from the US National Archives and private archives. In 2010 you enter Germany 2 - The archive material from 1938 to 1947 - was published by him, compiled and commented on . In 2015, the traveling exhibition “Routes of Liberation” in several European cities sheds light on the prehistory and course of the Second World War and its aftermath. In the exhibition, biographies of those affected trace the Allied advance of 1944/45, on which the Hürtgen Forest in the northern Eifel was an important stop. From January 10th to 31st, 2015, the exhibition stopped at the St. Hubertus Church in Nideggen-Schmidt. Dispute over the memory.

Fiction

The writer Steffen Kopetzky published the novel Propaganda about the battle in the Hürtgenwald in 2019 .

See also

  • The "German doctor" Günter Stüttgen was a German military doctor who gained fame through his humanitarian work for the wounded on both sides during the Battle of the Huertgen Forest and was honored for this in 1996 by the 28th Infantry Division of the US National Guard.
  • Battle in the Reichswald - the northern pincer movement of the Allies against the Ruhr area
  • The Sound of War - war film

literature

  • Douglas E. Nash: Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp: With the 272nd Volks-Grenadier Division from the Huertgen Forest to the Heart of the Reich. The Aberjona Press, Bedford, Pennsylvania, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9777563-2-2 .
  • Robert Sterling Rush: Hell in Hürtgen Forest, The Ordeal and Triumph of an American Infantry Regiment , University Press of Kansas, Lawrence (paperback) 2004, ISBN 978-0-7006-1360-1 .
  • Charles B. MacDonald: The Battle of the Huertgen Forest. University Of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2002, ISBN 0-8122-1831-0 .
  • Charles B. MacDonald: The Siegfried Line Campaign. United States Army in World War II: The European Theater of Operations. Office of the Chief of Military History Department of the Army, Washington DC 1963.
  • Adolf Hohenstein, Wolfgang Trees : Hell in the Hürtgenwald. The fights from the High Fens to the Rur September 1944 to February 1945. TRIANGEL Verlag, ISBN 3-922974-01-5 .
  • Heinz Günther Guderian : The last year of the war in the West. The history of the 116th Panzer Division - Greyhound Division. 1995, ISBN 3-932436-01-6 (German Alt-General describes the events meticulously from a German point of view. Many military details and citations from sources with references).
  • Kurt Kaeres: The hurray fell silent. Hürtgenwald 1944–45. Helios-Verlag, Aachen 2004, ISBN 3-933608-50-3 .
  • Hans Kramp: Rurfront 1944/45. Fred Gatzen Verlag, ISBN 3-923219-00-8 .
  • Rainer Monnartz: Hürtgenwald 1944/45 - Military- historical tour planner . Helios-Verlag, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-938208-68-7 .
  • Alexander Kuffner: Time Travel Guide Eifel 1933–45. Helios, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-938208-42-7 .
  • Denis and Shelagh Whitaker: Final battle on the Rhine - The advance of the Western Allies 1944/45. 1998, ISBN 3-8289-0291-X .
  • Max von Falkenberg: Hürtgenwald '44 / 45. ISBN 3-936946-18-3 .
  • Ernest Hemingway: 49 dispatches. War on the Siegfried Line; Collier's, November 18, 1944.
  • Steven J. Zaloga: Siegfried Line 1944–45: Battles on the German frontier . Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2007. ISBN 1-84603-121-4 .
  • Gerhard Dieckhoff: The 3rd Division . Böries Verlag, Göttingen 1960.

Web links

Commons : Battle in the Hürtgenwald  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. MacDonald (1984), p. 594.
  2. Zaloga (2007), p. 91.
  3. ^ Mac Donald, Charles B .: The Siegfried line campaign. Center of Military History, United States Army, 1984.
  4. ^ The Legacy of the Purple Heart . Turner Publishing Company. January 1, 2001.
  5. ^ World War II Database . Retrieved February 10, 2011.
  6. Günter Stiller: Commitment to Reconciliation . Hamburger Abendblatt . August 11, 2004.
  7. Guido Jansen: Battle in the Hürtgenwald: The legend of the attack on Vossenack .
  8. ^ Paul Fabianek: Consequences of secularization for the monasteries in the Rhineland - Using the example of the monasteries Schwarzenbroich and Kornelimünster. Verlag BoD, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-1795-3 , p. 26.
  9. a b Documentary You Enter Germany. Hürtgenwald - the long war on the Siegfried Line. (Bloody Huertgen and the Siegfried Line - 2007), on konejung-stiftung.de
  10. according to MacDonald: Siegfried Line Campaign. 1963, p. 493 and 374ff.
  11. a b US Army sources at army.mil
  12. [1]
  13. [2]
  14. ^ DVD and brochure Documentation and Historisch-Literarischer Wanderweg Hürtgenwald 1938–1947. ISBN 978-3-941037-62-5 .
  15. website: Routes of Liberation . Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  16. Routes of Liberation: Time travel to the Eifel . Travel EXCLUSIV magazine website, accessed January 21, 2015.
  17. https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendung/neugier-genuegt/feature-huertgenwald-umstrittenes-gedenken-100.html
  18. ^ Battle in the Huertgen Forest: Biggest debacle of the US Army 1944/45 - SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved November 20, 2019 .
  19. Guido Heinen: The miracle of the Hürtgenwald. In: The world . June 23, 2001, accessed on November 30, 2019 : “Finally, the 28th US Infantry Division, still in service today, tracked down its enemy from then. She honored him in 1996 as a guest of the National Guard in a ceremony. "
  20. ↑ Discussion of the publisher and information on the author ( memento of the original from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed November 2014) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kansaspress.ku.edu
  21. ↑ Review of the publisher and author (accessed November 2014)

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 31.9 ″  N , 6 ° 21 ′ 42.4 ″  E