The FReeper Foxhole Revisits The Hurtgen Forest (Nov - Dec 1944)

.......

The Terrain and Weather in the Hurtgen Forest

The Hurtgen Forest lies along the middle eastern portion of the forest barrier located south of Aachen in front of the Roer River. The towns of Eschweiler to the northwest, Duren to the northeast, Rutgen to the southwest, and the Schwammenaul Dam to the southeast formed the four corners of the battlefield. Figure 2 provides details of the Hurtgen Forest area in which the 22d fought. Entering the forest from the west, the 22d Infantry first encountered the Roter Weh road and stream. Immediately after crossing the stream, the soldiers climbed a 180 foot high hill that runs north south with a promontory known as Rabenheck. Firebreaks traversed the hill laterally, which during November were water-logged and had been filled with mines by the Germans. East of Rabenheck, the Weisser Weh road traveled north to south through a gorge. Known in the American plan as Road W, it was the only road suitable for resupplying the regiment. The Weisser Weh stream also traversed this gorge. In 1944, the stream was about nine feet wide and waist deep.

Two roads joined Road W near Rabenheck. Both also traveled down steep gorges cut into the rock by streams. The most important of the two in the 22d Infantry's sector was the one in the north, called Road X, which led to the village of Grosshau.

Road Z, in the southern part of the sector led to the village of Kleinhau. Between these two roads stood a 310 foot high ridge, which was cut by many streams. Road Y, an offshoot of Road X, zigzagged up the ridge and also led into Kleinhau.

The entire region was thickly wooded with hardwood and fir trees, with very few cleared areas. The forest was divided into forestry sections, with concrete markers telling the section numbers at each trail intersection. The firs, in nursery rows ten to fifteen feet apart; limited visibility to a few yards. Those areas not planted by foresters were thick with dense hardwood undergrowth. The combination of terrain and vegetation cleared for farming. East of the hamlets, the forest closed on the roads leading into the Roer plain and the elevation dropped 630 feet in the 2000 yards separating Grosshau and Gey. The one road between the two villages twisted and turned with an almost sheer sixty foot drop on one side.

The Hurtgen's topography robbed the infantryman of two of his closest companions, armor and artillery. The few roads and steepness of the hillsides restricted the use of armor until the infantry could clear a path to open terrain and the denseness of the forest limited the use of artillery because the observers could not observe the targets at long distances.

The trees tremendously increased the effectiveness of the defender's artillery while negating the effectiveness of the attacker's. Treebursts, caused by artillery rounds hitting tree trunks and branches, showered everything below with fragments. The shrapnel from the rounds was effective against attacking soldiers in the open, but had little effect on defending soldiers dug in with overhead cover.

Almost nothing is worse for an infantryman's morale than to be wet and cold and to hathes stayed wet, and the dampness bred hypothermia and trenchfoot.

The weather affected not only the individual soldier but also the organization. Even when it was not raining, water dripped continually from the trees. The soil in the area has a high clay content, which when wet turns into an oily, slippery mud that sticks to everything it touches. Trails quickly became axle-deep in mud under vehicle traffic, and soldiers climbing the slopes many times found themselves sliding back down the hill.

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Facing the 22d Regiment in the Hurtgen Forest was a conglomeration of many units. The 275th Volksgrenadier (VG) Division had been in the forest since the middle of October and had successfully opposed the 9th and 28th Divisions in their earlier bid to clear the woods. By 16 November, the 275th had absorbed thirty-seven different units. Two battalions of the 275th's 985th Regiment, each with approximately 300 soldiers, opposed the 22d's initial attack.

The mainstay of the German defense was its artillery. When the battle opened, General Hans Schmidt, the 275th Division Commander, controlled 25 pieces of motorized artillery (9 105mm, 6 150mm, and 10 122mm howitzers) plus had within his sector another 106 field pieces ranging in size from 88mm to 210mm, for at total of 131 tubes of artillery, not counting mortars, versus 96 pieces of artillery, counting corps artillery, that could support the 4th US Division. Schmidt's division also had twenty-one assault guns, twenty-two 75mm anti-tank guns and one 88mm anti-tank gun. And for the first time in months, the Germans had a good supply of ammunition. This was just the beginning strength. As units cycled into the battle, more artillery and more German regiments entered the line between the 22d and its objective, Grosshau. North and south of Grosshau were the I and III Battalions of the 1055 Regiment of the 89th Division and the II Battalion of the 1058 Regiment, 344th Volksgrenadier Division, was positioned in the center. While these regiments were from different divisions, the 275th commander, General Schmidt, remained in overall command of the sector. When the American attack resumed on 20 November, fresh German units faced them.

It appears throughout the battle that newly arrived German units acted as counter attack forces until they too became exhausted. On 21 November, the 344th VG Division replaced the 275th VG Division. The original 344th had been destroyed in the German retreat across France and rebuilt in October from remnants of the 344th and they had little time to train together. The surviving infantry soldiers of the 275th transferred to the 344th.

The 344th had no experience in woods fighting and was unfamiliar with the terrain. It is no wonder that only six days later, the 353d VG relieved the remnants of the 344th. This was the 353d's second stint in the Hurtgen, since it had been relieved by the 275th VG in early October so that it might reconstitute. Again the remaining infantry of the relieved division was absorbed by the incoming division. Quite possibly some of the German soldiers transferred to the 353d VG had been in that division before it was pulled out for reconstitution, remaining in the woods with the each successive headquarters.

The 22d met in turn, units of four German divisions during its eighteen day ordeal in the forest. When Grosshau fell on 29 November, the 22d Infantry reported that there were German units in the town from almost every division in the LXXIV Corps. As noted in Figure 8, the 250 captured prisoners represented four different divisions, eight different regiments, and forty-seven different company-sized elements. The regimental intelligence officer reported that he could not find a complete squad.

The morale and overall quality of the German forces facing the Americans in the Hurtgen was low. The units were a hodgepodge from everywhere. Intermingled as they were, therut. In their hopeless resignation some became fatalists, others sought consolation in religion. After collapse of the confidence in its leadership, the troops, in point of fact, continued fighting only for their personal security.

German division commanders in the Hurtgen sector ordered their soldiers not to retreat or surrender. The option to retreat closed; many preferred to surrender than face their superior's wrath for retreating.

Although many expressed a desire to surrender, fear for their families held many lower ranking German soldiers in place. During this period of the war, it was standard practice for German officers to require their soldiers to sign loyalty oaths. German soldiers also faced the threat of their families imprisonment in concentration camps if they deserted. Some divisions posted names of those who had deserted or been captured and used them as warnings to other soldiers in the division not to surrender.

Additional Sources:

www.5ad.org
www.hurtgen1944.homestead.com
www.army.mil
members.aeroinc.net
The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Hurtgen Forest (Nov - Dec 1944) - Sep. 16th, 2003

Stretching north-east from the Belgian-German border, the Hürtgen Forest covers an area of about fifty square miles within the triangle formed by the towns of Aachen, Duren and Monschau. From September to December 1944, 120,000 American soldiers advanced upon the Germans through this forest. Other battles in World War II have been more dramatically decisive, but none was tougher or bloodier.

Close-ranked fir trees, towering 75-100 feet made the Hürtgen Forest a gloomy, mysterious world where the brightness of noon was muted to an eerie twilight filtering through dark trees onto spongy brown needles and rotted logs.

In the winter of 1944, the ground was alternately frozen hard and then slushy. Snow covered it in deceiving peacefulness. Beneath the snow lay a network of ingenious booby traps and mines. The infantry had to take it. It was simply American men against German steel, and the cold, bitter weather.

There was no more deadly fire, from the viewpoint of the infantryman, than that which burst in treetops and exploded with all its hot steel fury downward to the ground, shattering minds and bodies. Men quickly learned that the safest place when mortar or artillery fire hit treetops, was to "hug a tree".

The following American infantry divisions - the 1st, 4th, 8th, 9th, 28th, 3rd Armored, 78th and the 83rd - fought in the forest. The 9th Division, in effect, fought there twice. Numbers of supporting tank, tank-destroyer, cavalry, chemical, medical, and artillery units, also fought in the forest.

Approximately 120,000 Americans, plus individual replacements augmenting that number by many thousands fought in the battle. More than 24,000 Americans were killed, missing, captured and wounded. Another 9,000 succumbed to the misery of trench foot, respiratory diseases and combat fatigue. In addition, some 80,000 Germans fought in this battle and an estimated 28,000 of them became casualties.

What was gained in this battle? The Americans conquered 50 square miles of real estate of no real tactical value to future operations, and they had destroyed enemy troops and reserves, which the other side could ill afford to lose. The Germans, on the other hand, with meager resources, had slowed down a major Allied advance for 3 months. At the end of November, vital targets, dams along the Roer River, the importance of which were not realized until late in the fighting in the the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, were still in German hands.

Had the First Army gone for the Roer River Dams early in the fighting, there would have been no battle of Hürtgen Forest. That men must die in battle is accepted, and some fighting will always be more miserable and difficult than others. If there had been a push directly from the south to take the Roer River Dams, the cost of lives could have been just as costly. However, if that had been done, at least the objective would have been clear and accepted as important.

Those who fought in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest fought a misconceived and basically fruitless battle that could have, and should have been avoided. That is the real tragedy of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest.

"DEEDS NOT WORDS"

"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!

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Here are the recommended holiday mailing dates for military mail this year:

For military mail addressed TO APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:

Parcel Post - November 13
Space Available - November 27
Parcel Airlift - December 4
Priority Mail, First Class cards and letters - Mailing date is December 11 to all locations
- EXCEPT for locations starting with ZIP 093. For all locations starting with ZIP 093 the mailing date is December 6.
Express Mail - December 20 to locations where Express Mail service is available. Check with your local post office to determine which APO/FPO addresses can receive Express Mail. Note: This service is not available to ships.

------

For military mail FROM APO and FPO addresses, the mailing dates are:

Space Available - November 20
Parcel Airlift - December 4
Priority Mail, First Class cards and letters - December 11
Express Mail - December 18 from APO/FPO addresses where Express Mail can be accepted. Check with your local military post office to determine if they can accept Express Mail. Note: This service is not available from ships.

Thanks for the information StayAt HomeMother

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Thanks to quietolong for providing this link.

UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004

The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"

So are we talkin' "Deep In The Hurtgen Forest" here?

Good morning Snippy.

General James Gavin of the 82nd Airborne Division has very harsh words in "On to Berlin" for the staff guys responsible for losing so many of our people for no reason at Huertgen. He said the staff weenies worked from maps instead of walking the ground.

Not being bloody minded it looks to me that Courts Martial were in order. Make sure that the judges had served in the Huertgen Forest. Put some platoon sergeants in as judges that arrived at Huertgen with a corporal's stripes and ended their battle with ten men walking of fifty that started.

Good morning, snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on November 26:
1607 John Harvard England, clergyman/scholar, major benefactor to Harvard University (library & half his estate)
1731 William Cowper England, preromantic poet (His Task)
1792 Sarah Moore Grimk‚ American antislavery, women's rights advocate
1816 William Henry Talkbot Walker Major General (Confederate Army)
1827 Alfred Moore Scales Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1892
1832 Mary Edwards Walker US, doctor/women's rights leader
1876 Willis Haviland Carrier developed air-conditioning equipment
1894 Norbert Wiener US, mathematician/discovered cybernetics
1905 Emlyn Williams Wales, actor/playwright (David Copperfield)
1907 Frances Dee US actress (Of Human Bondage)
1910 Cyril Cusack South Africa, actress (Day of the Jackal)
1912 Eric Sevareid Velva ND, newscaster (CBS Weekend News)
1912 Eugene Ionesco France, dramatist (Rhinoceros)
1913 Foy Draper US, relay runner (Olympic-gold-1936)
1922 Charles M Schulz cartoonist (Peanuts)
1924 George Segal NY, sculptor lifelike mixed-media figures (Bus Driver)
1925 Linda Hunt Morriston NJ, actress (Bostonians, Eleni, Silverado)
1929 Betta St John Hawthorne CA, actress (Corridors of Blood)
1931 Adolfo Perez Esquivel Buenos Argentina, (1980 Nobel Peace Prize)
1931 Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo Italy, downhill skier (Olympic-bronze-1952)
1933 Robert Goulet Lawrence MA, singer/actor (Camelot, Naked Gun 2)
1934 Ludmila Shevtsova USSR, 800m runner (Olympic-gold-1960)
1935 Marian Mercer Akron Ohio, actress/singer (Dean Martin Show)
1937 Boris Yegorov cosmonaut (Voskhod 1)
1937 Leo Lacroix France, skier (Olympic-silver-1964)
1938 Rich Little Ottawa Canada, impressionist/actor (Love on a Rooftop)
1938 Tina Turner [Anna Mae Bullock], Brownsville TX, singer (Proud Mary)
1943 Jan Stenerud Norway, NFL place kicker (Kansas City Chiefs)
1945 John McVie rocker (Fleetwood Mac-Rumours, Tusk)
1945 Mikhail Woronin USSR, gymnast (Olympic-2 gold/4 silver/bronze-1968)
1948 Galina Prozumenschikova USSR, 200m backstroke (Olympic-gold-1964)
1959 Jamie Rose NYC, actress (Susan Birch-St Elsewhere, Falcon Crest)
1981 Jamie Fiske liver transplant recipient

Deaths which occurred on November 26:
1126 Al-Borsoki, emir of Aleppo-Mosoel, assassinated
1504 Isabella I Catholic Queen of Castille & Aragon (1474-04), dies at 53
1776 Dov Baer of Mezhirech hassidic rabbi, dies
1883 Sojourner Truth abolitionist, women's rights advocate, dies
1939 James Naismith Basketball inventor, dies
1965 Wild Bill Elliott cowboy actor (49'ers), dies of cancer at 60
1970 B O Davis Sr 1st black general, dies at 93 in Chicago
1973 Albert DiSalvo Boston strangler, stabbed
1982 Dan Tobin actor (I Married Joan, My Favorite Martian), dies at 73
1982 Robert Coote actor (Timmy-Rogues, Theodore-Nero Wolfe), dies at 73
1985 Ransom Sherman comedian (Father of the Bride), dies at 87
1987 Thomas G Lanphier Jr US WW II pilot, dies at 71
2001 John Michael Spann CIA Officer killed in Afghanistan

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 BRENNAN HERBERT O.---O NEILL NE.
1967 CONDIT DOUGLAS C.---FOREST GROVE OR.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 04 JAN 93]
1968 HARTNESS GREGG---DALLAS TX.
1971 BEUTEL ROBERT D.---TREMONT IL.
1971 STEADMAN JAMES E.---FORT COLLINS CO.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0399 St Siricius ends his reign as Catholic Pope
0579 Pelagius II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1580 French Huguenots & Roman Catholics sign peace treaty
1688 Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands.
1703 Bristol England damaged by hurricane, Royal Navy loses 15 warships
1716 1st lion exhibited in America (Boston)
1778 Capt Cook discovers Maui (Sandwich Islands)
1789 1st national thanksgiving
1793 Republican calendar replaces Gregorian calendar in France
1825 1st college fraternity founded (Kappa Alpha (Union College, NY))
1832 1st streetcar railway in America starts operating (NYC)
1841 1st date in James Clavell's novel Tai-Pan
1861 At Wheeling, a convention adopts a constitution for new state West Virginia
1864 Confederate troops vacate Sandersville Georgia
1864 Skirmish at Sylvan Brutal/Waynesboro, Georgia
1865 Alice in Wonderland published
1868 1st baseball game played in enclosed field in San Francisco, at 25th & Folsom
1885 1st meteor photograph
1895 Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association formed
1896 1st large indoor football game, U of Chicago beats U of Michigan 7-6
1896 A.A. Stagg of U Chicago creates the football huddle
1913 Russian kingdom forbids Polish congregation of speakers
1914 Battleship HMS Bulwark explodes at Sheerness Harbor England, 788 die
1924 Mongolian People's Republic proclaimed
1938 Poland renews nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union to protect against a German invasion. (That worked real well.)
1940 Nazis force 500,000 Warsaw Jews to live in walled ghetto
1941 Amateur tennis champ Bobby Riggs turns pro
1941 Lebanon gains independence from France
1942 "Casablanca" premieres at Hollywood Theatre, NYC
1944 Himmler orders destruction of Auschwitz & Birkenau crematoriums
1945 During snow storm, school bus crashes, killing 15 (Washington)
1949 India adopts a constitution as a British Commonwealth Republic
1962 Fab Four have their 1st recording session under the name "Beatles"
1965 France launches 1st satellite, 92 lb (42 kg) A1-capsule (Asterix)
1966 1st major tidal power plant opens at Rance estuary, France
1969 Cream's final concert (Royal Albert Hall)
1972 Pete Gogolak scores NY Giant record 8 pts after a touchdown
1973 Nixon's personal sec, Rose Mary Woods, tells a federal court she accidentally caused part of 18-minute gap in a key Watergate tape
1974 Approximately 140 die when suspension bridge collapses (Nepal)
1978 10 die as fire erupts at Holiday Inn in Rochester, NY
1978 Purple Mountain Observatory discovers asteroid #3011 & #3297
1980 Columbia mated to SRBs & external tank at Vehicle Assembly Building
1982 Clyde King named Yankee manager
1982 Yasuhiro Nakasone elected PM of Japan succeeding Zenko Suzuki
1982 Howard Cossell calls his last fight after being disgusted by the Larry Holmes-Tex Cobb mismatch
1984 John W Mercom Jr announces NO Saints are up for sale for $75 million
1985 23rd Space Shuttle Mission (61-B)-Atlantis 2-is launched
1988 Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev and Jean-Loup Chretien launch
1988 Pioneer 6's closest approach to Earth since 1965 launch (1.87 M km)
1990 Buffalo Bills become 6th 1st place NFL team to lose on same weekend
1990 Matsushita purchases MCA for $6.6 billion
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev tells Iraq to get out of Kuwait
1991 Condoms are handed out to thousands of NY High School students
1993 Political campaigners James Carville & Mary Matalin wed
1995 Dolphins QB Dan Marino sets NFL record with 343rd touchdown pass
2001 The Afghanistan prison revolt, which was crushed the third day, claimed the life of a CIA operative, Johnny Michael Spann, 32, a former Marine captain. He was the first U.S. combat casualty of the war. Five other Americans were injured.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Lebanon : Independence Day (1941)
Mass : John F Kennedy Day (1963) (Sunday)
Bern Switzerland : Onion Market Day-autumn festival (Monday)
US : I never want to see turkey again day
Tibet : Festival of Lights
National Accordion Month!

Religious Observances
Bah '¡ : Day of the Covenant
Christian : Commemoration of St Berchmans
RC : Commemoration of St Sylvester, abbot
RC : Commemoration of St Leonard of Port Maurice

Religious History
1539 In England, the monastery at the Fountains Abbey was surrendered to the crown. It was the richest of the Cistercian houses, prior to the time of the Dissolution of all monasteries in England, under the reign of Henry VIII.
1775 The American Navy began using chaplains within its regular service.
1789 President George Washington proclaimed this date (a Thursday) to be the first national Thanksgiving Day holiday. (National Thanksgiving days were periodically proclaimed by presidents, until in 1863 Abraham Lincoln inaugurated the practice of annually setting the fourth Thursday in November aside for Thanksgiving Day.)
1962 English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'No doubt [my body] has often led me astray: but not half so often, I suspect, as my soul has led IT astray. For the spiritual evils ... arise more from the imagination than from the appetites.'
1970 During a 10_day visit to the Philippines, Pope Paul VI was attacked by a knife_wielding man in Manilla. The pontiff was unhurt and continued his journey.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Man is inclined to exaggerate almost everything - except his own mistakes."

Excuses for Being Late for Work...
Today the Campho-Phenique man comes by to fill the drum for my home supply of industrial-strength anti-canker sore gel.

Ads gone wrong...
Lost: small apricot poodle. Reward. Neutered. Like one of the family

Dictionary of the Absurd...
lamprey
1. Grass
2. Light from a lamp.

Man's Answers to Every Question a Woman ever asks
WHY ARE MEN SO UNCOMUUNICATIVE?
You'd learn to keep your big mouth shut too if every time you open it you get into trouble with your partner.

Good morning everyone!

Morning Gridlock.

Hi gridlock, "DITH" now there is a blast fromn the past, not!

Goodmorning burgoening capatalist pigs SAM and snippy, hope your day yesterday other than the glass escapade went well.

To paraphrase Bernad Fall the Hurtegen Forest was "Hell In A Very Rotten Place" From most pf the accounts that I have read it could have been very easuily bypassed IIRC. perhaps the Americans where at this stage of the war in France where suffering from that all to common maledy. Victory Disease.

Back to overtime work I must go.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

Morning Aeronaut, thanks for the air cover. :-)

Morning Iris7.

"For us the Hurtgen was one of the most costly, most unproductive and most ill-advised battles that our army has ever fought"

Gen. James Gavin

Morning E.G.C. Yesterday turned out to be a nice day, looks like the same for today.

WHY ARE MEN SO UNCOMUUNICATIVE?
You'd learn to keep your big mouth shut too if every time you open it you get into trouble with your partner.

A lesson men need to learn early. ;-)

Hurtgen Forest? Here we go again.

Hi Feather.