THE SURGEONS GENERAL Denied the chance to fight a maneuver battle, US armor in the Huertgen Forest suffered heavy casualties. Then there was the weather—either drenching wet or burning cold. Chief, Office of Medical History Stretched thinly, “Buck” Lanham’s regiment was responsible for a three-mile front in the 20-mile-by-10-mile Hürtgen Forest, situated in a 50-square-mile triangle bounded by the German cities of Aachen and Duren and the town of Monschau. The battle caused numerous casualties on both sides. As for nonbattle casualties, the Key point: The fight was terrible and costly. 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. Overview. efficiently to move the casualties from the divisions to rear area hospitals in Good luck.”. It was added in Update 1.49 "Weapons of Victory".As the name suggests the map is set in the Hürtgen Forest; a roughly 50 square miles (130 km2) in area in the west of Germany, near the Belgium-Germany border. Colonel Luckett's The German Army was being pushed back to its home ground, but it was still a well-disciplined and formidable force. The forest was more heavily fortified than anyone had guessed. John Greenwood, Ph.D. American operations of the entire European war. It would be their last hot meal for 18 days. in September 1944, they ran  The Battle of Hürtgen Forest from 2 - 12 November 1944 (American and German forces battle on Germany’s western border) was a series of battles fought between German and American forces in Hürtgen Forest. captured, and disease and nonbattle losses. Reinforcing combat groups were fed piecemeal into the Hürtgen cauldron. There, the Germans were able to delay and wear down the Americans, providing security and buying critical time to prepare for the Ardennes counteroffensive. area of Vossenack, Kommerscheidt, and Schmidt, known collectively as the battle Collins and Hodges made no plans to capture the hydroelectric and flood-control dams on the river, just inside the forest. For the American soldiers, it’s very name – with its first syllable ‘hurt’ – became a byword for injury and death. 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. Men will follow a leader, and I expect my platoon leaders to be right up front. The U.S. Army's fight to take the H?rtgen the Communications Zone for care. After the unexpected success of the Normandy breakout, the Allied high command believed that the enemy was virtually defeated. The rugged Vosges Mountains in northeastern France formed a traditional defensive barrier, while the Siegfried Line and the River Rhine comprised a significant obstacle to the Allied forces. As the battle for the Huertgen Forest neared its end, the massive Nazi attack that became immortalized as the Battle of the Bulge (December 16) exploded into Belgium Also, as a purely American affair, the Huertgen Forest campaign has been largely overlooked by British military historians who dominated much of the postwar scholarship." Courtney Hodges′ 1st Army experienced hard resistance pushing through the Aachen Gap and perceived a potential threat fro… But, seasoned and with high morale, it was rated one of the best infantry regiments in the U.S. Army. Casualties exceeded 33 percent. At the start, the forest was defended by the German 275th and 353rd Infantry Divisions. ", Medical Service, European Theater of So, a total of 128,749 U.S. soldiers were lost as battle and nonbattle casualties during the campaign. THE AMEDD HISTORIAN NEWSLETTER, When American forces reached the German border During these months, the battles of the V and VII The next strategic objective was to move up to the Rhine River along its entire length and prepare to cross it. The regiment, almost at full strength, was commanded by 42-year-old Colonel Charles T. Lanham, a wiry, graying 1924 graduate of West Point and former Infantry School instructor and War Department staffer. Lasting from September 1944 to January 1945, the campaign was part of a drive by the U.S. First Army, led by white-haired, dependable Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges, to cross the Roer River and eventually capture its vital dams. After three days, the regiment had lost its three battalion commanders, and the attrition rate among rifle company leaders was more than 300 percent. After Action Reports, November-December 1944, After incurred 57,095 battle casualties alone during the entire Siegfried Line Campaign. June-31 December 1944, Report Moody and prone to depression, Lanham was described by some soldiers as brilliant but “crazy as hell,” while one officer said he wanted to win the war all by himself. Besides the weather, the Allied armies were plagued by shortages of ammunition and supplies. Artillery-damaged trees during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. There, a prolonged and bitter battle of attrition was being waged by American and German soldiers, and nowhere else on the front lines during World War II was the stamina, courage, and fighting spirit of U.S. soldiers tested more severely. [151] Franz Oppenhoff was appointed Mayor of Aachen by the Allies on 31 October, but after his identity was leaked, he was assassinated on Heinrich Himmler 's orders in Unternehmen Karneval (Operation Carnival) on March 25, 1945. Action Reports, November and December 1944, Consolidated Casualties Treated, August-December 1944, by Infantry Regiment, Division Casualties 15 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 most direct route to the dams lay through the Hürtgen Forest, a man-made forest preserve of densely packed fir trees in rough terrain. It was the longest battle on German ground … This Thanksgiving, no American warriors were … 12th U.S. Army Groups (First, Third, Seventh, and Ninth U.S. Battle of Hürtgen Forest, also known as Hürtgen Forest, or simply Hürtgen is a ground forces map available in all modes. fortifications of Adolf Hitler's West better known to Allied soldiers as "the Siegfried Line. The Bloody Bucket was bloodier than ever: One battalion in the 110th Infantry was reduced to 57 men even after being reinforced, and losses had whittled the 112th Infantry from 2,200 to 300. Advances outside the Hurtgen were delayed by two weeks, costing the Americans, British, and Canadians heavy casualties. AMEDD CORPS HISTORY Nearly half of the 2,517 casualties … HISTORICAL ART WORK & IMAGES Rather we should thank God that such men lived." John Greenwood, Ph.D. The Hürtgenwald was valuable territory to the Germans, and its loss would threaten their entire defense line west of the Rhine. Accessibility/Section 508 | Web Accessibility | USA.gov | FOIA Requests | Last Modified 02/18/2010 excerpt from the official history of the U.S. Army Medical Department in World First and Ninth U.S. support in the airborne, armored, and infantry divisions was providing 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. 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