Battle of Hürtgen Forest

The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest is the name given to a series of fierce battles between American and German forces during the Second World War in the Hürtgen Forest, covering some 129 km2 east of the Belgian-German border between September 19, 1944 and February 10, 1945. The Hürtgen Forest is characterized by steep valleys, carved out of wide plateaus with few roads, held in a triangle formed by Aachen, Monschau and Düren. The river Rur (Roer in Dutch, Rour in French) marks its eastern boundary. The aim of the American command was to fix German forces in this Hürtgen sector to prevent them from reinforcing the front further north, between Aachen and the river Rur, where the Allies were waging trench warfare against Germans withdrawn into a network of fortified towns and villages linked by field fortifications, tank traps and minefields. A second reason was to outflank the front line. In this battle, the Americans' initial objective was to take Schmidt, clear Monschau and advance along the Rur. Field Marshal Walter Model tried to halt the Allied thrust, although he was less involved in the day-to-day movement of units than he had been in Arnhem. He kept himself fully informed of the operational situation, taking steps to delay the Allied advance by inflicting heavy losses, taking advantage of the fortifications of the Siegfried Line. The Hürtgen Forest cost the US First Army no less than 33,000 soldiers, killed and wounded, including all combat losses, for no territorial gain. German losses were between 12,000 and 16,000 units. Aachen fell on October 22. The price was high, in terms of men, for the American IXth Army. It struggled to reach the banks of the Ruhr, and was unable to cross it or regain control of its dams from the Germans. The Battle of Hürtgen was so costly in terms of human lives that it was dubbed a "defeat of the first magnitude" for the Allies, to be credited specifically to Field Marshal Model, for the resistance shown by the Germans and the losses they inflicted on Allied troops Wikipedia source

The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest is the name given to a series of fierce battles between American and German forces during the Second World War in the Hürtgen Forest, covering some 129 km2 east of the Belgian-German border between September 19, 1944 and February 10, 1945. The Hürtgen Forest is characterized by steep valleys, carved out of wide plateaus with few roads, held in a triangle formed by Aachen, Monschau and Düren. The river Rur (Roer in Dutch, Rour in French) marks its eastern boundary. The aim of the American command was to fix German forces in this Hürtgen sector to prevent them from reinforcing the front further north, between Aachen and the river Rur, where the Allies were waging trench warfare against Germans withdrawn into a network of fortified towns and villages linked by field fortifications, tank traps and minefields. A second reason was to outflank the front line. In this battle, the Americans' initial objective was to take Schmidt, clear Monschau and advance along the Rur. Field Marshal Walter Model tried to halt the Allied thrust, although he was less involved in the day-to-day movement of units than he had been in Arnhem. He kept himself fully informed of the operational situation, taking steps to delay the Allied advance by inflicting heavy losses, taking advantage of the fortifications of the Siegfried Line. The Hürtgen Forest cost the US First Army no less than 33,000 soldiers, killed and wounded, including all combat losses, for no territorial gain. German losses were between 12,000 and 16,000 units. Aachen fell on October 22. The price was high, in terms of men, for the American IXth Army. It struggled to reach the banks of the Ruhr, and was unable to cross it or regain control of its dams from the Germans. The Battle of Hürtgen was so costly in terms of human lives that it was dubbed a defeat of the first magnitude for the Allies, to be credited specifically to Field Marshal Model, for the resistance shown by the Germans and the losses they inflicted on Allied troops Wikipedia source