The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest ( September 19 - December 1944, dating differs in different works) is a series of fierce battles between the American and German forces during the Second World War in the Hürtgen Forest , which became the longest battle on German soil in World War II and the longest of all the battles the US Army has ever participated in. It is traditionally believed that the battle lasted from September 19, 1944 to December of the same year, but the fighting in the area as a whole was conducted from September 14, 1944 to approximately February 10, 1945 , on an area of almost 130 square meters. km east of the German-Belgian border.
| Battle of the Hürtgen Forest | |||
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| Main Conflict: World War II | |||
 American Willys MB at the destroyed farmhouse in Hürtgen, where the headquarters company of 121 infantry regiment, nicknamed "Hotel Hürtgen" was located. | |||
| date of | September 19, 1944 - February 1945 [1] | ||
| A place | , border between Germany and Belgium | ||
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Content
- 1 Allied Plans
- 2 Wehrmacht plans
- 3 losses
- 4 Summary
- 5 In popular culture
- 6 notes
Allied Plans
The main objective of the US Army command was to “tie up” German forces in this area so as not to allow them to bring reinforcements to the front line further in the north - to the battle of Arnhem, where the Allies at that time were waging a trench warfare near a number of towns and villages where the field fortifications, anti-tank traps and minefields. The second goal, perhaps, was to cover the front line from the flank. The American primary goals were to capture Schmidt (currently the Niedeggen area ) and clear Monschau . In the second phase, the Allies wanted to advance to the Ruhr River as part of Operation Queen.
Wehrmacht plans
Field Marshal Walter Model intended to prevent the Allies from conducting this offensive. Despite the fact that he was losing time in the daily movement of equipment in the Arnhem area, he was still well informed about the situation at the front and slowed the advance of the Allies, inflicting great damage on them and actively using the capabilities of the German defensive line known as the Siegfried Line .
Losses
The battle in the Hürtgen Forest cost the American army at least 33 thousand dead and wounded, including combat and non-combat losses; German losses amounted to 28 thousand people. Aachen eventually fell on October 22 - again with the huge losses of the American army. The offensive of the 9th Army on the Ruhr did not develop better: the Americans were unable to cross the river or recapture control over its dams from the Germans. The losses at Hürtgen were so enormous that the battle was called by the Allies "a defeat of the first magnitude."
Summary
The Germans desperately defended the region for two reasons: this area served as a concentration area for the Ardennes offensive (the main part of which took place in the Ardennes), which was already being prepared at that time, and because of the mountain passage to the Schwamemenuel dam at Lake Ruhr, which, being open, could flood all the lowlands downstream and exclude any possibility of crossing the river. The Allies suffered several serious defeats in this battle, and the Germans were able to hold onto the area until they launched their last and main offensive on the Western Front in the Ardennes.
In popular culture
- The film " When Fanfares are silent ."
- The computer game Call of Duty is one of the missions in the allied campaign devoted to battles in the Hürtgen Forest. Also in Call of Duty: United Offensive there are three such missions.
- The computer game Call of Duty: WWII - mission "Death Factory" and "Height 493" is dedicated to the battle in the Hürtgen Forest.
- The song "Return To Sanity" by Heaven Shall Burn is about fighting in the Hürtgen Forest.
- "Hürtgen Forest" - one of the locations of the computer multiplayer game War Thunder .
Notes
- ↑ MacDonald (1984), p. 492
- ↑ MacDonald (1984), p. 594
- ↑ Zaloga (2007), p. 91
- ↑ 1 2 World War II Database . Archived on April 18, 2013.