The Allied Forces had raced across France the summer of 1944
after the breakout from Normandy in July. The Germans were reeling and in what
was deemed to be complete disarray. By mid-September the Allies had reached the
Hitler’s Third Reich that was meant to last a thousand years. The Allies expected
it to crumble by Christmas 1944. The American forces were anticipating
encountering beaten forces as they drew near Germany. Yet, eight months later
after much struggle, in May of 1945, the Reich finally was subdued.
Part of the story is the Battle of the Huertgen Forest at
the western border of Germany. It was a twenty mile by 10 mile forest, some 200 total square miles of forest. The West Wall or what the Allies eventually called
the Siegfried line, 390 miles (630km) long with 18,000 bunkers, tank traps and
tunnels ran through it. It was built between 1938 and 1040. And contrary to
thinking after the Fall of France where the Maginot line was inconsequential to
lightning warfare, here Blitzkrieg warfare was stymied. Terrain, weather
contributed. The Huertgen Forest removed the tank and the air might from the
military equation. The narrow trails or fire breaks through the forest were
generally not passible for tanks or a tank in the narrow confines of the forest
often hit a mine and blew out a track, ending up blocking it. The Americans could
rarely use the Air Force to “soften” targets. In the fall and winter of 1944 in
the inclement weather, overcast skies and the dense forest these elements were
negated.
Combat here has little relation to the dashing heroics accompanied
by complete ineptitude of the enemy so many of Hollywood’s war movies like the Dirty Dozen, Saving Private Ryan, and Fury
among many others, portray. In fact the famous Army Rangers, 2nd battalion
spent a few days taking Castle Hill near Bergstein near the Roer fought bravely, but were delighted to get out as
torn up as they were. Here a soldier would likely to spend days in a cold,
frozen, wet foxhole, being subject to mortar fire, machine guns, artillery
shells and infiltration or counter attack,
praying, hoping and sometimes crying
that you get out alive. The weather in northern Europe in inclement in the Fall
and Winter with rain, sleet, snow.
Fighting here was no picnic. Land mines were a constant
danger for men and military vehicles including tanks. At night in the forest it
was normally literally pitch black. You didn’t leave you foxhole for fear of
stumbling near someone and being shot.
Tree bursts in the dense forest showered deadly shrapnel down on you and a
foxhole was no help unless covered with thick foliage and tree trunks. Standing
up was the best policy in that situation.
Thousands of casualties came from combat fatigue: frost bite
in which toes and fingers and limbs were lost, trench foot in which feet were
constantly wet and cold, mental breakdown, etc. This was as close to hell on
earth you will find. This battle was a literal “death factory” as the soldiers
who were there called it.
I know of only one movie that accurately depicts combat
conditions in the Huertgen Forest; When
the Trumpets Fade. This was a 1998 made for TV movie available on YouTube.
(This movie is rated R for a reason: strong language and violence.) But it
conveys the absurdity of modern combat and the Huertgen Forest combat in
particular, completely accurately. No Brad Pitt or Tom Hanks or John Wayne ever
stoic and confident, here. Those fearless types were likely to die right away.
This is the kind of combat that can break many a good man. That saw desperate
prayers and uncontrollable crying and mental breakdown as well as great heroics.
Processions of several divisions were sent into the forest over
three months from Mid-September to Mid-December and were basically decimated. Many
men found themselves back at the aid stations for a variety of mental distress
among other disabilities. Dereliction of assigned duties became a big problem. There
were some who gave themselves self-inflicted wounds, like shooting themselves
in the big toe to escape the hell. It became such a problem it was decided that
someone like Ernie Slovik, a deserter, was executed as an example to others;
the first since the Civil War.
This battle is forgotten; just south of the Forest the
battle of the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge was fought beginning December
16, 1944. Essentially 5 to 6 months the
Allies were stalled on the Siegfried Line with the Battle of the Bulge
punctuating the lack of advancement.
Much of the failure to push the Germans aside in the fall of
1944 hinged on the lack of supplies. Supplies were coming from Cherbourg,
France the closest deep water port, farther then Normandy. It was only until
November 28 that the major port Antwerp was freed up for shipping, the
Netherland coastal areas being held by the Germans up until then.
By the autumn of 1944 there began to be a shortage of front
line riflemen. There were 12 men supporting 1 man up at the front in the
American Army. The Germans it was 5 to 1. But nonetheless it demonstrates an
army operated like other bureaucracies; people tend to avoid the dirty work.
And it got no more dirty, than this. It
was the end of the war and people knew it was only a matter of time before
Germany capitulated and who wants to die just before the war ends?
In the three months up to December 16 only a few miles of
territory were gained. They were trying to reach the Roer River, which flowed
north south here, paralleling the much larger Rhine River, the border of
ancient Germany. In those three months casualties totaled 32,000.
Combat in the forest could include house to house fighting
and even a rare bayonet charge; the forest and areas surrounding it was dotted
with settlements. And in the dense forest infiltration by the enemy was a
constant danger; sometimes trenches would be only 30 yards apart.
The Germans were vastly outnumbered, somewhere 5 to 1 but were
masters at this type of warfare. The forest was part of the West Wall with
bunkers, pill boxes and many a defensive entrenchment not easily spotted. They
mined extensively as noted above. Their artillery and mortar fire was accurate
and deadly.
The American infantryman was often a teacher, desk
clerk, bank teller or some such. Brick layers and construction workers and such
went to the Army engineers not the infantry. The American Army had two
classifications: general fitness and noncombat. The British had physical
fitness classes A through I with the A, top, going to the infantry. The Germans
with a similar system sent their top physical specimens to the infantry. When
the American soldier fought with the tremendous advantages in the number of tanks,
planes and such, it didn’t matter. In the forest few of those standard
advantages were present.
Due to the large amount of attrition that occurred in the
forest, replacements were individually inserted into the battalions, companies,
platoons and squadrons with little or no instruction, training or insight into
the type of fighting they were going to encounter. This is no way improved
combat effectiveness since the replacements didn’t have the advantage of what
prior units had learned.
The greatest irony of
the Huertgen Forest is that it lacked any strategic value. The initial idea
was to push aside the weak German units in the Huertgen Forest that were
presumed to be in disarray and drive straight to the Roehr River. The situation
was found to be much different but the upper echelons of the American military continued
to pursue that objective. However, it was finally realized after about four
months that the true strategic goal was the dams on the Roehr south of the
forest that held enough water to flood the Roehr plain for miles downriver. A
failed attempt was made in early February to capture the dams but they were too
late. The sluices were destroyed by the Germans and huge volumes of water
cascaded down the river and flooded the plain anyway. For a period of weeks the
Americans were blocked from crossing the Roehr and the Germans on the other
side were freed up to attack the British and the Canadians farther north. The
Americans were able to cross the Roehr on February 23, 1945, some 5 months
after plan. That completed the fustercluck that was the battle of the Huertgen
Forest.
Lessons I draw from the battle: 1) lightning tank warfare has
limited application where here it ceased to be a factor. There were no rapid
breakouts 2) fighting in the Huertgen forest was fiendish and 3) Hollywood’s
depiction of combat over the years bears only a slim resemblance to the
Huertgen Forest combat except in a made
for TV movie, When Trumpets Fade, which faithfully recounts the conditions of combat
in this battle.
***
Final note, learning about this battle gave me even more
appreciation for the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation who we owe our
freedoms to. They’ve largely passed, only a few remain. A memorial was finally
erected in 2004 for those who gave service in World War II. Of course that was
59 years after the war; the majority who gave service had already passed
including my father.
