"Bloody Huertgen: The Battle That Should Never Have" Topic

…Been Fought

"The Battle of the Bulge came to an end in the closing days of January, 1945. The combat divisions were immediately redeployed to resume the offensive into Germany, and the 82nd Airborne, which I commanded, was ordered into the Huertgen Forest, a densely wooded area astride the Siegfried Line, just inside the German border. In the fall of 1944 there had been many grim stories in the Stars and Stripes , the army newspaper, about the fighting in the Huertgen. We were not looking forward to the assignment.

I opened the division command post in the midst of the forest in the small town of Rott on February 8, and a few hours later stopped at corps headquarters to get an outline of our next mission. Then, traveling by jeep, I started through the Huertgen Forest to the clearings on the far side where our jump-off positions would be. I learned my first lesson about the Huertgen. It could not be traversed by jeep. The mud was too deep and the jeep bellied down. In addition the forest was heavily fortified and highly organized for defense. Although I had seen heavy pillbox fortifications in Sicily, they were nothing compared with those in the Huertgen Forest. In the Huertgen they were huge (frequently consisting of several rooms). They were dark, and landscaped to blend with the trees—so well covered by leaves and pine needles that they were hardly visible. I was startled when I first realized that I was looking right at one only a short distance away and hadn't realized that it was a pillbox. In.addition to the pillboxes, concertina barbed wire was stretched across the forest floor. This, with trip wires, antipersonnel mines, and antitank mines, reduced the fighting to its most primitive form: man against man at grenade distance…"

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Armand

This is great! I've read a number of accounts of the fighting in the Huertgen but never this one written by Gavin.

"Passchendaele with tree bursts" was Hemingway's description of it.

Glad you like it…

Armand

I think of it as the battle fought a month too late.

When the 1st (U.S.) Army reached the Siegfried Line the Germans didn't have the resources in place to withstand a determined assault. Fortunately for the Germans the Western Allies didn't have the resources to mount a determined attack in that sector and still carry out other offensives. The 9th Division tried in mid-September to do with regiments and with scant artillery stocks what should have been done with divisions. By the time 1st Army had the troops and artillery stocks the Germans had reinforced their positions and brought up their own supplies.

Agree…

Armand