Hürtgen Forest

I3BrigPvSk

The Viking
I spent the weekend watching a lot of documentaries with purpose to find something to discuss. I may have found something we can discuss. The battle of the Hurtgen Forest.

The battles in the Hurtgen forest were fought between September to December 1944. The dense forest was perfect for the German defenders and they provided the US forces with a lot of casualties. The Germans had fortified the forest and the Allies couldn't use their air power. To make it the story short. The US 1st Army (Hodges) got itself into a lot of problems in the attempt to capture the forest. Had it been better if the US forces had bypassed it completely instead getting stuck in a war of attrition?
 
I spent the weekend watching a lot of documentaries with purpose to find something to discuss. I may have found something we can discuss. The battle of the Hurtgen Forest.

The battles in the Hurtgen forest were fought between September to December 1944. The dense forest was perfect for the German defenders and they provided the US forces with a lot of casualties. The Germans had fortified the forest and the Allies couldn't use their air power. To make it the story short. The US 1st Army (Hodges) got itself into a lot of problems in the attempt to capture the forest. Had it been better if the US forces had bypassed it completely instead getting stuck in a war of attrition?


Due to the dams on the Roer river they really had no choice but go through the forest or risk the Germans blowing the dams trapping those units that crossed elsewhere.
 
Due to the dams on the Roer river they really had no choice but go through the forest or risk the Germans blowing the dams trapping those units that crossed elsewhere.

It seems the US commanders weren't concerned about the dams. They were more concerned of having German troops in the forest that maybe been able to launch a counter attack on the American flank. The American forces didn't move toward the dams until February 1945. When the US 9th division began the assault on the forest, one of the dams were in American hands.

The commander of the 7th US corps (Collins) really wanted to capture the forest to protect his flank. The Hurtgen forest reminded him about the Meuse-Argonne campaign during the First World War and the Argonne forest possessed a threat. Collins believed the Hurtgen forest possessed a similar threat
 
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