The juniper forest, which stretches for more than ten kilometers, is near Aachen, in the western part of Germany. 80 years ago, dramatic events unfolded there, which brought the capitulation of Hitler's Germany and the end of World War II closer.
The first battle of the Americans on German soil
For almost five months - from September 1944 to February 1945 - fierce battles were fought between American and German troops in the Hürtgen Forest. This was the longest battle on the Western Front, fought on German soil by the Allies against the Nazis. According to historians, the fighting in the forest was a real disaster for both American and German soldiers - it led to huge human casualties. Exact data is still missing, but it is estimated that about 20,000 people died on both sides.
The survivors of the fighting in the Hürtgen Forest (named after a nearby village) were extremely lucky. In their memoirs, they talk about the terrible cold and the so-called "fox holes" that they dug in the forest to hide from the rain and snow. They also talk about the German artillery fire, about the treetops, from which fragments of grenades were constantly falling, as well as about the mines, which were more numerous in the forest than the trees.
Historians are convinced that when the first battles began in the Hürtgen Forest, the war was already lost for the Hitlerite troops. This battle only postponed the inevitable capitulation of Nazi Germany.
"Siegfried Line", "dragon teeth" and bunkers
On June 6, 1944, American and British Allied troops landed in Normandy, from where they rapidly began to move through France and Belgium towards Germany, liberating the territories occupied by the Nazis. On September 12, south of Aachen, the Americans first encountered the "Siegfried Line" - the system of German defensive facilities with a total length of 630 km. It consisted of several rows of fortifications: first there were the so-called "dragon's teeth" - concrete anti-tank barriers, then came minefields, rows of barbed wire, trenches and numerous bunkers.
The "Siegfried Line" was perceived by the Americans as an insurmountable obstacle, because they did not know exactly what awaited them. And Hitler's propaganda presented the line as "impregnable". In the end, the Americans managed to overcome the first defensive line - the anti-tank fortifications. After them, the Hürtgen Forest with the bunkers located in it began.
The goal of the American army was to rapidly move towards the Rhine and the Ruhr Valley - the military-industrial heart of the German Reich. So they set off through the forest, hoping to overcome it in a few days. Instead, however, the fighting continued for several months – the Americans were literally stuck there.
The Underestimated Enemy
Historians define this decision as a mistake – the Americans' assumption, based on intelligence data, that the German defense there would be weak was wrong. “They mistakenly thought that there were roads that tanks could pass, and there were none. The narrow forest paths turned out to be unsuitable for the purpose, corridors had to be built first“, historian Mark Langen told DW.
Secondly, as experts note, the American command underestimated the German defense in this area. The Wehrmacht transferred additional forces to the area even before the start of the fighting in the forest, and it was also mined. The bunkers where German soldiers hid and fired on the enemy were also located there.
The Battle of the "Death Valley"
On October 22, the Allies captured Aachen - it became the first city in West Germany to be liberated from the Nazis. But this did not help the soldiers, who had been fighting in the Hürtgen Forest for weeks. Their advance was constantly delayed by bad weather and rain.
On November 2, the Americans tried to launch an offensive and reached the village of Schmidt, but then problems arose with the supply of food and ammunition, and the intended route could not be used by combat equipment. Left without reinforcements, the Americans were forced to retreat. But in the valley of the Kal River they fell into a real trap - the Germans cut off their path. "The forest was dense, the tanks could not move, the terrain was impassable," notes Mark Langen.
The heaviest fighting was fought in the valley of the Kal River, which the American soldiers called "Death Valley". Both sides suffered huge losses in this place.
"It was extremely difficult to stay alive"
The autumn of 1944 was very cold, the terrain was becoming increasingly impassable. The soldiers dug trenches – the so-called "fox holes", but they did not protect them sufficiently from grenades, artillery fire and the cold. In mid-November, a third attempt was made to cross the forest – at which time the writer Ernest Hemingway was also there. In his novel "Across the River, in the Trees" he wrote: "This was an area in which it was extremely difficult to stay alive. Even if you did nothing – just because you were there. It was so cold that people froze".
On December 16, 1944, Hitler's troops launched a surprise offensive in the Ardennes. The fighting in the Hürtgen Forest stopped temporarily and resumed only when the German troops suffered a defeat in the Ardennes. In January 1945, the Americans began to rapidly move through the forest - the Germans could no longer defend themselves, as they had left their last reserves in the Ardennes.
A symbol of the futility of war
In mid-February, the fighting in the forest ended. The Americans crossed it and took the already open route to Cologne. “Today, no one knows what the plan was for moving the troops through the forest. The Americans probably hoped to overcome it quickly, but this plan was not implemented as planned“, says Mark Langen.
Three months after the fighting in the Hürtgen Forest, World War II ended. “The Battle in the Forest does not have the status of a legendary battle - it was the last, the war was practically lost for the Germans. This battle becomes more of a symbol of the senselessness of war“, historian Mark Langen sums up for DW.
Author: Daria Bryantseva