With a heavy heart I must offer the Battle for Hurtgen Forest.
The Germans were delighted that the Americans wanted to throw their weight into an attack against dug-in troops in a forest where the American preponderance of artillery and command of the air would be of little value. Also, delighting the Germans was that the Hurtgen Forest was of little military value and, if lost to the Americans, could be flooded since the Germans held flood control dams above the level of the forest. It was a battle that the Germans really couldn't lose. But don't tell that to General Bradley or General Hodges. Their regrettable stubborness and unwillingness to realistically assess the engagement would reap a bloody harvest from the American high school classes of 1942, 1943 and 1944. The fight cost the 9th and 2nd Armored divisions 80% of their front-line troops. It was worse for the 28th division. Overall in the Hurtgen, the 28th suffered 6,184 combat casualties, plus 738 cases of trench foot and 620 battle fatigue cases. Those figures meant that virtually every front-line soldier was a casualty. The 28th Division had essentially been wiped out.
The 2nd Rangers fared no better with 90% casualties after weeks of unbelievably brutal fighting.
After the war, German General Rolf van Gersdorff commented, "I have engaged in the long campaigns in Russia as well as other fronts and I believe the fighting in the Hurtgen was the heaviest I have ever witnessed."
The battle lasted ninety days and involved nine American Divisions and their supporting units. More than 24,000 Americans lost their lives and there were another 9,000 casualties from trench foot, disease and combat exhaustion. So ended the battle for the Hurtgen Forest.
Heartbreaking.
