The Battle of Hurtgen Forest: Untold Story of a Disastrous Campaign

This terrible story of the battle of the Hürtgen forest is told by the celebrated military historian Charles Whiting. It's fulcrum centres around a needless battle fought by the US army that led to the wasteful slaughter of over 30,000 US servicemen. This historically neglected battle was later overshadowed by the battle of the Bulge and its 90,000 casualties which took place soon after.

In the autumn and early winter of 1944, the US army was advancing between the Rhur river and Aachen. Instead of bypassing the dense conifered Hurtgen forest and isolating its defenders the US army entered the area to take it from the Germans. In an area broken by few roads, tracks and firebreaks and where vehicular movement was restricted, the GI's advanced against well prepared and stoutly defended German positions. The battle then commenced without the customary overwhelming allied air and armoured superiority.

On the defensive side the small numbers of routes and clearings had allowed German machine-gun, mortar and artillery teams to pre-range their weapons and fire accurately. In this defensive environment relatively small numbers of determined and prepared defenders were highly effective...as the GI's found out to their cost. The German defenders had prepared their defensive positions well with blockhouses, minefields, barbed wire, and booby-traps. There were also a number of bunkers in the area belonging to the deep defences of the Siegfried Line, which were centres of stiff and determined resistance. The dense forest also allowed infiltration and flanking movements by both sides and it was sometimes difficult to establish a front line or to be confident that an area had been cleared of the enemy. This led to a regular climate of sudden attacks and counter attacks by both sides.

As the American divisions started to take unexpectedly massive casualties, battle commanders had to put into the field inexperienced recruits as replacements. This was a cannon fodder approach to take a well defended battlefield when the pride and reputation of the US army had put on the line to take this coniferred valueless objective. The casualties continued to escalate dramatically when an easy disengagement would have been the most sensible option.

The Germans were hampered by much of the same difficulties but the German defenders had the advantage that their commanders and many of their soldiers had been fighting for a few years and had learned the necessary tactics for fighting efficiently in winter and forest. So with a determined foe set against them the ensuing battle was a cycle of horrid carnage where American units were literally wiped out. The fighting was bitter, ferocious and unrelenting in the most testing of weather conditions. The battle was eventually won only by the insertion of huge troop numbers by the Americans.

The book is very descriptive of the fighting, artillery bombardments and atrocious weather conditions, often repetitively so. The fortitude and bravery of the American GI's glistens on every page but so does the often highlighted instances of 'self preservation' and desperate self inflicted wounds. This only brings to the fore the obviously desperate horror of the forest fighting. Overall a story of military folly on what has to be one of the US army's biggest strategic and casualty costly blunders. A blunder that is not highly advertised.