Uncle Bill and World War II - The Battle of the Hurtgen Forest

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NOTE: My mother's brother, my Uncle Bill, participated in many of the major battles of the European theatre during World War II. This page and others reveal his experiences. For a full listing, see the bottom of this page. The photo at left is one of the rare photos I have of my uncle. It was taken after the war.

Battle of the Hurtgen Forest

"The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was a series of fierce battles fought from 19 September to 16 December, 1944, between American and German forces ... in the Hürtgen Forest, ... east of the Belgian–German border. It was the longest battle on German ground during World War II and is the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought." ²

"The Germans fiercely defended the area because it served as a staging area for the 1944 winter offensive ... (known in English-speaking countries as the Battle of the Bulge), and because the mountains commanded access to the Rur Dam at the head of the Rur Reservoir (Rurstausee). The Allies failed to capture the area after several heavy setbacks, and the Germans successfully held the region until they launched their last-ditch offensive into the Ardennes. This was launched on 16 December and ended the Hürtgen offensive. The Battle of the Bulge gained widespread press and public attention, leaving the battle of Hürtgen Forest less well remembered. The overall cost of the Siegfried Line Campaign in American personnel was close to 140,000." ³

Uncle Bill before the Hurtgen Forest

“Then one night the guns starting firing, round after round, round after round. No one had to tell us the big push in Hurtgen Forest had begun.

“It was a brief but very bitter fight to get over a river and out into the Cologne plain. After the cost of thousands of lives, the road was open to the Rhine.

“We spent some time shelling the railroad bridge in Cologne that connected the east and west bank of the Rhine and which was the only bridge left standing over the Rhine in that part of Germany. We used the base of the right tower of the cathedral to zero in our guns. Each of the twelve guns has its turn firing at the target while a cost plane overhead watches for the shot and makes corrections."

Uncle Bill at the Hurtgen Forest

“Aachen fell and then it was the Hurtgen Forest. I still think the Hurtgen Forest was much, much worse than the Battle of the Bulge. I’m sure it was for the infantry. They bled in the hills, the valleys, the streams of Hurtgen Forest. And winter was coming on.

“In life you’ll have some very dark moments. They come to all of us, but the dark moments pass. …I’ve been thinking a lot about the war and for some reason I’ve thought about a time when I was so down, so blue, so discouraged when I thought I would never see home again. ⁴

“We had just broken out of the Hurtgen Forest, headed for the Rhine River. It had taken us months, with all the firepower of the VII Corp to force a cross of a river and out of the Hurtgen Forest. How could we force a crossing of the wide Rhine River? On this day, one of our big ammunition trucks ran over a land mine as it pulled off in a field for the night with everyone on the truck killed. Mines were always a hazard. They could be anywhere. But this made me so blue. For men to do so much, to face so much danger for so long, and then die like this. I thought the war would never end…it was a very dark moment for me. But bad moments do pass.”

Here are the other battles that Bill experienced:

• Normandy June 6, 1944
• The Battle of Cherbourg June 18, 1944
• Battle of the Hedgerows and Battle of Saint Lo July 7-19, 1944
• Battle of the Falaise Pocket August 11-21, 1944
• The Fall of Aachen October 2-21, 1944
• Battle of the Bulge December 15, 1944 - January 25, 1945

Or return to Main Page to check out other battles, other stories.