Qualla: Battle of Hurtgen Forest

Battle of Hurtgen Forest: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. A German lieutenant named Friedrich Lengfeld died on 12 November 1944, six weeks past his twenty-third birthday, of wounds taken while crossing a minefield called the Wild Sow to drag a wounded American soldier to safety. His memorial is a stone with a bronze plaque, placed at the Hurtgen Military Cemetery by veterans of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. It is the only such monument anywhere in a German military cemetery dedicated by the men he had once been ordered to kill. That is the story most worth telling about the Hurtgen Forest. The rest of what happened here is a catalogue of mistakes paid in lives.

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Image: Public domain

Battle of Hurtgen Forest: Why the Forest

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Microsome at German Wikipedia., Public domain. The Hurtgen Forest covers about a hundred and forty square kilometers of rugged terrain just east of the Belgian-German border, between the Rur River and the city of Aachen. By mid-September 1944 the Allied pursuit across France had bogged down on extended supply lines and stiffe...

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Image: The original uploader was Microsome at German Wikipedia. | Public domain

Battle of Hurtgen Forest: Mud, Trees, and Pre-Ranged Guns

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. Everything about the forest favored the defenders. The dense conifers grounded Allied air superiority - pilots could not see targets and weather often kept them on the ground anyway. The few roads and firebreaks had been pre-ranged for machine guns, mortars, and artillery, so eve...

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Image: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided | Public domain

Battle of Hurtgen Forest: The Kall Trail

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Signal Corps, Public domain. The 9th Infantry Division opened the attack on 19 September. By 16 October they had taken 4,500 casualties to gain about 3,000 yards. The 28th Infantry Division, a Pennsylvania National Guard unit, relieved them and inherited the worst piece of terrain: the Kall Trail, a narrow t...

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Image: U.S. Signal Corps | Public domain

Battle of Hurtgen Forest: Hill 400 and the Rangers

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Georgia National Guard from United States, CC BY 2.0. On 14 November the 2nd Ranger Battalion arrived to relieve the battered 112th Infantry Regiment. On 7 December the Rangers seized the strategic position of Hill 400 from troops of the 980th Grenadier Regiment, 272nd Volksgrenadier Division. They held it for days under sustained c...

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Image: Georgia National Guard from United States | CC BY 2.0

Battle of Hurtgen Forest: The Costs

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rurseekatze, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Battle of Hurtgen Forest lasted eighty-eight days. It was the longest battle on German soil during the Second World War. By U.S. estimates the First Army took at least 33,000 casualties, including 9,000 non-combat losses - pneumonia, trench foot, frostbite, the kind of injuri...

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Image: Rurseekatze | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Hurtgen Forest: A Memorial on the Kall Bridge

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Xamos, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 7 November 2004, the sixtieth anniversary of a brief ceasefire on the Kall Bridge to evacuate the wounded, a memorial sculpture was dedicated there. Michael Pohlmann designed the work; Tilman Schmitten of Eupen made the plaque; the Konejung Foundation paid for it. The memorial...

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Image: Xamos | CC BY-SA 3.0