Qualla: Operation Clipper https://qualla.com/operation-clipper en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:34 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/h/3/operation-clipper-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Operation Clipper https://qualla.com/operation-clipper Operation Clipper: Introduction https://qualla.com/operation-clipper/ Photo credit Albert Gr., CC BY-SA 4.0. It started at 07:00 on 18 November 1944, in a thin grey light, with a brief bombardment and the 334th Infantry Regiment - young Americans from the 84th Division, most of them new to combat - walking forward through cleared strips in the German minefields east of Geilenkirchen. They were here to flatten a bulge in the front line called the Geilenkirchen salient. They had a week. The fields would turn to liquid mud, Tiger II tanks would come at them out of villages whose names they could barely pronounce, and by the time the operation was called off on the 23rd, both the British 43rd Wessex Division and the Americans had taken casualties heavy enough that the survivors would remember the Wurm valley for the rest of their lives.

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Image: Albert Gr. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/h/3/operation-clipper-wp/u1h3-operation-clipper-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Operation Clipper: The Salient https://qualla.com/operation-clipper/ Photo credit Albert Gr., CC BY-SA 4.0. The Wurm is a small river that runs north of Aachen through the kind of undulating Rhineland country that looks gentle from a passing car: woodland, farmland, villages of compact stone houses. In November 1944 it was the seam between two Allied armies, the British Second to the w...

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Image: Albert Gr. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/h/3/operation-clipper-wp/u1h3-operation-clipper-the-salient.mp3 0:06 2 full Operation Clipper: What the Map Did Not Show https://qualla.com/operation-clipper/ Photo credit Albert Gr., CC BY-SA 4.0. Defending the ground was the bulk of the 176th Infantry Division and the hastily extemporised 183rd Volksgrenadier Division, under General der Infanterie Gunther Blumentritt's XII SS Corps. South-east of the town the Germans had laid deep belts of mines stretching ten kilometres ...

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Image: Albert Gr. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/h/3/operation-clipper-wp/u1h3-operation-clipper-what-the-map-did-not-show.mp3 0:06 3 full Operation Clipper: Mahogany Hill https://qualla.com/operation-clipper/ Photo credit Albert Gr., CC BY-SA 4.0. The fighting in Prummern went on for two days. The high ground above it - the Americans started calling it Mahogany Hill - held out for two more. Resistance broke only when British Crocodiles arrived to clear the pillboxes. One U.S. company commander, watching German defenders po...

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Image: Albert Gr. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/h/3/operation-clipper-wp/u1h3-operation-clipper-mahogany-hill.mp3 0:06 4 full Operation Clipper: Geilenkirchen Falls, Then the Rain https://qualla.com/operation-clipper/ Photo credit Albert Gr., CC BY-SA 4.0. Geilenkirchen itself fell to the 333rd Infantry Regiment on 19 November - relatively easily, though without the artillery support American commanders wanted, because the gunners had been ordered to hold fire after earlier friendly-fire incidents in the British sector. From the to...

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Image: Albert Gr. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/h/3/operation-clipper-wp/u1h3-operation-clipper-geilenkirchen-falls-then-the-rain.mp3 0:06 5 full Operation Clipper: Counting the Cost https://qualla.com/operation-clipper/ Photo credit Albert Gr., CC BY-SA 4.0. On 23 November Clipper was called off and the 84th Division reverted to American command. On paper the salient had been substantially reduced, and the U.S. XIII Corps now had room to manoeuvre. That was the strategic accomplishment. Counted differently, the operation had cost bot...

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Image: Albert Gr. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/h/3/operation-clipper-wp/u1h3-operation-clipper-counting-the-cost.mp3 0:06 6 full