The Battle of Huertgen Forest. Germany: September 19 to December 16, 1944

 

 Part 2 of 4

 Mike Scruggs

 Part 1 of this series related the story of how my friend, Howd Mosher (1922-2005) was badly wounded by German machine-gun fire in the battle for Lucherberg, near the northern fringe of the Huertgen Forest area.  Howd was saved from bleeding to death by a German medic. The Battle of Huertgen Forest was really a series of small but fierce high-casualty battles that occurred between September 19 and December 16, 1944. The principal American objectives were (1) to protect the right flank of Lt. General Courtney Hodges’ First U.S. Army (approximately 150,000 troops) as they advanced past the Inde and Roer Rivers as an intermediate objective before advancing to the Rhine and its major industrial cities and (2) to prevent the Germans from using the major dams on the Roer River to flood the areas west of the Inde and Roer. The Huertgen Forest Battle included an area of about 50 to 70 square miles both in the forest itself, the bordering towns, and the flatter and less thickly forested areas along the Inde and Roer rivers.

 General Eisenhower also believed the battles would help grind down the dwindling German Army by attrition, but the Germans turned out to be much stronger than Allied Intelligence believed.
 On October 2, the First Army made the first major American penetration of the Siegfried Line at Aachen, a city of 160,000 near the Belgian border. The Siegfried Line was a highly fortified series of tank obstacles, pill boxes, and natural water obstacles along the Dutch, Belgian, Luxembourg, and French borders of Germany. The Siegfried Line went right through the center of Aachen and other German cities on the border, because the larger buildings and narrow streets near the center of German cities and towns made them difficult for Allied offensive armored maneuver and warfare. The Germans evacuated the civilian population of Aachen as the battle commenced. The Germans finally surrendered the city on October 21, allowing the First Army to advance east to the Inde River and then the Roer River.

The U.S 104th Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Terry Allen, had been assisting the British in the southeastern Netherlands until November 15. They officially rejoined the First Army and crossed from Belgium into to Germany south of Aachen on that day. The 104th “Timberwolves,” as they were called, were the first U.S. Army division specifically trained for night fighting.  Their training area in Eastern Oregon also equipped them to operate in heavily forested areas. They captured Stolberg (population now, 56,000), 10 miles east of Aachen, on the 16th.  On November 21, they took the town of Eschweller. By December 1, they had already been engaged against the 246th German Infantry Division at Inden (population now, 7,000) on the Inde River. The 246th Volksgrenadiers were heavily armed with mobile assault guns, hunter-tanks, and anti-tank weapons on the east side of the Inde.  On the night of December 2, Timberwolf assault troops crossed the frigid and fast-flowing waist deep waters of the 25-foot wide Inde with fixed bayonets. They surprised the Germans and captured 50 “very frightened” young German soldiers near the center of town. Within 24 hours, they had cleared the Germans from Inden and the west side of the Inde River. The German artillery bombardment on Inde and its environs was said to be the heaviest of the war—a sure sign the Germans had no intention of letting the Americans get past the Roer.

 I-Company of the 415th Regiment, which I believe was Howd Mosher’s company, immediately carried the momentum southeast to Lucherberg with German artillery still raining down on them but causing no casualties in the dark night. Lucherberg was situated on a hill rising about 500 feet above the Inde River on its west side. The Roer River could also be seen to the east from the hill.
The population of Lucherberg was only about 500, but it played an important part in the German defense of the area. The north side of the hill upon which Lucherberg rested was very steep. Most of Lucherberg’s buildings were built of large, heavy bricks.

I-Company started up this steep north incline in the very early hours of December 3. A German: Panzer tank fired at them from the top of the hill but hit nothing in the darkness. A few bazooka rounds hastened its withdrawal. I-Company had been reduced to about 100 men because of attrition from both combat and non-combat casualties. Normal strength would have been about 170 men.
Northwest Germany and the Northern Rhineland are normally rainy, damp, muddy, and cold in autumn, but the autumn and early winter months of 1944 were the wettest in two decades. Infantry troops were frequently covered with mud and cold slime for days or weeks. Serious respiratory conditions including bronchitis and pneumonia were common, taking men out of combat for weeks. Frostbite and especially “trench foot” caused many casualties. Dysentery and bowel problems were a continuous plague, making infantry life miserable and depressing. Fear was a frequent visitor. Combat troops often got little sleep or real rest for long periods. Combine these with the helpless feeling and uncertainties of frequent artillery bombardment, and you have a perfect formula for high rates of combat fatigue or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

 At the same time I-Company was entering the north side of town and engaging in building to building infantry battle, the remaining 421 troops of the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Regiment of the German 3rd Parachute Division was entering Lucherberg on the opposite side. I-Company was able to capture four buildings and 15 prisoners, but Lieutenant John Olsen, the company commander, received fatal wounds. More German infantry from the 246th Division’s 404th Regiment began to arrive, and a confused situation soon developed with American held houses divided from one another by German troops or German fire.

 Emil Weiss, a grenadier in company 6 of the 404th recorded that: “Combat was very tough, especially the hand-to-hand fighting.” As the battle progressed, the German paratroopers were able to set up three machine-gun positions that blocked American advance with devastating crossfire. Meanwhile, Hitler's favorite "fireman" and most aggressive Field Marshall, Walter Model, took an interest in keeping Lucherberg..