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An American anti-aircraft gun, towed by a truck camouflaged with foliage, moves into position in the Hürtgen Forest to provide fire ...

Hürtgen Forest

Fighting in the Hürtgen Forest resulted in tens of thousands of American casualties, as the US Army attempted over six months to pierce this heavily fortified part of the German border defenses.
Defeat of Nazi Germany, 1942-1945
Defeat of Nazi Germany, 1942-1945

Beginning in 1938, the Nazis increased their territorial control outside of Germany. By 1942, three years into World War II, Nazi Germany reached the peak of its expansion. At the height of its power, Germany had incorporated, seized, or occupied most of the continent. However, also in 1942, the Allied Powers started to systematically bomb Germany. They would continue to do so until Germany's surrender in 1945, weakening the war effort and demolishing cities.

Slowly, the Allied Powers began pushing Germany back towards prewar boundaries. From 1942 to 1943, Nazi Germany suffered battle and territory losses in the Soviet Union and North Africa. With the Soviets on the offensive, German troops were pushed westward, gradually losing control of the Eastern Front. In July 1943, the Allied Powers landed in Italy, pushing German troops north. Rome was liberated in June, 1944. That same month, other Allied divisions landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, pushing German troops east. By the end of 1944, the Allies had liberated a majority of Axis territories occupied during the war. 

In early 1945, Allied troops entered Germany. By mid-April, the Soviets had encircled the German capital of Berlin. On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler killed himself. The German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the west on May 7 and in the east on May 9, 1945, bringing an end World War II in Europe. 

  • US Holocaust Memorial Museum

After they broke out of Normandy and advanced rapidly to liberate France and Belgium, and portions of the Netherlands, Allied forces reached the German border fortifications, the Siegfried Line, in mid-September 1944. US units also advanced towards the vital Roer River dams that they sought to capture in order to prevent the Germans from flooding areas to the north, thus delaying the advance into Germany itself.

Mortar men of the 754th Tank Battalion fire an 81mm mortar at German positions during the heavy fighting in the Hürtgen Forest.
Fighting in the Hürtgen Forest

Mortar men of the 754th Tank Battalion fire an 81mm mortar at German positions during the heavy fighting in the Hürtgen Forest. December 15, 1944. US Army Signal Corps photograph taken by C. Tesser.

  • National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD

The most direct route to the dams lay through the Hürtgen Forest, a man-made forest preserve of densely packed fir trees in rough terrain. It was also one of the most heavily fortified areas of the Siegfried Line, some 200 square miles of dense woods, deep ravines, and high ridges. American troops repeatedly attacked that fall in an attempt to batter their way through hundreds of concrete German fortifications, made up of pillboxes surrounded by mine fields and supported by artillery. Several US divisions took serious losses during the fighting, measuring their advance in yards as they captured German positions one by one. The German offensive in Belgium in mid-December, the Battle of the Bulge, halted any further advance into the Hürtgen forest.

Not until early February was this attack renewed; the dams were captured after several days of heavy fighting. Although some damage to the dams delayed the attack across the Roer River for two weeks, by the end of February six US divisions had successfully crossed the Roer River and begun racing toward the Rhine, the last natural barrier to the heart of Germany.

This arduous campaign resulted in approximately 33,000 American casualties.

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Critical Thinking Questions

  • How did this campaign affect the course of the war?
  • What was the relationship between the progress of the war and the mass murder of Europe’s Jews?

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