Hurtgen Forest Campaign.Battle of Vossenack

DATE: 06/10/2024

TIME (GMT): 18:00

MAP(S): Hurtgen Forest

TYPE: COOP

TEAMSPEAK: ts1.biaarma.com

GAME: Arma 3

EVENT: Official

AUTHOR(S): Aris for Brothers in Arms Community

SLOTS: 60 / 76

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RATING: (27)

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The Battle of Hurtgen Forest was a series of battles fought from 19 September to 16 December 1944, between American and German forces on the Western Front during World War II, in the Hurtgen Forest, a 140 km2 area about 5 km east of the Belgian–German border.Lasting 88 days, it was the longest battle on German ground during World War II and is the second longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought after the four-day-longer Battle of Bataan.The U.S. commanders' initial goal was to pin down German forces in the area to keep them from reinforcing the front lines farther north in the Battle of Aachen.

The Americans initial tactical objectives were to take the village of Schmidt and clear Monschau.In a second phase the Allies wanted to advance to the Rur River.

 

General  Walter Model intended to bring the Allied thrust to a standstill.While he interfered less in the day-to-day movements of units than at the Battle of Arnhem, he still kept himself fully informed on the situation, slowing the Allies progress, inflicting heavy casualties, and taking full advantage of the fortifications the Germans called the Westwall, better known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line. The Hurtgen Forest cost the U.S. First Army at least 33000 killed and wounded, including both combat and non-combat losses, with upper estimates at 55000 German casualties were 28000. The city of Aachen in the north eventually fell on 22 October at high cost to the U.S. Ninth Army, but they failed to cross the Rur river or wrest control of its dams from the Germans. The battle was so costly that it has been described as an Allied defeat of the first magnitude, with specific credit given to Model.

 

The Germans fiercely defended the area because it served as a staging area for the 1944 winter offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge, and because the mountains commanded access to the Rur Dam at the head of the Rur Reservoir. 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 Hurtgen offensive.The Battle of the Bulge gained widespread press and public attention, leaving the battle of Hurtgen Forest less well remembered.

The overall cost of the Siegfried Line Campaign in American personnel was close to 140000.

The Hutgen Forest occupies a rugged area between the Rur River and Aachen. In the autumn and early winter of 1944, the weather was cold, wet, and cloudy, and often prevented air support. Apart from the poor weather, the dense forest and rough terrain also prevented proper use of Allied air superiority, which had great difficulties in spotting any targets. The dense conifer forest is broken by few roads, tracks, and firebreaks vehicular movement is restricted. Conditions on the ground became a muddy morass, further impeding vehicular traffic, especially heavy vehicles such as tanks.

 

The German defenders had prepared the area with improvised blockhouses, minefields, barbed wire, and booby-traps, hidden by the mud and snow. There were also numerous concrete bunkers in the area, mostly belonging to the deep defenses of the Siegfried Line, which were also centers of resistance.

 

The American advantage in numbers (as high as 5 to 1), armor, mobility, and air support was thus greatly reduced by weather and terrain. In the forest, relatively small numbers of determined and prepared defenders could be highly effective. To exacerbate matters, as the American divisions took casualties, inexperienced replacements had to be fed directly into combat

 

The densely forested terrain also limited the use of tanks and provided cover for German anti-tank teams equipped with Panzerfaust shaped-charge grenade launchers. The Allies made improvised rocket launchers, using rocket tubes from aircraft and spare Jeep trailers. Later in the battle, it proved necessary to blast tank routes through the forest. Transportation was similarly limited by the lack of routes: at critical times, it proved difficult to reinforce or supply front-line units or to evacuate the dead and wounded.

The Germans were hampered by much the same difficulties, worsened because their divisions had already taken heavy losses on the retreat through France and were hastily filled up with untrained boys and old men, often unfit for normal military service. Transportation was also a problem, because of the difficult roads and the lack of trucks and fuel; most supplies had to be manhandled to the front line. Nonetheless, despite increasing numbers of replacements lacking experience, German defenders had the advantage in that their commanders and many of their soldiers had been fighting for years and had learned the necessary tactics for fighting efficiently in winter and forested areas, whereas the Americans were often well-trained but inexperienced.

At the start, the forest was defended by the German 275th and 353rd Infantry Divisions understrength but well prepared—5,000 men (1,000 in reserve)—and commanded by Generalleutnant Hans Schmidt. They had little artillery and no tanks. As the battle progressed, German reinforcements were added. American expectations that these troops were weak and ready to withdraw were overly optimistic.

US 28^th Division-2nd Battalion with 3 Sherman Tanks will attack and try to capture the Vossenack Village and the Hills near it in effort to secure the area from counterattacks.