OBERMAUBACH UNDER ATTACK

The attack on Obermaubach began on December 20th and involved elements from the 5th Armored Division, the 83rd Infantry Division and the 4th Cavalry Group. The German goal was to hold Obermaubach before joining in drive to re-take Aachen. On December 21st, the 121st Regiment was instructed by VII Corps to take over the battle from the 4th Cavalry Group, which was being withdrawn. The exchange of units took place that very night, and the 121st went into battle almost immediately.

US Intelligence had indicated that Obermaubach's garrison numbered approximatly 500 soldiers, with elements from the 6th Independent Fallschrimjäger (paratrooper) Regiment - veterans of Normandy. There were also men from the 942nd and the 943rd Grenadier Regiments, in addition to substantial artillery resources east of the town itself. Attacking at 11 am on December 22, the 121st advanced to the outskirts of Obermaubach but further progress was quashed by heavy enemy fire. Falling back, the Americans waited for dark. At 11.30 at night, the regiment's 'C' Company with six officers and 70 men attempted to infiltrate into town. Strangely enough there was no gunfire. By daylight however, this company had not returned nor had it radioed of success in its attack. Only later was it discovered that the entire company had been captured in an German ambush. Disheartened, the regiment ceased all further operation for two days, but on the 25th, the attacked with two platoons of tanks in support.

Fighting their way in, the riflemen were startled by the sudden chatter of a machine gun firing from a concealed position. Americans hit the dirt, but were surprised to learn the gunfire was aimed not at them, but at the Germans. Incredibly, a missing machine gun platoon from the lost 'C Company had avoided capture, and under the command of an assistant platoon leader, Sergeant Josph Malenowski, had hidden on a ridge overlooking Obermaubach for the next 36 hours. Now, the machine gunners covered the advance of the regiment and under the added weight of American firepower, the Germans fell back. Still, Obermaubach fell only on the night of the 26th, with 93 Germans captured. Stalwart enemy troops, determined to fight to the end in pockets east and west of Obermaubach, were subsequently overrun by the US 83rd Infantry Division. The enemy artillery, east of the Roer river, was also swept over at the same time. An unreal peace settled over the Hurtgen.

THE FINAL PUSH TO SCHMIDT

The New Year's Day, 1945 came and went. By 15 January the Ardennes offensive had been crushed. American soldiers in the Hurtgen could expect enemy reinforcements to shatter the calm, but all was quiet in the south in the area around Schmidt, still held by enemy forces. Both sides were building their forces for an all-out offensive in February, and small-scale patrols were all that usually clashed in January. On the other side of the fence, strengthened German units took up positions opposite the Americans - notably the 85th Infantry Division and the 6th Fallschrimjäger Regiment.

On January 30 the respite finally broke when the US 78th Infantry Division smashed through enemy lines near the Kall river, and drove at top speed for Schmidt and the Schwammenauel Dam. Allied artillery blasted the way clear to Kommerscheidt, which fell on February 5 and Schmidt, which was captured on the 7th. The Americans then rushed onwards towards the Schwammenauel Dam, but found that the Germans had blown the sluice gates, unleashing 152 million gallons of water into the area. Although this did not greatly flood the forest as feared, it did transform the normally placid Roer River, which was never more than knee-deep into a swirling torrent, over ten feet deep in the Duren area and over a mile wide in other places.

The original objectives had finally been taken. The Hurtgen campaign drew to a close. In five months of operations, the Americans lost 24 000 men, killed, wounded or capture and lost another 9000 to exhaustion, pneumonia and Immersion Foot (trench-foot). The battle was one of the greatest setbacks and near-defeats suffered by the US army in Europe and although it was an eventual triumph, it was little more than a Pyrrhic victory. Then, there is to consider that the US First Army might have well stayed in Hurtgen, enmeshed in World War I style trench warfare, if it were not for the success of other allied armies and the failure of other German ones.

THE FINAL CHAPTER

Two weeks after the Hurtgen campaign, American forces took the northeastern city of Duren after heavy combat, and reached the banks of the Rhine River on the night of March 6th and 7th. This was the ultimate value of Hurtgen, allowing the survivors of the battle with reinforcements to smash their way towards the last natural river obstacle before the Ruhr. The Rhine would be crossed just days later in March, and the Ruhr occupied after a gigantic Anglo-American pincer encircled and destroyed the German forces within it in mid-April. Following these crippling developments and the relentless onslaught of the Russians from the east, the Third Reich crumbled in a matter of weeks.

Gomorrah comes to Germany. A jeep drives through a typical German town after VE-Day (Victory Europe) in May 1945. Years on bombing and the the ultimate ground battles for the Reich, saw almost all of Germany's cities and towns - especially in the north - reduced to rubble. Note, the neat row of white flags stuck to each house - signaling defeat. Photo @US National Archives