Hürtgen 1944 - America's Meat Grinder
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2019
- The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest on the German-Belgian border in September to December 1944 is rightly remembered as 'The Meat Grinder', when US troops endured heavy casualties at the hands of defending German forces. It ended in a German victory, just before the Battle of Bulge got underway.
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My Grandfather Fought in this Battle Losing his Right hands Thumb at the Knuckle, he passed away in May this year at 94Yo. RIP Gordy.
"Never follow Germans into the woods" Varus
Years ago, no one would have believed that user generated UA-cam content could be so superior to that of "professionals". The quality of Marks videos is unbelievably high, making programs like timeline almost unwatchable in comparison.
Mark is a "professional" historian. But yes, with YT monitization and mass audience as motivation and modern video editing tools, its now possible for individuals and small groups to produce high quality content that rivals conventional production.
Yes Timeline is pretty much useless at this point. Every topic covered has at least one video here that is far superior.
History Channel went to shit. I'm glad people like Mark have stepped up to fill the void.
This same music theme should be monotonous by now, but it's just as riveting as ever. As relentless as the German military.
So called Professional productions are padded out to a ridiculous extent, I cannot watch broadcast TV documentaries with some exceptions ie. World at War.
I'm German i am 48 years old. as a young kid! did i ask my grandfather: grandpa what is it, war? his answer still sounds in my ears today! he said my son: war, that's when old men send young men to their deaths! he had 5 brothers, he was the only one who survived this madness! no schoolmate survived this war! his friends he had as a little boy were all dead! when he was back home in 1949! everyone was gone, his brothers, his friends, his schoolmates! my grandfather was sent to the front at the age of 16. he was born in 1927 ... until he died every night he had the same nightmare, every damn night !!!! Sorry for my bad English, my last English lesson at school is more than 30 y ago !
Visited the Hurtgenwald in fall of 2012. If you go, get ready to walk. I spent a lot of time retracing the path of the fighting detailed in Robert Rush's excellent book. His maps were invaluable. Many fighting positions are still visible. At first I struggled to get oriented, but suddenly I could see lines of fighting positions, large depressions from bunkers, etc. Area I was in (mainly west of the Weisser Weh creek) had seen some timber harvest. Slash from trees was tossed in the old fighting positions, which made them tough to spot at first. Use caution turning if you remove the slash and turn over the leaves, as I found an abundance of rifle grenades and panzerschreck rockets scattered about, including several pristine grenades wrapped in the remnants of a rubber ground sheet. That's why the loggers put the slash in the old foxholes.....
I wandered around till dark every day, often hiking 3 miles or so back to the car in the pitch darkness. A lifelong woodsman and hunter, I feel quite at home in the forest at night, but I have to admit that place has a bad juju to it after dark. Pitch darkness and wind sighing through the tree tops. The terrain is similar to my home area of upstate NY. Forest is a mix of planted pine stands and free-range hardwoods. Like all forests in Germany, its managed to the nth degree. You'll find the Adirondacks more tangled/wild, but the Hurtgenwald definitely takes the cake for the creepiness factor.
They say it's bad when the snow starts speaking Finnish, or when the jungle starts speaking Vietnamese. But when the pines start speaking German...
In the summer of 2015 I was visiting Normandy. While there I met a German in his 60's he asked if I had any family members that fought in the war. I told him of my two uncles and 2nd cousin that participated in the European portion of the war. We soon found out that my great uncle had fought against his father at the Hurtgen Forest. It was good to know that both men survived the war and lived into their 80's.
I recall reading in a book about the Battle of Hurtgen Forest (McDonald perhaps?) of how fierce and confused the fighting at times got. The author described an incident where a first aid station had changed hands so many times that nobody knew for certain who was supposed to be in control. Americans and Germans were both bringing wounded to it at the same time.
I can't imagine that...
I was stationed in Germany and my platoon went here to learn some military history. Our guide was a former German Soldier who was later a POW. It was an amazing trip and glad I went.
Thumbs up if you think this is the best history channel on UA-cam
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#Thehistoryguy.
Thumbs up if you think this comment is gay
This channel is BETTER than THE History Channel... Always accurate accounts and NO dramatic dodgy CGI... Real footage coupled with great narration makes for outstanding clips... RIP the fallen...
Thumbs down because there are not more like it.
ive read a few books from the german perspective and they havnt a clue why the Ameicans entered the forest and didnt go around
perhaps they wanted to pull an American version of the Ardennes forest? Maybe they tried to be a little too tacticool?
only other reason i can think of is possible poor info on the build of the German but i wasnt there so i dont know🤷♂️🤷♂️
The commander was a pompous idiot. Sending men into the grinder like it's WW1.
Tying down troops to stop them going to Aachen would be the only thing i could think of
I asked you this myself in another comment that has probably been lost now, but I am still deeply confused why the Americans simply didn't go around the woods. Judging by all the maps that were flashed on the screen, it didn't encircle their objective at the dams or anything like that, and it seems like there were routes both North and South. Was it just a tremendous mistake? Maybe there is some tactical or strategic consideration I'm not aware of.
They wanted to save time.
Reminds me of another empire that sent an army into a German forest an took massive casualties.
The Romans
HempMasterNinja “Varus, give me back my legions...”
Arminius kicked some Roman ass and drove them out of Germania.
'Patton you son of a bitch! Give me back my regiments!'
Yeah, but Arminius ambushed the Romans and didn't really let them fight back; the Germans were able to slaughter the US troops because the damned generals didn't do their job and sent the men into kill zones against dug-in troops with machine guns and experience, fighting on their home soil. The Hurtgen forest debacle is another story that just doesn't get much publicity - like the Little Big Horn. And, we hear even LESS about the officers that sent those men to be butchered like sheep.
Can you imagine that the Red Army and Wehrmacht were doing this to each other for 5 long years 1941-45.
My grandfather was in both the Hurtgen and the Battle of the bulge. He always said that Hurtgen was the worst between the two.
My dad was severely injured in the hurtgan forest on hill 401 on nov.30, 1944, after taking out 2 machine gun nest and was then injured by a bomb fired from a self propelled artillery gun, not sure if that's what it was called. He spent 2mos in England recuperating before going back to his co.
My Dad: 1st. Lt.. Charles Lemons. 3rd army, 5 armored division, 46th armored infantry battalion, C co, 1st platton.
Dad said it was a cold hell on earth.
Even in that awful battle there was still a bit of humanity that shone through. Friedrich Lengfeld a German officer went to help an American soldier who stepped on a land mine, sadly he stepped on one too and lost his life.
"No man hath greater love than he who layeth down his life for his enemy"
Bit of a misquote of Scripture, but I see what you did there. : D
Aren't mines just a greasey thing to use, I'm glad they cleaned them up after the war.
Never, never, NEVER say "We'll be home by Christmas!"
Everybody is always home by Christmas...what year's Christmas is another matter.
Or, at least, never specify which Christmas.
My father, Floyd Whicker, was one of the Army Rangers who fought for Hill 400. Dad said the Hurtgen Forest was the worst battle he was in, and he landed in France among the first wave on D-Day where he was wounded by machine gun fire. He said Hill 400 was worse than D-Day.
The Hürtgenwald is still as gloomy and impenetrable as it was in 1944/1945. The responsible military of the Americans should have been court-martialed. There is not a single place in Germany where a military offensive would have been more senseless than in Hürtgenwald. A simple reconnaissance flight of the US General Staff would have made it immediately clear. To use tanks in this area is total madness.
Even today in the 21st century, there are still areas in the Hürtgenwald, which are closed because of mine danger. Countless glass mines were laid by the German side in the extensive minefield "Wilde Sau". This minefield could not be cleared until today.
In Vossenack there is a small but very interesting museum for the Hürtgenwald battle. The whole area still bears witness to the horrors of this battle. In one of the focal points of this battle in the deep valley of the river Kall you can visit today the Mestrenger Mill and a small bridge over the Kall, which was fought bitterly in the "Allerseelenschlacht" in November 1944. There, on the steep path to Schmitd, you can still see the tank tracks of an American M10 tank destroyer, which was destroyed there at that time. The Mestrenger mill was rebuilt after the war and is today a restaurant worth visiting.
Burkhard Redeker
I am going there again next month
There is more forests like that. Believe me😁
Still not safe today. Glassmines and lots of ammunition.
That's amazing, thanks for sharing that information with your fellow history nerds :)
I hiked around the Hurtgenwald it is a dark almost impenetrable forest have been on hill 40, I can't imagine trying to attack a dug in force.
Went on a Staff Ride to the Hurtgen from the Army Sergeants Major Academy in 1993. Dark woods, steep hills, dense underbrush. I was walking on a Jeep trail with a master sergeant/classmate when he says, “Bill, look!” I’m lookin’ and lookin’. I don’t see shit but bushes and leaves. He walks up to a spot just off the trail, pulls some brush back, and reveals a black slot in a concrete pillbox pointed straight down the trail we were walking up. We’d have been dead a 100 meters back.
Five of us spread out and walked through a small area just inside the tree line looking up toward Schmidt and counted over a 1000 foxholes, troops all bunched together, tree burst artillery cutting them to shreds. The scene, with all those surviving witnesses to their buddies slaughter had to be terrifying, to put it mildly. Cold, dark, muddy, wet. Unattended corpses rigor-reaching for the sky. Fucking gruesome months-long ordeal. Mauled units were pulled back for rest and were run over by the German offensive through the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge.
Wonder why grandpa never talked about the war?
the movie when trumpets fade was a great hurtgen war movie.
when trumpets fade ,highly recommended ,i got the DVD when it 1st came out ,go find it ! ? EH. thanks .
It lacks a little bit in production budget, but it's an amazing story. I've probably seen it 4 times now.
literally propaganda low budget trash bro
One of my favorite war films of all time. Maybe not 100% realistic in all aspects. But very grim.
except for the fact that it was cheesy as shit and used fireworks in lieu of real explosions.
"they expected the broken german army to stay broken"
And in the distance, laughter in cyrillics could be heard. Of all the sins german army was guilty, lack of guts was not one of them.
There's a little known film called when Trumpets Fade that revolves around one American soldier during this battle and tests the limits of courage and cowardice and gives a very very grey view of war. Not your typical war movie.
So it's realistic instead of "heroic" bullshit
And that film has an ending scene that will reduce the most immovable person to tears. Better than Saving Private Ryan
No offense intended but it sounds like every single war movie ever made. How about one day someone makes a movie that tells the story, talks about the options and why the commanders involved chose the approach that they did, then gives a purely factual account of the outcome without any heroics or jingoism, or misery and trauma. A job that had to be done, and was done with all the little errors, defeats and triumphs that happen in real war.
It's one of the best war films in my humble opinion.
I've got that movie, bought it after reading a book on the Hürtgen.
For an army known for its offensive prowess, The Germans really excelled at defense
"If our soldier is brave, he is a hero. If enemy soldier is brave, he is fanatic."
Yeah, right!
One more Hurtgenwald story: it's really easy to get turned around in the dark there. I stayed at a hotel in Simonskall, the village right in the Kall river gorge. One night after dinner, I spur-of-the-moment decided to walk east from the hotel, along the Kallweg trail, to see the famed Kall Bridge (Kall Brücke). Moonless night, windy and chilly. Based on my map study earlier on the day, looked like a about a 1.5 to 2-mile walk. Off I go along the valley trail, with the Kall river sounds beside me and the moaning of wind in the pines. Darker than a rat's bottom and pretty spooky.
So I eventually got to a known landmark that I recalled from my earlier map studies, the forked intersection of the Kall trail and the Richelsbach trail (that comes down from the Vossenack area). I continued on thefork to the right, the Kall trail, but as you get towards the Kall Bridge, the Kall trail splits into some smaller paths. If you Google Maps the Kall Brücke, about a 1/4 mile west of it you'll see the snarl of trails I got turned around on, in the pitch dark.
So now I'm annoyed at myself, standing in the dark and wind, trying to get oriented. Then, on the wind, I hear a man's very deep voice in the distance, and it starts singing "Happy Birthday", in English, but with an obvious German accent. At this point, I'm a bit weirded out, but started up the one trail that seemed to lead to the singing. Shortly, I came to a stockade fence and a gate. I swung open the gate and I suddenly step into the lights, onto the back patio of the Mestrenger Mühle bar/restaurant! Talk about disorienting...
There was a guitarist there for evening entertainment and it was his voice over the mic that was singing happy birthday to one of the guests. Fortunately, I had brought my wallet, so several beers later (including buying one for the singer and the birthday guest), I headed back up the Kall trail to the hotel. Never did see that bridge (I was having too much fun with the locals) but I did take a beer to go, and stopped and poured it out on the trail, for those souls lingering there who might need one.....
A lot of the American senior officers (Majors, Colonels etc) in this battle ended up as Generals in Vietnam
back in 1997 I toured and scoured some of the battlefield and still could find empty shell casings of all kinds of calibers under a dense floor of a pine needles.
My boy Mark has got himself some fresh beats for the intro 😉
Nah old school
It's catchy and you can dance to it.
Ask me how I know you have not been here for long
Yellow Jackboots that is his 'rare' intro song
The drop is siiiiiiick!! 😂
When the trees start talking german
No one mention the role of the most underrated general of WWII, Walter Model. His skill in defence gave the Allies, both the West and the Soviets, a bloody nose every time they encounter him.
I gotta say you have to be a fool to underestimate an army fighting on its own soil and on favorable terrain. Especially if it's the Wehrmacht
#FF0000Abdallah or the finnish army
This is without a doubt,one of the BEST channels on YT.it should be a requirement for every U.S. citizen under the age of 40 to watch these historic events.thank you Mark Felton.
I think "treeburst artillery strikes" is one of the most frightening phrases I've ever heard
As an American I really like your depiction of the hard battles/loses our side experienced in the war. Our media (American) is so cartoonish in its depiction of the US military in history. It often makes it look like the entire war was won by a single smack talking GI killing the entire German army with a single 45 and a bayonet. Its not the best kept secret that the DOD often uses Hollywood movies as a recruitment tool so it never going to be a particularly accurate depiction of just the absolute carnage World War II and a lot of other wars really had. In my opinion it just cheapens the memory of veterans when everything is just turned into a mindless action movie.
The tree-burst artillery was very nasty and effective. My Dad lost about 50% of his hearing in this battle. Years later (1999) he would return to the Hurtgen area to meet some of his old adversaries and get drunk with them, no longer enemies, but friends.
I knew it! Once you mentioned it in the Aachen video I was hoping it’d be next. I befriended a veteran of the 28th ID bloodbucket division as a kid. What he described was unimaginable. He said the weirdest thing about the Hurtgen was just how dark and silent it was on the Forest floor. He said the forest had a really weird way of soaking up sound so you’d find out a Company a half mile down the line had been completely wiped out by German arty and mortars, and nobody outside had heard a thing.
One of two battles that should have cost Courtney Hodges his command.
What's the other battle?
Wich was second?
My Grandpa fought here in the 83rd ID. They were the first unit to break through the forest. I highly recommend Charles B. McDonald 'The Battle of the Huertgen Forest'.This battle is a thousand times more intense then can be relayed in nine minutes. Great work though Dr. Felton.
I grew up in the region and many times, we often hiked in the forrest. You can still see bomb craters, trenches, ruins of bunkers and find shrapnells. My brother even found a huge pile of spend cartridges ones. But the forrest itself is a very peaceful and nice place, these days. Fully regrown.
The soldiers of Picket's Charge just found their World War 2 brothers.
My great great great grandfather survived Pickett's charge. He attributed his survival to his short stature (5'), saying "The damn Yankees were all shooting to high." He lived out his life swearing he'd shoot any damn Yankee that set foot on his property and eventually perished refusing treatment from the only available doctor, a Yankee calvary physician from the army of occupation. He was survived by thirteen daughters, all Confederate soldiers' widows at war's end and a young second wife who collected his Confederate army pension up through the 1950s.
Artillery bursting in the tree tops was far worse than regular shell bursts impacting the ground. Laying flat during a ground-striking burst had the advantage of avoiding most shrapnel, given you were at the right distance from the explosion. The exact opposite occurs during tree top arty strikes, as the shrapnel moves out in a sphere and, unless you're underground with a top cover of logs, anything underneath the explosion has zero cover. Even worse, most soldiers reflexively "hit the dirt" during incoming arty strikes, but lying prone during a tree top strike exposes a greater percentage of the human body's surface area to the downward shrapnel pattern, - along with a crap-ton of wood splinters of all sizes - which led to incredibly high attrition rates during the Hurtgen Forest battle. Hard to unlearn going prone during arty strikes in a pine forest.
Wow. The best summary of the battle for Hurtgen Wood I've seen. Thank you once again.
Me: (in a business meeting)
Mark: *uploads video*
Me: Excuse me, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have to take this...
Me having sex - Sorry honey, I gotta go...
The Hurtgen forest was also given the nickname "The witches lair" which is pretty fitting for a dark, dense forest such as Hurtgen.
Salute to all the soldiers that fought in the “Death Factory”.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
This was really cool to watch, my grandfather fought in the battle of Hurtgen Forest.
Each and every one of Mark Felton's videos is a rare jewel. As others keep saying, they surpass anything done by the self-indulgent mainstream. So depressing, though, to see so many young lives on both sides sacrificed, at a stage of the war when surely any person with half a braincell must have realised what the outcome would be. Sad and tragic. Let us hope and pray that we or our children never have to face such a calamity again...
the Hurtgen forest.. the title gave me the chills. My friend Dave, his dad fought in the Hurtgen Forest.
Being from Aachen, this one is especially interesting! Thanks Mark, very cool.
i had heard about Ghost Sightings from the Hürtgenwald .
My grandfather was seriously wounded during the 112ths attack and subsequent defense of Schmidt. He was in charge of maintaining wire communications between regimental headquarters (Col. Nelson) and the other units of the 112th trapped on the other side of the Kall trail. He was taken out of the line after he and his buddy were caught in a barrage while trying to fix the wire; his buddy did not make it and it haunted his dreams for the rest of his life.
Another excellent video, Mark is amazing and that voice is just so perfect. Mark should be a millionaire by being narrator for documentaries.
Another great video of you Mark! Thank you.
Small remark from someone from the area: the Hürtgenwald is part of the German Eifel region which is basically the same geological formation covered in forests as the Belgian and Luxembourgian Ardennes, named differently (Bastogne where the Battle of the Bulge took place is less than 60 miles distance from Hürtgen).
The way the Germans were dug in it is almost impossible to get at them sometimes..... They were masters of using the terrain, digging trenches foxholes and they had some great defensive positions in their bunkers....
Very tough to gain ground.....
Great video!!!! And rest in peace all the Brave Soldiers that lost their lives...... 👍🇺🇸✌
America’s forgotten European battle. Mainly because the US high command made such an incredible balls up of it and lost a lot lives unnecessarily, so best quietly forgotten.
Holy crap- I'd never even heard of this battle. Madness that it's not taught in the school history books, though I can understand the Allies' being uncomfortable about their image of invincibility being cracked pretty readily here. Probably overshadowed by the dramatic successful defense of Bastogne. Great work, Mr. Felton!
Fighting through Sicily was pretty bad too.
Holy Schmoly @Mark Felton!!! How do you fit so much information into a 10 minute video??? Your videos are deep with information. You don't glance over details and just cover the main subject information !!! You cover everything even the minute,tiny, and little details. Your videos are amazing!!! You deserve your own show on the history channel. If only the history channel was still this good. The history channel is just another reality tv cable channel now. Its disgusting how the world is being dumbed down. Don't have to worry about being dumbed down with your videos though. Keep em coming @Mark Felton !!!
The Americans were successfully able to play down this disaster by distracting everyone by focusing on Market Garden to get back at Monty. The 34,000 American casualties in the Huertgen dwarfed that of Market Garden. British XXX Corp advanced 62m into the low Countries and liberated two cities and if the 82nd had taken their Bridges on time they may have got to Arnhem and relieved 1st Airborne. Monty always takes a beating for the so called failure of Market Garden, while the Huertgen is conveniently forgotten by our American friends.
Excellent job Mark. I love the amount of detail you put into each video. Keep up the excellent work sir.
this is my favorite channel rn keep it up man!
Nick Curley yes Mark has a good thing going, and also like the Great War, & WW2 channel with Indy neidell 👍🏼
My father was at the Hurtgen forest and said when the shells exploded above the trees you never dove into a fox hole. You hugged a tree.
Herr General Schmidt absolutely made sure he had the biggest officer visor cap of them all...
My grandfather was an artillery computer in the 8th infantry division in WWII. Although he and I swapped many war stories before he passed away, he never went into any great detail about his time in the Hürtgen forest or what he saw in the Wöbbelin concentration camp and I never really pressed the issue.
Mark can we get a video on the Burma campaign please. Thank you.
Second this. My grandfather was a B-25 pilot in the China Burma India campaign. Never hear too much about their missions.
Really would love to have one on this, too! My grandad served in one of the RAF squadrons based in Burma, but there are very few videos that go into detail on the subject, unfortunately.
JJ Brooks my grandad fought in Burma , behind enemy lines , how cool is that
I, too, would greatly enjoy seeing the Burma campaign receive the Felton treatment. A biography of General Slim and a rather Chindits- heavy overview of the action in that theatre is all I currently have to go on and, as my own Grandfather's war was spent largely in Burma, any insights into that part of the war would be fascinating to me.
I agree.... Its very obscure and hard to understand....
This is a forgotten battle. One of my brothers in law fought there. All he would say was It Was Hell.
The Hurtgen forest was severely tipped to the German side by American insistence on feeding replacements into existing, battered, exhausted units without R&R. The combination of demoralized veterans and hastily-trained replacements fed endlessly into hard fighting sapped all fighting strength from American forces. It was a command failure on the highest level, helped along by the callousness and poor communication of divisional commanders.
Another battle that shouldn't have been fought. Just like Peleliu.
My father was in the Hurtgen Forest battle as a Sergent with the 8th US Infantry Division, Company C. He was taken out for a month due to exhaustion and cold from being pinned down in a fox hole to avoid artillery shelling and tree splinters. However, he was put back in and made it through the various towns near the area like Eschweiler and Duren, etc., and eventually met up with the Russians on the outskirts of Berlin.
Hey Mark.
I have been watching your videos for a long time and i was wondering if you could do some videos showcasing the Canadian Army. I am a Canadian Army veteran and would love to see some videos about the battles we as a country have fought and won over the years. We as a nation as you know played a pivotal role in both world wars and I and many other Canadian Army veterans feel we sometimes slip through the pages of the history books between the American and British militaries respectively. If you were able to do a video or two i and many other Canadians would appreciate it.
Thanks
"When Trumpets Fade" gets completely overshadowed by Saving Private Ryan but is a great quality gritty movie. That was my first knowledge of the battle at all.
I found this most interesting as not much is said about the Hurtgen forest battle possibly because most of the attention has been on the battle of the bulge. cheers.
If i'm not on the wrong here, i guess this is where Günder Stüttgen, The German Medic Officer who treated both the Germans and US injured soldiers and there by saving countless lives for both sides.
Wow thats a lot of casualties to gain a patch of trees!
Breaker Highmam :Yeah! They should have burnt the Hitlerites out! They started it all! Pine trees just love to burn! Besides, where were our bombers? The Allies owned the skies, and we had more planes than Carter had liver pills, could have made toothpicks of everything and saved 30,000 young American boys lives! Where were the big guns that leveled Aachen? War had to be prolonged!$$$$$$ !!!! Lol 🌈
Col. Von Luck said the Hurtgen forest was more intense than all his time on the Eastern Front. That's saying something!
British: We'll screw up Market Garden!
Americans: Hold my beer!
Something zee Germans were certainly not is soft
Hi Mark, I was born in 1955 and in my house were two veterans, one of whom got me interested in military history. That's not surprising because my Grandfather was a McKinnon, a Scottish Clan known for fierce fighting throughout the ages. Among the many books I read about WW2 throughout the '60s, none mentioned this American defeat, although one noted that American troops who had fought in the bloody Hurtgen were sent to Spa, Belgium to rest. That bit of information, in the '70s when I was older, led me to wonder why I could find nothing on the Hurtgen and suggested that perhaps we had lost a battle there. Another decade would pass before I finally found a newly released book on the Hurtgen and I was literally shocked throughout that reading. Of note to people my age, Mel Brooks, who came out with funny movies such as Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles had been in the Hurtgen and was interviewed for that book. In tragic-comic form, he gave his interview. War is odd in the way it ruins some men's mental state and others seem to thrive, such as Mel Brooks and Richard Winters.
I suspect that if Eisenhower was involved in approving this operation then it would've been quietly "removed" from history.
I have been to the Hurtgen Forest as part of a Staff Ride in mid-November 2010. It did not require much imagination to see how it became such an ugly and bloody mess for the allies- perfect terrain for ground defense in depth for the defending German military.
Been waiting for you to make a video on this topic! Thank you, Mark
Thanks. I grew up just miles from there & never been actually in the forest. Gonna visit the memorial museum & cemetery this fall...
I always learn something from you, sometimes it's an obscure incident and sometimes it is odd bits added to something I already know something about.
This is reminiscent of the Romans in the Teutoburg Forest.
Those Germans in dark woods are something to be wary of, scary even.
Fighting a fortified enemy on their own soil in a impenetrable forest. God bless the soldiers.
Fighting a 5 year battle experienced/hardened enemy that is fighting for its life and fighting to stop the invasion of its homeland is going to be very tough. Make that enemy Nazi/Germans you've got the mother of all battles on your hands. The Americans deserve much praise for pushing on and eventually winning having lost so many men. Especially since compared to the Germans they were relatively inexperienced troops and fighting in a foreign land. Respect from 'Blighty'
One of the toughest battles period
Tali-ihantala
Just found this channel, very interesting. My father was in the 4th ID, 8th Infantry Reg. Made in through Hurtgen and was wounded Dec 19, 1944 during Battle of the Bulge, Spent the next 4 1/2 years recuperating from his wounds. Cannot fathom what they went through.
About time this was covered on UA-cam. For a more in-depth portrayal, read The Battle of Hurtgen Forest by Charles Whiting
Agreed. I read this book recently it is excellent.
Great piece of history with awesome knowledge love your channel♥️♥️♥️♥️
1st large scale use of the Stg-44 also.
Wasn't it first used in Russia for large scale use?
Not Omar Bradley's finest hour.
Kind of like Grant at Cold Harbor. Or the Wilderness. And I like Grant, read his biography to find out his reasoning of attacking at Cold Harbor. Basically all he had to say was My bad...
I would like to see some detail on immediate post-war Germany, the realities of the German populace that were left in the ruins.
Will Mac
I've watched some home movies (at least the ones that haven't been censored or banned yet) & what the invading armies did to the German people turns my stomach.
Genocide pretty much covers that topic. Not only that General Patton was murdered for his position on what was happening (American people supported him more than Eisenhower {their puppet} & he was going to be next president)
Eisenhower's death camps- ya surrender German soldiers so we can severely punish you as spies or deserters - war is utter hell, does not matter - waste of life, resources -& we we're not created to destroy nor judge one another -
That's our creators job & from looking throughout history - judgement day will be a reckoning for all.
“when Trumpets Fade” is available here on UA-cam.
My goodness i never knew there were so many casualties there
My father survived and awarded a Bronze Star. U.S. Army.
Great to see this battle getting highlighted and the recognition it deserves. This battles fate is similar to other costly American endeavours like the battle of Peleliu, ignored and forgotten for long and only recently getting into the limelight.
Excellent video. I really enjoy the longer ones. Your work is always top notch and this allows me to enjoy it that much longer. Keep up the good work
Advancing thru a heavily defended forest...equals...one constant ambush. "All Gave Some - Some Gave All." Bless them All.
This is a subject not spoken of enough. Thank you Mark for this excellent video.
You, Invicta and the gentlemanly bow-tie History Guy are my favorite historians on UA-cam.