Home defence
After the allies had succeeded in the escape from Normandy, a permanent retreat which degenerated into a panicky flight now and then started for the German Wehrmacht. The German leadership managed only with difficulty to get order into the chaos. They benefited from strained supply lines which forced the Allies to lower their advance speed drastically. Moreover, the considerable additional expense for the great operation Market Garden (removal of the Maas and Rhine bridges in Holland by Montgomery) were a further argument for a slowdown in the advance, direction river Rhine.
On September 10, 1944 Hitler disposed "the take-over of the Siegfried Line by the supreme commander to the Wehrmacht". U.S. soldiers entered the Reich for the first time in Stolzenburg, north of Vianden two days later. They took Roetgen near the Dreilägertalsperre (dam lake Dreilager) on September 13. The order of the day of the Commander-in-Chief West, Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt on September 14t: "The Siegfried Line is in the fight for Germany of decisive importance. I order: The Siegfried Line with every single installation has to be kept up to the last cartridge and up to the complete destruction. This order is immediately to be distributed to all commanding authorities, offices, commanding officers and troops."
Unfortunately, the wish was only greater than reality. Shortly after completion of the campaign in France in 1940, the Wehrmacht started to cannibalize the Siegfried Line bunker and perimeter obstacles to bring it to the Atlantic Wall. In short time nature began to fetch back what RAD (Reich Labour Service) and OT (Organisation Todt) had taken away from it in the 1930s. The bunkers and trenches grew over water amassed in the defence installations farmers used the shelters as shed.
Monschau fell almost peacefully on September 15. Zweifall is occupied. On September 16 the Americans arrived in Schevenhütte which will remain the easternmost point of the US assault sector until November 1944. At this time the American Corps Commander Collins decided to shift the main emphasis of the attack not on Aachen but on the mountain ranges in the east. He wanted to safeguard the right flank before he intended to have the 3. U.S. Armoured Division advance in the direction of Düren. Furthermore Eisenhower wanted to use the good network of roads in the area of Schmidt for his advance on Düren and Cologne. The enormous need for reinforcement goods which could only be transported exclusively by trucks required good roads. The question about the taking of the lake Rur and its dams did not get to the Americans at this time yet.
One the German side the intention of the U.S. leadership was recognized and adequate countermeasures were taken. Particularly the double bunker line in the area of the Hürtgenwald (forest) turned into a nightmare for the Americans. The German artillery positions that were put at the mountain ranges eastward of the Rur, could take important crossroads, clearings or concentrations of troops under barrage. All slopes and ways were safeguarded and mined with booby traps. But the woods were the worst for the Americans. Already the Roman historian Tacitus mentioned the area 2 000 years ago: "The landscape is gruesome as a whole because of its woods".
These also contributed that tanks were not used at the beginning of the battle. They could not be used because where two trees with 25 cm of size stand at each other near enough the area is useless for tanks. The Americans lacked experience in the woods fight completely. The Germans, having been able to gain adequate experience in the woods of Russia have a couple of bad surprises for the U.S. regiments, however, ready. The hilly area offers another weak point with regard to the radio suitability. The Germans took this into account by taking care for the making of the Siegfried Line already to transfer cables between bunkers in protected concrete tubes extremely deep.
In the end the weather also has played the German into their hands. Seldom in course of the weather notes such a rainy and cold autumn was monitored. First, only rain which could increase to a torrent with pleasure, later worsened by cold and snow. All influences that did weaken the fighting power of the Americans but also the Germans. The dreadful weather however, made sure that the Germans did not suffer from the American air superiority. But that accounted for the Germans as well. In due course of the battle the appearance of the Luftwaffe is a rare case. One example is December 3. 60 Me 109 fighter-bombers stop the Americans from taking Bergstein after they had conquered Brandenberg. This is the largest operation of the Luftwaffe during the battle for the Hürtgen Forest.
