Hürtgen forest and the end of World War II | DW Documentary
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Published 2020-05-02
It's estimated that as many as 30 thousand US and German soldiers were killed in fighting in the northern Eifel region of Germany in the autumn and winter of 1944 and 1945. Traces of the battle - old bunkers, munitions, trenches and tank tracks - are still visible even today. The scarred landscape bears witness to a little-known chapter of World War Two. The "Hürtgen Forest" was the last obstacle standing between US forces and the Rhine River and Ruhr. Yet the decision to advance into the thick forest in September 1944 proved to be a fatal mistake. The Americans completely miscalculated North Eifel region's rugged terrain. They became disoriented in an area the German forces, the Wehrmacht, had crisscrossed with trenches and peppered with anti-personnel mines, making the wood into a veritable fortress. Continual rain and fog, followed by snow and frigid temperatures, turned the battle into a scene of dystopian butchery. Author Ernest Hemingway spent 18 days on the front in the Hürtgen Forest. He wrote later, "It was a place where it was extremely difficult for a man to stay alive even if all he did was be there."
This documentary reconstructs the stages of the battle using commentary from survivors of the clash. Among them are the well-known US photographer Tony Vaccaro, US Army veteran James K. Cullen and former Wehrmacht soldier Paul Verbeek. In addition, Hürtgen Forest residents tell of the legacy of the battle, including the threat posed by countless unexploded munitions left in the ground 75 years after the conflict in Europe ended.
All Comments (21)
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My dad was a WWII veteran. I never herd him or any of his friends promote or glorify war. Only those who never fought or never will are excited or turned on about going to war. They talk big but when it’s time to fight they are nowhere to be seen.
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Anthony Villarreal passed away peacefully on the evening of July 2, 2020, after a long battle with cancer. He was 95. Growing up in East Chicago, Indiana, upon graduation from High School at the age of 17, Tony enlisted in the US Army and served in World War II as an Army Medic. He saw combat in Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, the Ardennes and Central Europe. Upon his Honorable Discharge, Tony settled in Michigan to raise his family. Rest in Peace papa...
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My great uncle Bill Morrison, died fighting in the Huertgen Forest November 8, 1944 at the age of 29. His remains were recently identified and brought home to be interred in the Alabama Veterans Memorial Cemetery earlier this year.
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My father was forced into the military in Germany at age 16, and they sent him to this battle right away. He was wounded and rescued and survived this. Yes, they all knew that there wasn’t a chance of winning and it was a horror he rarely talked about. He was extremely thankful when the American troops finally occupied the area. He talked more often about being in the American prisoners of war camp. The soldiers treated them well and while the future was incredibly uncertain, they felt so much safer and knew that they had a future again. I know all these villages, towns and cities well. Much of it had been rebuilt in the eighties. The words at the end of this documentary ring very true to me. My uncle loved visiting America and visited the prisoner of war camp in North Dakota a couple times where he was imprisoned in 1945 and where he met my other uncle (and married my aunt afterwards). I would have never thought that I would eventually spend most of my life in the US, but these ties and the stories of appreciation of the American occupying force are a big part of my history. It’s amazing that my father was lucky and that I exist today. Roll of the dice. It’s hard to realize how many others didn’t have that opportunity because they didn’t survive this horrible battle.
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When I was a preteen in Germany I would play in little forest areas around Wurzburg and Stuttgart. At the end of the war Wurzburg was bombed. While playing we found a shell that was barried where we were digging a fort. It was nose down and we found just the very back end of it. We marked the spot by hanging my red jacket from a tree. We ran down the trail to the edge of town and found a Polizi coming out of a store. We told him what we found. He did not beleive us at first but we convinced him to follow us. He walked up the trail and pointed it out. He had us get back and through my jacket to me. He called for help on the radio and told us to go to the bottom of the trail and guide the help back up. The help arrived in the form of many police cars and many vans. Four men with very heavy suits and helmets followed us up till we could see the waiting officer. The officer and us were ordered to go back down. A few hours later the men came down with the shell on a cart. It was a dud that was not going to go off. We did make it on the news and had a bit of fame for finding it.
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My uncle was killed there. I was born after he died, but my aunt said he was just a great, great guy. RIP sgt. Gilman
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My Grandfather was shot six times during the battle of the budge. He ended up in a German hospital where they saved his arm and leg. They put a steel rod in his arm and he was not disabled. As an American soldier he was cared for by what at the time was his enemy. He spent a year healing.
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If a man can survive such horror and still find the world a beautiful place, everyone should be able to. What an inspiration.
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My father was there. He was a Platoon Sargent with the 4th Infantry Division. He was also at Utah Beach on D-Day. He rarely spoke about the horrors of war but it was obvious that the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest held the worst memories for him. The one story that you could tell bothered him the most was that he and his buddy were in a foxhole having a conversation. My dad was talking to his buddy and his buddy didn’t reply. My dad turned to look at him and he had a bullet hole right between his eyes. My dad would always end that story by saying “Can you just imagine “ and then would become very quiet. His nightmares never went away. After my father passed my mother said that he had confided in her that during that battle many of the soldiers intentionally wounded themselves so they would be sent to the hospital and he never blamed them for it because the thought had crossed his mind but he was just mentally stronger than them. One of his 3 Purple Hearts was earned during this battle. He did say that the fire power from the bombs was so intense that as the bombs would drop the hair on your body would rise up. Amazing what they went through.
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My father was seriously wounded in the Hurtgen Forest. He would never talk about it. I am glad that this video explained his experience. He won a Purple Heart from his bravery during the battle.
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My dad was wounded in the Hurtgen Forest. He was hit in the knee and transported to a hospital in England to recuperate and then back to Germany again. The US had a manpower shortage in 1944 and many people, who were older than the normal draftee, were conscripted. My dad was 29 with a wife 3 kids but he was still drafted. All he wanted to do go home to his family!
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Rest in peace to all the brave young lives that were lost and may the world never experience such horrors again.
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How remarkable is Tony Vaccaro?! Aged 98, after all this and he's just survived Covid19. Total RESPECT, Mr Vaccaro. Those words at the end of the documentary should be on a plaque somewhere for all to see.
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These WWII documentaries from German Television are some of the best, most balanced and meaningful documentaries that any major network produces.
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My dad was a medic with the 3rd Armored Division in the Hurtgenwald. He told me his primary memory was one of darkness. "Dark, dark", he told me. "The trees and canopy were so thick that on the forest floor in full daylight it looked like dusk. And on a cloudy day... really dark". He said the effect from German shelling was awful...the rounds would burst in the tree trunks overhead and shrapnel would rain down. "A lot of guys got terribly chewed up by it", he said.
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I spent 32 years in the military, 7 in the infantry and never understood why people take pictures of the dead.
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My Dad fought in this battle and it wasn't until the last year or two of his life that he finally spoke of it. It wasn't heroism, it wasn't bragging, just the cold hard reality of the horrors of war. He said they did what they had to do. He spoke of people cut in half by machine gun fire. Of friends killed. How they were issued more "summer" clothing than winter. How as the battle raged and after thousands were killed that you could step on the ground that blood would ooze out of it. Oddly enough, for a 26 year old man who had thick glasses and had survived polio which nearly took his life 12 years earlier -- it was polio and the poor circulation from it that he got trench foot and was sent to hospital which remarkably saved his life as the very next day his entire platoon was killed. When he got out of hospital, and no one left to return to -- he was moved to Patton's 3rd Army. Where he stayed until the battle of the bulge. This battle never received the same attention as D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, etc. Nice to see the history told.
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DW, you are the Masters of unbiased, meticulous and comprehensive story telling. The level of professionalism is unseen anywhere else. Keep up the good work.
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My uncle, Alexander Easton, Pfc in the 28th Infantry Division, was killed in November, 1944, in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. He was born in Gillespie, Illinois, and was survived by his wife, Marie. I was able to visit his grave in the American Cemetery near Liege, Belgium, a few years ago, and leave flowers on his grave. I was only a year and a half old when he died, and only remember seeing him once or twice.
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My father was there at that time. He suffered a nervous breakdown after being shelled for hours. He recoopered in Texas, my mother said that he was never the same person after that.
