All language subtitles for Buried Secrets of WWII Series 1 Part 3 Americas Bloodiest Battle 1080p

Narrator: On the
german border...

A forest of dark secrets.

American gis called it
the 'death factory.'

World war ii was fought on

Vast landscapes
across the planet.

Marty (over radio): Where we're
going, we don't need roads.

Narrator: But the evidence of
that war is disappearing fast.

Pete: That is one of
the coolest things I've
ever seen in the water!

That's it. Congratulations.

Narrator: Now, technology
expert pete kelsey...

Pete: I've gotta scan this.

Narrator: And military
historian marty morgan...

Marty: Oh my god,
look at this view!

Narrator: Are using 21st
century technology to

Strip away the present and

Reveal the buried
secrets of world war ii.

This time.

Why was the hürtgen forest a
death trap for the us army?

How did the winter
impede the us advance?

Pete: So he's now
losing heat really fast.

Narrator: How did the
nazis turn the forest
itself into a weapon?

Marty: Woah!

Narrator: The hürtgen forest.

Dense, dark, and
today, eerily quiet.

For 50 square miles,
there's nothing but trees.

Us military commanders
expected to get through these

Woods on their way to
berlin, in a couple of weeks.

Instead, through the
fall and winter of 1944,
it took six months,

And cost tens of thousands
of american lives.

The battle of hürtgen forest
is carved into history as

America's bloodiest battle.

Why?

What happened here?

What led the us
army into this mire?

The story begins in
the summer of 1944.

June 6th, british, canadian
and us troops stormed the
beaches of normandy.

By early September
they'd liberated paris,

Most of northern
France and belgium.

Allied troops were
racing to take germany.

Marty: And that will all
come to a grinding halt here,

At the german border.

Allied forces are going to be
confronting german soldiers

Fighting for german soil.

And from this point forward,

Things were only
going to get worse.

Narrator: Military historian
marty morgan and tech wizard

Pete kelsey have come
to the hürtgen forest.

They're looking for traces of
an epic world war ii battle.

They've set up their
hq in a farmhouse,

Near the edge of the forest.

Pete wants to build a
3d virtual terrain map.

He'll combine german
government lidar scans,

With more sophisticated
aerial tech,

To lift away the trees
and ground cover.

He hopes to reveal the
scars of battle beneath.

Pete: Let's bring it
up, and look at that.

Christoph: That is
amazing isn't it.

Narrator: Pete and marty
are joined by professor
christoph rass,

A german military historian.

He's studied the battle of
hürtgen over many years.

Christoph: You have the
americans advancing from the

West, and then as they get
to the border of germany,

They have the eifel
mountains in front of them.

Narrator: The eifel
mountains block the way,

Funneling them into
a narrow valley,

Known as the
stolberg corridor.

This is the direct
route into germany.

But to the south of the
corridor lies the massive

Hürtgen forest.

American commanders realize
the germans could hole-up in

The forest, then attack
the american flank.

So on September 12th 1944,

General cota sent
in an advance party.

6,000 men of the 28th infantry
division marched on the forest.

Their mission, to
clear the germans out.

Pete: So, in a sense the
americans are walking in,

Unknowingly walking in,
to a heavily defended area

That looks like that.

Christoph: Yes, and it's
an impossible choice.

You have to secure it,
you can't go around it.

And then as you go in it, for
a while you lose all of the

Advantages you have.

Pete: And it's, to me, it's
pretty clear that this terrain

Is going to make moving
any heavy equipment all
but impossible.

Narrator: Lidar shows
a man-made barrier,

10 miles long.

This confronted
the advance party,

Before they even
reached the woods.

Marty: Holy cow!

Narrator: Could this
explain the loss of

Thousands of
american soldiers?

Pete and marty go
to check it out.

Marty: It's an incredible
sight to see isn't it?

Still here after
almost eight decades.

Pete: Unbelievable.

It seems to go on for
miles in both directions.

Narrator: These square
based pyramids of concrete

Are called dragon's teeth.

They were positioned to
stop tanks and trucks,

In their tracks.

Pete: You'd come upon this
and it's a bit intimidating!

Marty: Right.

This belt should be
going miles to the north,

And miles to the south.

Narrator: These teeth
were fiendishly simple,

But precision made.

How effective was
this line of defense?

Pete puts his tech
to work, to find out.

Pete: We really want to create
a 3d model of the dragons teeth.

So with me I have a tablet
equipped with essentially

A 3d handheld scanner.

And as I move around
using this device,

In real time it's going to be
capturing data in 3d as I go.

Narrator: Pete's scanner bouncs
infrared light off the teeth,

To capture every detail.

From there he can build a
precise 3d virtual model and

Demonstrate how they
might have worked.

Advancing tanks would
quickly become stranded

And vulnerable to enemy fire.

Marty: What this wall
does is it reduces a
modern mechanized army,

To a rabble of lightly
armed infantrymen.

Narrator: But pete and marty
notice something strange.

These teeth don't appear
to have bitten hard steel.

There are none of the scrapes
and grazes that heavy armor

Would leave on their surfaces.

Marty: If engineers came here
and wanted to blow a path

Through this band
of obstacles,

That would be an enormous task
that would take an enormous

Quantity of explosives and
it would take a lot of time.

Pete: Sure.

Narrator: Us army
engineers improvised.

They buried the
teeth with earth,

And easily passed over them.

This line of defense, was
monumentally ineffective.

Nevertheless, by
September 18th,

Just five days
into the battle,

The 28th division had
sustained 1,500 casualties

And six days later
withdrew to belgium.

Now the 9th infantry
division took up the fight.

What kind of defenses
would they encounter?

Narrator: The dragon's
teeth were only the first line

Of defense on germany's
western border.

Marty morgan knows that they
were part of a much more

Complex defense system
in the hürtgen forest.

The germans called
it 'the west wall'.

The americans knew it
as the 'siegfried line.'

The us 9th division entered the
forest on September 29th, 1944.

They suffered 4,500 casualties
in their first three weeks and

Advanced less than two miles.

They couldn't even see
the german defenses.

Pete and marty can't see
those positions either.

But maybe a high-fidelity
scan will fix that.

Pete: Harm!
Harm: Hi pete.

Pete: Oh, am I
glad to see you.

Look at this, a very, very
impressive, very large drone.

Basically, what
this drone can do,

Is get this very accurate
laser-based unit into the air.

This rather amazing piece
of technology in a sense,

Is going to make the
invisible, visible.

Harm: Back up, running.

Pete: Wow!

Narrator: This flying
scanner is capturing
finely detailed data,

To augment pete's
3d terrain map.

Lasers penetrate the tree canoy
to record what lies beneath.

Then, using advanced
processing software,

Pete can strip away the trees,

To uncover hürtgen
as never before.

Back at hq, the
results are impressive.

Christoph: We have so
far never seen lidar
with such resolution.

And look at the
details you can see.

Marty: Could those
potentially be bunkers?

Narrator: Only 3 miles
from the dragons teeth,

They've spotted something.

It looks like an elaborate
system of german bunkers.

Pete: I've got the drone lidar
loaded up, and look at this.

Narrator: Armed with
new scanning data,

They're looking for
these hidden defenses.

Pete: Hey marty.
Marty: You got something?

Pete: Look at that.

Marty: Oh yeah!
Now we're talking.

Pete: Right where it should be.

Wow! Talk about high ground.

Marty: Yeah.

Pete: According to the
lidar, this is the highest
point in the area.

Marty: It's got a commanding
view down onto the road.

Narrator: At the
end of October,

The 28th infantry
return to the forest.

Advancing through
these trees is deadly.

Pete: Whoa, look at that gun
port looking right at us!

Wow! Oh yeah.

Yeah yeah yeah.
This thing's intact.

Marty: Wow standing water.

That's a bit of a
surprise considering how
cold it is out here.

Pete: Is it me, or does that
pattern on that wall right

There, look like somebody
threw a grenade in here,

And the fragmentation
just went everywhere.

Marty: You know, it does look
a little bit like there are

Some impacts on the
side of that wall.

Narrator: It must have been
daunting to advance on a gun

Emplacement like this.

And the scan reveals
that it's one of nine,

In just this short
stretch of the forest.

The lidar clearly shows
that the bunkers command

Strategic high ground.

They have interlocking
fields of fire.

Pete spots something odd.

These bunkers don't
seem heavily damaged.

While others nearby are
completely shattered.

Pete: Clearly there's a lot
of damage to this place.

But what happened here?

Was this part of
some great battle?

Was this an air strike?

Narrator: Pete's gathering
data for a 3d model of the

German bunkers.

He'll capture every bullet
strike, crack and fracture,

To learn how some
were destroyed.

Back at hq, he and marty
are trying to work out why

Some bunkers remain
intact, while others are
blown to smithereens.

Pete: I've been looking
at some of the scan data,

From these demolished bunkers.

On this first one,
this roof slab,

Which is at least three
feet thick, maybe four,

Has been split in two places.

The walls on either side,
specifically over here on the

Right, you can actually
see that it's bowed out.

Marty: It's popped
out, at that angle.

Narrator: On
close examination,

Pete concludes that these
smashed bunkers weren't

Attacked from the outside.

Pete: This is almost
certainly an explosive
charge from inside.

There is no sign of an assault
or pitched battle or anything

On this bunker, so almost
certainly post-war demolition.

Narrator: So, just as us forces
overcame the dragon's teeth,

They also got past most of the
bunkers on the siegfried line.

Pete: If these bunkers
weren't destroyed in battle,

How in the world did the
americans get past them?

Marty: The siegfried
line was presented as
this impenetrable wall.

And what we now know, is
that it was not as much of

A tough nut to crack
as had been expected.

Narrator: Marty thinks that
american troops likely
spotted the bunkers,

And somehow got a
small force around
behind them, to attack.

Marty: This structure was
oriented towards the west,

And instead our forces slip
in on it from its blindside.

Narrator: At some cost,
the second line of german

Defense is breached.

But as the american army
advance deeper into the

Hürtgen forest; they come
up against an obstacle more

Fearsome than any
man-made fortification.

The forest itself.

Narrator: October 1944.

Us troops have breached the
dragons teeth and they've

Overcome a daunting system
of concrete bunkers,

In germany's siegfried line.

But pete kelsey and marty
morgan are looking deeper

Into the forest for
evidence of full-on battle.

Something on the lidar has
caught pete's attention.

Pete: I thought you should
have a look at this.

What do you think?

Marty: Definitely not
german, no trenches.

They look oblong, they don't
look like shell craters.

But then look at all
of this behind them.

Pete: Right, there's
so many of them.

Marty: Wow, there is
something going on here.

Narrator: These scars on the
landscape are six miles beyond

The dragon's teeth and two
and a half miles east of the

Concrete bunkers.

Marty soon zeroes in on them.

Marty: Huh.

The lidar has collected
this fascinating range
of imagery of this site.

And what I want to have a
look at, is this big one here.

Oh, look at this on the
other side of this tree.

That is a dug
position, oh yeah.

That's a fox hole.

There are just positions
absolutely everywhere,

That's one right here.

Foxhole.

Foxhole over there.

Man, this is something else.

Narrator: This is the
evidence pete and marty

Have been searching for.

Since their return
to the forest,

The 28th division had advanced
rapidly over the siegfried lin.

But right here, that stopped.

The americans dug foxholes
when they couldn't advance.

And marty's found something
even more significant.

Marty: This is special.

Obviously, this is a troop
shelter, not a shell crater.

Dug by americans during the
battle of the hürtgen forest,

75 years ago.

This shelter position would have
had logs over the top of it.

It provided some measure
of shelter and comfort,

In a battle that was not known
for providing many comforts.

A position like this could have
housed as many as 20 people.

The size of it makes me think
it was probably associated

With maybe a communications
center, maybe a battalion
headquarters

Or maybe a medical
aid station.

And if it wasn't for the lidar
you'd never think for a second

That anything was up here.

Narrator: This was
no temporary refuge.

It was part of a complex of
properly engineered dugouts.

A whole battalion of 800 men
hunkered down in this vicinity.

The us army was getting
bogged down in a static
war of attrition.

Even the trees seemed
to be against them.

Marty: The forest is as much
of a character in this drama,

As the two opposing sides that
are confronting each other

On the battlefield.

And that's because the forest
is the great equalizer.

It creates circumstances where
neither side can bring their

Most powerful weapons to bear.

The american military
by this point,

Is making extensive
use of armor support,

Tactical close air support and
artillery support and yet the

Hürtgen forest, strips
those advantages away.

Narrator: The hürtgen forest,
planted a century earlier by

The prussians, was
a stout defense.

Standing 100 feet high
and set just 8 feet apart,

The trees were a
massive obstacle.

Marty: And this is part of the
reason why the battle of the

Hürtgen forest descends into
this stalemate where the

Americans aren't able to
make significant progress

Across the battlefield.

Because the battlefield
is the forest and you
are fighting that,

As much as you are fighting
the enemy that opposes you.

Narrator: Aerial
reconnaissance was also

Obscured by tree cover.

The troops were
advancing blind,

And without aerial support.

After three weeks in the
woods they'd suffered
4,500 casualties.

There are some trails
through the forest.

The us army used
them to send tanks,

Trucks and artillery
to the front line.

But hardly any arrived.

Pete's come to the kall
trail to see if he can
work out what happened.

Pete: We've heard stories that
there's actually a tank track

Embedded in this trail and
sure enough, here it is.

And I've got to scan this.

We have to scan this.

What an amazing artifact.

Wow, look at that.

Yeah, that's pretty amazing.

That's got to be 20
feet, probably more.

Narrator: Pete sets to work
with his static scanner.

He wants to build a 3d virtual
model of the tank track.

Maybe it'll explain why the
world's best equipped army

Had to fight without its
most powerful weapons?

Narrator: Back at hq,
pete kelsey is examining

A 3d virtual model of
the old tank track.

There's something
strange about it.

It's a big piece of equipment
to leave lying around.

Pete: Marty have
a look at this.

I was doing some scanning
up on the kall trail and

Look what is in the
middle of the road.

Marty: Well, well,
that appears to be

A section of track
from a sherman tank.

Ok, I'm not thinking that this
is from a mine because the

Tracks don't appear
to be damaged.

And then also,
they are belly up.

So, what we are seeing is
actually the surface that

Would be in contact
with the road.

Narrator: If it's upside down,
it hasn't just come adrift.

So, it's a puzzle.

Marty: You said it was
at a bend, didn't you?

Pete: That's right.

Marty: Yeah. Was it
uphill? Downhill?

Pete: It was on a very
marked slope, uphill.

Marty: Yeah.

I bet you they put this
here, to provide traction for

Vehicles trying to
climb the kall trail.

Pete: Really?

And that would explain why
they are upside down,

In a perfectly straight
line going up the grade!

Marty: That would explain it.

So, you have some spare parts
lying around, you have a need,

You make it happen.

Narrator: Marty and pete have
proof that heavy equipment

Struggled on these
narrow trails.

When a tank got stuck, it
became a 30 ton roadblock.

Whole convoys would be
vulnerable to enemy ambush.

The us army was
forced to improvise.

The tank track was their
ingenious solution.

But even these difficulties
can't account for the terrible

Death toll suffered in the
battle for hürtgen forest.

Marty suspects the most lethal
enemy is all around them,

Hiding in plain sight.

To test his theory,
marty is meeting with

Explosives expert,
trevor lawrence.

Trevor: Okay marty,
so there's your second
world war mortar bomb.

Marty: Nice, 3 inch?

Trevor: It is.
Marty: Excellent.

Inert I hope?

Trevor: Yeah, it certainly is.

Narrator: Marty's
theory is based on
the difference between

A conventional mortar and a
super quick fused mortar.

The conventional mortar
explodes on impact with the

Ground, and some of its force
is absorbed by the earth.

But a mortar with
a super quick fuse,

Coming down in a forest,
is brutally different.

Marty: It all
comes down to this.

This very simple
weapons system,

Of mortar tube
plus mortar bomb.

As the mortar bomb descended
down toward a target in a

Heavily forested area,
branches of trees could come

Into contact with this simple
point-detonating fuse and that

Would set the round off
well above the ground.

Narrator: To demonstrate
what happens when a mortar
explodes overhead,

Trevor has prepared
a powerful experiment.

Trevor: Ok so, what we're gonna
do here is try and replicate

What we saw in the forest,
in the second world war.

So, we've built this
scaffolding structure and

Across here we've put
these thick pine boards,

Which are similar in
a way to the branches.

Marty: So, you can
simulate basically,

What this would
have done on impact.

Trevor: Absolutely, and what
we are going to do is use one

Of these, which is if
you look, quite similar.

So it's a very similar sort of
metal, very brittle cast iron,

And we are going to fill that
with explosive exactly the same

As would be inside here and
detonate it up in the canopy.

Narrator: They'll use an
ultra-high-speed camera,

To film what happens.

Marty: This is a camera capable
of a high motion capture rate,

And what that means is that
when we record the explosion,

We can slow it down to this
very elegant slow motion.

Narrator: All personnel
withdraw to a bunker,

As trevor prepares
for detonation.

Marty: Are we ready out there?

Trevor: We are all good to go.

Confirm range clear.

Man (over radio):
Confirm range clear.

Trevor: Roger, range clear.

Standby.

Firing in 3, 2, 1, firing.

(explosion).

Marty: Woah, I felt
that in my chest.

Wow!

Narrator: The ultra-high-speed
camera captures every detail

As the mortar explodes.

First there's a blast wave,
this alone can be lethal.

Then the mortar shatters,

And shards of hot
shrapnel burst out.

Finally, the tree
branches shatter,

Creating a hail
of deadly debris.

An overhead blast is
utterly devastating.

Gis below had no real defense.

Marty: Oh my god,
look at this.

The aluminum sheets
really took it on the nose!

That sheet's even
worse than this sheet.

That's just plain
vicious, look at that.

Trevor: Look here, we've gone
right through the scaffolding.

Marty: Oh my god, yeah.

Straight through it.

Those fragments sliced
the steel pipe, like that.

They'd go right through
the people beneath it.

If you had a larger mortar
concentration coming in on a

Platoon that was dug in, you
could wipe out everybody.

Trevor: Absolutely, and 30
men dug into a position,

Almost everybody would be
either dead or injured.

These air burst mortars, digging
in is no protection from them.

Narrator: This is what stopped
the americans in hürtgen fores.

It's called a tree burst.

Thousands of us
soldiers die this way.

It's crushing for morale.

Soldiers know they face
death at any moment.

Foxholes offer no protection.

And to make matters
worse, it's November.

A wet fall is becoming
a bitter winter.

Narrator: 50 square
miles of forest,

The hürtgen was
treacherous territory.

(gunfire, explosions).

After three months
of fierce fighting,

The us army was
bogged down, stuck.

And the winter of 1944
was exceptionally cold.

Marty: This is January.

This gives at least a strong
impression of the actual time

Period of the battle
of the hürtgen forest,

And it gives you the visceral
impression of what it's like

To be here in winter
time, because it's cold!

Narrator: The us army was
reputedly the best equipped

Fighting force in the world.

So, how would they fare
in a german winter?

To find out, marty morgan and
pete kelsey are conducting

Some tests with local
re-enactor, michel zeimet.

Marty: The american soldiers
that fight this battle, they,

They, they bring uniforms,
weapons and equipment that we

Have available here, because
michel has brought it.

And, not all of it was ideal
for the type of environment

That the hürtgen
forest provided.

Narrator: Trialling world
war ii standard issue kit,

May prove revealing.

Marty: Which jacket are
you wearing, michel?

Michel: I'm wearing
the meccano jacket,

Which was some sort of coat.

It's not very great for cold
weather but it's already

Something, I would say.

Narrator: Many of the soldiers
are still wearing the uniforms

Issued to them in the summer.

They're forced to improvise.

Marty: Here's a look that you
often see in the battle of the

Hürtgen forest where they have
put on the gas mask cape and

Then they throw the
helmet on, on top of that.

And so, the gas mask cape is
not intended as a piece of

Cold weather gear and it's
being adaptively used as that.

Now that we've got
all the gear on,

I'm thinking of an experiment
that we can conduct.

Pete, do you have that
thermal imaging detector?

Pete: I do.

Narrator: Pete applies
the latest thermal
imaging technology,

To see how these clothes
perform in cold conditions.

Pete: Let's have a look.

So, what you're looking
at, what's bright,

Is where heat is being lost.

The poor gi is suffering.

Michel is cold.

You don't even have to tell
me you're cold, you're cold!

Michel: I won't lie!

Narrator: This bright image
proves that after just minutes,

An american gi would have
been losing critical body
heat in this uniform.

Pete: Whereas, over to marty
who's wearing 21st century

Synthetics and goose down,

You can see how his
core is much darker,

Which means warmer, which means
marty is not losing heat.

Narrator: And it's not just
the body's core that suffers.

If a soldier's feet
get cold and wet,

Trench foot becomes
a deadly threat.

Pete: I'm going to take a wild
guess that michel's feet are

Probably pretty uncomfortable.

Leather boots, which were
probably perpetually wet.

Narrator: But many soldiers
didn't even have the basic

Equipment that
michel is wearing.

Standard issue meccano trench
coats were in short supply,

Many never got them.

Marty: Here's the real test,
let's see what it would look

Like if he was equipped
like a lot of guys were,

And that is without
the meccano.

Can you take it off?

Pete: So, he's now
losing heat really fast.

Marty: In so many of the
period photos this is what you

See them wearing in the
hürtgen forest and that

Garment's just not up to the
task, it's too lightweight.

Pete: And of course, if we
were looking at a poor gi in a

Foxhole, he's going
to be soaking wet.

So, michel's thermal signature
would be dramatically

Different if he was wet.

Narrator: Ill equipped
for freezing conditions,

American troops
paid a high price.

It's estimated that 70,000
us soldiers suffered injuries

Caused by that harsh winter
in the hürtgen forest.

Trench foot and hypothermia
did more damage than the

Dragon's teeth or the bunkers.

And all the while, the german
army fought ferociously in

Defense of the fatherland.

Narrator: December of 1944
in the hürtgen forest.

The freezing conditions and
the tree-burst mortar fire are

Taking a terrible toll
on the american forces.

But where are the german
mortar rounds coming from?

Have the german infantry
built further defenses,

Beyond the siegfried line?

The lidar looks blank,

Except for some
faint, twisting lines.

They seem to stretch for miles
and they're pockmarked with

Shell craters.

They're less than five miles
ahead of the us foxholes.

Marty and christoph
go to investigate.

Marty: What do you think,
we're about 50 meters from it?

Christoph: Yah, if we
draw a line from the wood,

We should see it.

Marty: Oh yeah, I see it.
Oh god look at that!

It's clearly visible.

I expected it to be
overgrown but it's not.

Christoph: No, see.
Starts from here.

Marty: Oh yeah.
Look at it, right here.

Oh wow, this is incredible.

Christoph: Yup.

We could now basically
follow it for 10 kilometers.

Marty: Is it that long?
Christoph: Yes.

Marty: Uninterrupted? Really?
Christoph: Yes, yeah.

Marty: My gosh.

Narrator: The dragons
teeth, the bunkers,

Now this third
line of defense.

The german strategy
was 'defense in depth'.

Instead of relying on a
single line of defense,

They were prepared to
retreat from one line,

Only to create another
line a few miles behind.

Christoph: When they
built this trench,

The west wall has
already been breached.

So, they lost what they
think of as their most
powerful line of defense.

Marty: And it falls to this.

Christoph: Then
it falls to this.

Marty: They dug
trenches in the woods.

Christoph: The americans
have to fight for every
inch of the way.

Narrator: This
'defense in depth',

Enabled the germans to counter
every american advance.

Us forces still haven't
achieved the decisive

Breakthrough they'd hoped for.

But by mid-December 1944
the tide is turning.

Marty: This trench line
really is a metaphor
about the different

Situations that the germans
and the americans were in.

Narrator: These german
positions are little more than

Hastily dug scrapings.

No concrete defenses here.

After many months of guerrilla
warfare, they are desperate.

Was this the site
of fierce fighting?

21st century tech
may have an answer.

Pete: And we're hoping that
the answer lies with our

Friend andreas here, who
happens to have the ideal

Piece of kit for this,
which is a magnetometer.

And between the two sensors it
can pick up variations in the

Earth's magnetic field.

Narrator: Andreas
scans the ground.

The magnetometer can
detect disturbances
caused by intense heat.

Pete: Oh, look at that.

Those jump right out at you.

Andreas: Those are two
really, really big ones here.

Christoph: These are not
caused by agriculture.

That means we had a
chemical fire there of

1,000 degrees or higher.
A very, very strong fire.

Pete: So probably
ammunition burning.

Christoph: Yeah.

Andreas: Well, we don't really
see a trench, not a structure,

Not a linear structure.

Christoph: If you look
at these anomalies,

The black ones,
without the white rim.

These are usually
man-made holes.

The earth has been shifted.
Somebody dug a hole there.

Pete: There's so many of them.
Christoph: Yes.

We're standing on
a green pasture,

Underneath you have
the war still present.

Pete: It's amazing.

Narrator: And there's more.

Lukas has been over the
area with a metal detector.

Lukas: We found a container
for a german gas mask.

Narrator: The gas mask
is evidence of battle.

And it holds a grisly secret.

Blatt: This is a
very nice find.

It's a canteen bottle,
maybe from a german soldier.

And we see here the bullet.

And here it is going inside,
and there it is going outside.

Narrator: This battlefield of
shallow scrapes and relics,

Is evidence of german
desperation and a
'last ditch' mentality.

And wave after wave of
american infantry keep coming.

Marty: We keep pouring
humanity into that battle.

We keep pouring divisions that
get so hopelessly banged up,

That they have to go
somewhere to repair
themselves after the hürtgen.

That was the cost of the
battle of the hürtgen forest.

It just, it took in humanity
and it spit out what was left.

This was one of the toughest
battles the american military

Fights in the
second world war.

Narrator: Small wonder that
many didn't make it out alive.

In a sense, the whole of the
battle of hürtgen forest was

Part of 'defense in depth'.

Because behind german lines,
hitler was amassing a huge

Force of troops and tanks,
for a massive surprise attack.

On December 16th they would
crash through the american lin,

To start a new fight.

'the battle of the bulge' was
hitler's last desperate bid

To defend the fatherland.

But the german army
was overstretched,

And the offensive failed.

By February 1945,

The americans were
out of the woods and

Across the ruhr river,
heading for berlin.

The battle of hürtgen
forest cost almost
30,000 american lives

But critically weakened
the german army.

It played a vital part in the
eventual defeat of hitler,

In may 1945.

Sadly, even after the war,
the forest went on killing.

Marty: There's an extra level
of sadness to this cemetery.

Because here you have
buried 3,001 victims
of the hürtgen forest,

Mostly german combatants but
also 35 german civilians,

Russians, belgians, and even
100 men who lost their lives

Here after the war ended,
attempting to clear all of the

Unexploded ordinance
that was left behind.

So, the hürtgen forest
was even claiming lives,

After the end of world war ii
and that somehow makes this

Place seem all
the more tragic.

Captioned by cotter
captioning services.