All language subtitles for Forgotten.Frontlines.S01E03.Huertgen.Forest.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

(beeping)

(intense music)

- [Narrator] Late 1944,
as weary Allied troops

edge ever closer to
the German border,

they can all but taste
the end of the war.

But before victory is theirs,

the Americans will fight
the single longest battle

on German soil.

- It's one of the
largest, bloodiest battles

of World War II, yet
it's virtually unknown.

- It makes no tactical sense.

It would've been
quicker to go around.

- This was the
wrong fight to pick

in the wrong place
at the wrong time.

- Whole units were
completely decimated

and the responsibility
has to be laying at the door

of the senior commanders
who are sending these units in

to carry out completely
impossible missions.

- It's called the meat grinder.

So many lives are wasted,
ultimately for nothing,

but very few people
know anything about it.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] September 1944,

the allied pursuit of the
German Army has slowed down

due to the distance
from supply lines

and increase German resistance.

Both the American
and Russian armies

have their sights set on Berlin.

- The Soviets are
coming in from the East.

There's desperation on
the part of the Americans

and the Allies.

You gotta get to Berlin
before the Red Army.

- Waiting would've cost them.

That was the logic
in the fall of 1944

is that if we wait, you know,

the Russians will be in
Germany and even past Berlin

and we won't even
be in the game.

- [Narrator] From
the Western side,

the next strategic objective
is to move up the Rhine River

and prepare to cross it.

- The Rhine River is a
deep, cold, wide river.

Hitler is ordered that
the bridges be blown up.

You gotta get to the Rhine
before the bridges are destroyed.

The other sense of desperation

is this war is exacting
such a horrific toll.

Holocaust, civilians
are starving,

soldiers dying
on the battlefield.

The sooner we can
end the war, the better.

But what General Courtney
Hodges, who planned this,

what he underestimated
was the sense of desperation

on the German side.

- [Narrator] Commander of
the German Seventh Army,

General Erich Brandenberger,

favors falling back
behind the Rhine River,

but Hitler himself
has assured him

that reinforcements
are on the way

and the Aachen Region

instead becomes
increasingly fortified.

- The US Army faces two
problems in its campaign

through the Hurtgen.

One, this is the first time
it's fighting on German soil.

And however tough
the Germans have been,

they are bound to up their game

when it gets to
defending Germany.

And the second problem
is that they're up against

a formidable defensive
system in a terrain

they simply have
no experience of.

- [Narrator] Located
about five kilometers

east of the
German-Belgian border,

the triangular shaped
Hurtgen Forest,

known to the Germans
as the Hurtgenwald,

is 140 square kilometers
of state-owned forest.

- There are kind
of straight lines

because it's a managed forest.

So, you know, even if you
were trying to run and hide,

the enemy can
conceivably see you.

- [Narrator] In
1938, Hurtgen Forest

is fortified by the Germans
as part of their Western wall,

known to the Allies
as the Siegfried Line.

- So it forms a
near perfect canopy

under which you
can build fortifications,

under which tanks and
airplanes are inoperable.

- [Narrator] But the
man in command

has extensive experience
fighting through difficult terrain.

General Courtney Hodges is a
decorated World War I veteran

and well-respected commander.

- Hodges definitely
knew a lot about fighting

this type of battle.

He's partially blinded
during the First World War.

He gets a Purple
Heart for that action

and he throws his
Purple Heart out

because he doesn't
think he deserves it.

This is the
mentality of this man.

- He comes from quite a well
to-do Georgian background.

It would've been natural for him

to go into the
Army as an officer,

but he joins up as
an enlisted man.

And so for him to go from
that to leftenant general in 1944

is really pretty impressive.

- [Narrator] In August, 1944,
Hodges succeeds Omar Bradley

as commander of the First Army.

With a quarter of
a million soldiers,

it's America's
largest fighting force

comprising 18 divisions,
subdivided into brigades,

battalions, and companies,

all the way down to
thousands of platoons

of a few dozen men.

On September 14th, 1944,

the American Ninth Infantry
Division enters Hurtgen Forest.

These few thousand men
are the battle weary 39th,

47th and 60th Regiments

commanded by Major
General Lewis A. Craig.

- The Ninth Infantry Division

has been pretty battle
tested for a very long time.

- [Narrator] Prior to Hurtgen,

these units took part
in long combat missions

throughout north
Africa and France

and are severely depleted.

- [John] These
battle-hardened troops

have seen almost everything.

They know what to expect,

and now they're being
pushed into the Hurtgen Forest.

- Most military science

says that you don't
attack in a forest,

especially an enemy
who's very well fortified

and well defended.

- Which is the great conundrum

for anyone who studies tactics.

Why doesn't Hodges
go around the forest

is a question we still
debate to this day.

(suspenseful music)

- It showed the American
determination to advance.

It told the Germans that
they were not gonna be able

to scare the Allies away
no matter what they did.

This was also a
resounding message

to the German high command.

- [Narrator] This
is the mentality

of one of General
Hodges' closest advisors,

fellow World War I veteran,

J. Lawton Collins has
distinguished himself

at the Battle of Guadalcanal
and he's earned the nickname

Lightning Joe.

When Hodges plans
to halt for two days

to allow reinforcements
to catch up,

Collins argues to begin
recon immediately.

He sets the pace
of the offensive.

- And they're sent into the
Hurtgen to see who is in there,

if anyone, and try to
pierce out the other side

and hit that Siegfried Line.

- [Narrator] The Allies enter
the forest with several goals,

pin down German troops

to prevent them from reinforcing
their efforts further north

at the Battle of Aachen and
capture the town of Schmidt.

- It was like a crossroads town,

you could fan out
into the countryside

and it was a great place

to have your
communications as well.

So Schmidt is a very,
very important position

for either side to hold.

- [Narrator] The 39th
and 47th Regiments

are ordered to
divide and conquer.

- A lot of military training
is about following orders,

doing what you're told,
getting to where you need to be.

You don't need to worry
about what the goal is.

You don't need to worry
about exactly what's happening

or what the
overall situation is.

Here is your job.

So you're starting off
in that type of mentality.

As long as you and your
mates survived another day,

it was a good day.

- [Narrator] The initial
advance by the 47th Regiment

goes smoothly.

- In fact, for two days,
they didn't see anyone.

And eventually
they spot a staff car

with a German colonel in it
and they kind of report back,

you know, this is
what we've seen.

- And they find a lone German
officer trying to figure out

what's going on.

So what do these men do?

They take him prisoner.

They rob him and
then they send him back

to the German lines.

They don't even think they
have time to deal with prisoners.

The 39th attacks through the
forest and meets resistance.

They do not have as
easy time as the 47th does.

- The Germans have
had time to recoup.

They're back behind
their own front line

and they are digging in.

It's one giant booby trap,

but you're probably not
gonna lay the booby trap

right on the edge,

the further Western
perimeter of the forest, are you?

You're gonna bed in
behind your own lines.

- [Narrator] The 39th
Regiment begin pressing forward

at Lammersdorf at
the edge of the forest.

But unbeknownst to them,
they are entering a deadly trap.

- The terrain in the forest
itself is utterly impassible

for the Americans to come in.

The Germans had built
defensive positions throughout,

strewing mines all
across the forest,

building machine
gun nests, bunkers.

(bombs exploding)

- They start taking
casualties almost immediately.

(rapid gunfire)

This makes them realize

that this isn't going
to be a cake walk

through this wood lot.

They don't know where
everyone is around them.

They don't know
where the enemy is.

(rapid gunfire)

- [Narrator] The Germans do
not expect the Allies' attempt

to breach the Hurtgen Forest.

- The Germans were dumbfounded

as to why the Americans
would do such a maneuver.

They thought it was
crazy. It was insane.

And they could not
believe their luck

that someone would try this.

- It must have
seemed odd to them

that this fortified forest,

impregnable is
what we'd call it,

impossible to pass
through virtually,

is gonna be the focus of
an American campaign,

which up until that
point had relied on armor,

mobility, and aircraft.

You can't use any of those
three things in a dense forest.

So it's like a gift
to the Germans.

I'm sure they were surprised.

- The density, the
thickness of this forest

also undermines the Americans
in terms of communications.

It's hard to see
and radar systems,

more primitive radar back
then, aren't working properly.

- [Soldier] Base to one,
base to one, this is base o-six,

(mumbles) responding.

- [Narrator] At one point,

the only sound
coming over the radio

is a German warning
of "Achtung! Achtung!"

as the nearby town Zweifel
sounds their air raid sirens.

- As soon as the radio goes out,

you're in a feeling of isolation

that you don't have any support,

that you're no longer
part of the greater whole.

(bombs exploding)

- Radios tended to
malfunction regularly.

Sometimes the
battery would die out.

Sometimes a signal
wouldn't get over a hill.

In fact, one officer said

that he had to resort
to the old hand signals

that they were
taught in basic training

to move men around
the field in front of him.

- [Narrator] What began as recon

has turned into a
full fledged battle.

(gunshots firing)

The Americans
are on the defensive

and woefully under-supplied.

(tense music)

- Americans and the Allies
have pushed in so quickly

that they have outrun
everything that they need.

They don't have water.

Some men don't
have rations for days.

You can't deploy
men into a force

if they haven't eaten
for two or three days.

- [Narrator] After
two agonizing weeks,

the 39th Division takes control
of the town of Lammersdorf.

- Huge losses for tiny gains,

but the need to win, the need
to advance was so overwhelming

that these losses were
deemed acceptable.

- General Hodges
has these objectives.

He wants this town
or this key intersection

or this part of the forest.

In hindsight, it
seems rather arbitrary

and he is not willing
to change his mind.

The problem is at what cost?

And the Americans are
suffering thousands of casualties

for each seemingly
arbitrary objective.

- [Narrator] By this
point in the war,

General Courtney Hodges
expects the Germans

to quickly surrender
due to low morale

but this is absolutely
not the case.

The Germans have every advantage

with the forest fortifications.

- The way that I think most
commanders would do it

if they had a second
chance was to wait

until you had full
concentration of your supplies,

and then to bring the brunt
of your highly favorable ratio

of soldiers and tanks
and planes to bear

and crush the Germans.

It was a five to one
tactical advantage

in terms of military
strength that the Allies had

and it's just wasted,
utterly wasted.

- [Narrator] The Battle
of Hurtgen Forest

is intended to build
upon the successful push

that began with D-Day.

The Allies attacked
the coast of Normandy

in a massive amphibious
assault of 150,000 soldiers.

They faced resistance as
they stormed the beaches,

achieving victory.

Finally, on June 11th, this
changes the tide of the war

and provides the
launchpad to liberate France

and Western Europe.

- They've got never
ending resources.

It's just a matter of getting
the resources up to the front.

We've got almost two
million Allied troops, match, fit,

and ready to go.

- [Narrator] The British
Second Army liberates Brussels

on September 3rd and
Antwerp on September 4th.

Hitler starts acting
out in desperation.

He appoints Field
Marshall, Karl von Rundstedt

as the Commander-in-Chief
of the German Army in the West

and orders him to attack
the advancing Allies.

Soldiers are called
upon to fight to their death

rather than surrender.

- So many committed Nazis
go on fighting right to the end.

And I'm not just talking
about the top, like Goebbels,

all the way down to the
ordinary prison guards

who will not let
go of their authority

and their murderous policies

until literally the guns
are taken from their hands.

- [Narrator] With
German forces decimated,

their approach is more deadly

the closer they come to defeat.

- Hitler informed all
of his commanders

that if they gave up ground,
many of them would be dead.

You weren't supposed
to give ground.

You were supposed to
hold your ground at all costs,

especially when you
got to the Siegfried Line

because that's German territory.

So Hitler says that you
will be killed if you fall back.

- On the German
side, it's desperate.

There is no choice and you're
probably gonna die fighting,

but you fight because if not,

you're gonna get
a gun in your back

or you're gonna be
court-martialed and killed.

And these little kids,
these older men,

by now they're recruiting
middle aged men as well.

They're gonna damn
well do what they're told.

This is Hitler's Germany,
you don't have a choice.

You know, you dig in
and protect your country.

- [Narrator] The
Americans decide

to push through the Northeast

to capture the towns of
Hurtgen and Kleinhau.

But the number of American
soldiers in the Hurtgen

is quickly depleting
and the mood is grim.

General Hodges calls in tanks

from the Third Armored Division

to support the 39th
and 60th Regiments.

The tanks must
overcome fortifications

known as dragon's teeth just
to reach the embattled troops.

- Armored divisions were
trying to get into the forest

to help out and support
these American units.

And men had to have
axes issued to them

from the sides of
the tanks to go out

and physically
chop the trees down

because the trees were too
large for the tank to run over

and the tank couldn't
run over any of them.

So these men have
to go out there by hand

and chop down a road.

- What was General
Hodge's thinking

when he was deploying the tanks?

It's not clear why such
a decision was taken,

but the tanks were a resource
and they were deployed.

- What you actually got
in the forest of Hurtgen

are tanks being stranded
in mud, broken down,

being knocked out and
becoming a problem.

You know, the tanks
are attracting fire

and causing casualties.

Far from them being the
solution to the problem,

they actually make it worse.

- After you've lost a
couple of divisions,

you might consider
rethinking the game plan.

But the danger is you think,

well I've already
lost two divisions,

I'm just gonna keep going.

You know, I'm gonna
reinforce that defeat.

It's a classic military
error that so many make.

Hodges ain't the first
and he won't be the last.

- [Narrator] Despite
continued heavy casualties,

by September 20th, the
Americans reach the Weisser Valley

closing in on their
objective, the Schmidt hub.

- Schmidt is like
a merry-go-round.

It's like a, it is a kind
of roundabout of death.

All the villages, incidentally,
have been evacuated.

It's, you know,
you can't live there.

It's not a place where
you live any longer.

It's just a bunch of rubble.

It's just a place where
you might get picked off

by sniper fire if a pill box
isn't taking you out first,

if you haven't stumbled
over a dragon's tooth,

I mean the whole place is
like a landscape of terror.

Can you imagine, you
come out at the forest

and you land up in Schmidt.

It's like, my God, who
cooks up a place like that?

- The planning for the German
defenses go back to 1938

when they construct
the Siegfried Line.

Now, it's not used, of course,

for most of the Second World War

because the Germans
are on the offense.

But when they do
come on the defense,

all these measures
they put in place in 1938

suddenly come to fruition
and are incredibly valuable.

They've been building
bunkers and pill boxes

so that they create
a kind of killing zone

in which it's gonna be very
difficult for you to get past.

- [Narrator] And yet
Hodges and other top brass

all believe that Schmidt is
an important town to capture.

- The question is
how do you get there?

You've gotta come
through the wood,

funneling you
into a field of fire

in which you're gonna find
it very difficult to maneuver.

The logic of attacking Schmidt
gets completely removed

when you think
that a flanking attack

could have done the same thing.

- [Narrator] October 6th
marks the Americans first attack

on Schmidt.

(rapid gunfire)

Between October 6th to 16th,

the Ninth Infantry
Division gains 3000 meters

at a cost of four and a
half thousand casualties.

- This is First
World War numbers.

This is, this is losing a man
for every meter and a half.

It's a crazy number to
think, how can this persist?

(bombs exploding)

(dramatic music)

How can you have
all these losses

and not see that
we have a problem?

- [Narrator] Bullets
and tree shrapnel

decimate the Ninth Division.

- Those kind of losses that the
Americans absorb in Schmidt

are monstrous.

So you waste thousands
of lives over a multi-day fight

for nothing.

Schmidt's important
to the overall offensive

on the vest fall,
but not at that cost.

- [Narrator] The battle to
take Schmidt is a failure,

but despite the beatings,

the Americans do advance
to the crucial supply hub

of Monschau.

But again, they
pay a high price.

The Ninth Infantry Division

is reduced to a
small fraction of itself

and cannot continue
fighting in the forest.

On October 16th, the nearly
obliterated Ninth Division

gets some relief.

First Army Commander
Courtney Hodges

calls on Major General
Norman "Dutch" Cota

to renew the drive
toward Schmidt.

- The 28th Infantry
Division arrives in Hurtgen

and they dive into the woods.

These are men of the old
Pennsylvania National Guard

and they are sent into the woods

to try to break this stalemate.

They think they're
going to be able to do it.

They're battle hardened,
they're ready to go.

They get into the woods

and they see the destruction

from months of
terrible fighting.

You are literally stepping
on the bodies of men

who died a week beforehand.

It hits you in the psyche
when you think about

what these men are
treading on, laying upon,

being around every
single day in the Hurtgen.

- [Narrator] Fresh from his
triumph at Omaha Beach,

Dutch Cota has become
accustomed to victory,

but the German defenses
here are surprisingly strong.

Pill box attacks
proved to be deadly.

American losses reached the
thousands in a matter of days.

- For those who were
in Hurtgen Forest,

the entire world is reduced
to basically a green inferno,

a meat grinder.

- [Narrator] On October 18th,

a battalion from the
28th Infantry Division

arrives in Aachen
as reinforcements.

(bombs exploding)

And after a brutal battle,

the Germans capitulate
on October 21st.

After Aachen is captured,

the 28th Infantry
breached the Siegfried Line

in the Stolberg corridor.

General Hodges' men are
to press forward 10 miles

to the Roer River,
capture the town of Duren

before continuing to
Cologne and the Rhine.

- The war point from
an allied point of view

is we need the
Germans to surrender.

We need them to
realize the war's over.

If Germany doesn't have
access to its industrial heartlands,

then it's hobbled.

It will have to capitulate.

So that's a very clear,
clean target, really.

- So there is this huge push
to move forward into the Roer.

A lot of the power plants
are located down river.

It runs Germany.

If you can take out that area,
you can seal off that asset.

If you don't do that,
Germany still has a lifeline.

- [Narrator] But General
Hodges continues

to pursue other less
productive goals.

He insists on repeated attempts

to capture the town of Schmidt,

an ongoing goal that is
as elusive as it is deadly.

- It becomes sort of a
myopic obsession to capture it

and then guess
what? To recapture it.

You know, if you've got
compromised supply lines,

it's very difficult to hold
a place like Schmidt.

You're making incremental gains

and you're losing them again.

One step forward, two back,
one step forward, two back.

And it's losses on a
scale that the Americans

weren't used to.

- [Narrator] On November 2nd,

the Americans begin their
second attack on Schmidt

led by the 28th Division.

(rapid gunfire)

- There's no way
that they didn't know

how bloody and painful it
was after the first group went in.

If you were a new
battalion coming in,

you saw thousands
coming back out as 300.

- The Americans spent
much of October in desperation

trying to take this
small village of Schmidt

and suffered
thousands of casualties.

What do they do?

They try it again in November.

- On November 3rd,

the First and Third Battalions

of the 112th Infantry Regiment
move across the Kall Valley

in hopes of capturing
Kommerscheidt and Schmidt

and cutting the Germans
off from their supplies.

However, the
terrain of the Kall Trail

makes movement of
any kind very difficult.

- One particular
unit, 2000 strong,

is eventually battered
down to just 300 men.

You know, can you
imagine a couple of days

in which 70% are casualties?

You know, how do you
rebuild the, you know,

the morale of that unit?

It's almost impossible.

- [Narrator] After their
first loss at Schmidt,

the Germans rely
heavily on panzer tanks.

On November 4th, the
166th Panzer Division tanks

unload their fire on the
Third Battalion at dawn,

ejecting them from Schmidt

and leaving them
unable to counterattack.

The battalion
descends into chaos.

133 are captured by the Germans.

- And again, you
have to remember,

the Germans have
had to time to fortify.

They've got back behind
their natural defensive barriers.

They've been given
time to regroup.

They've laid their hands
on anything they can

that goes up in a puff of smoke.

It's just do what you need
to do to keep them away,

stop them getting across.

Keep them out of the
fatherland, whatever it takes.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile,
the US 109th Division

is tasked with capturing
the area north of Germeter,

but within 300 yards, they
meet an unexpected horror.

(mines exploding)

- I don't know that any minefield
is a pleasant place to be,

but that one is just horrific,

almost impossible
to navigate through.

So navigating minefields, pill
boxes, trench emplacements,

heavy guns all
becomes a grinder.

It becomes the meat grinder.

- [Narrator] The Wild Pig
- or Wilde Sau minefield

is one of the largest
minefields on the Western front.

Mines every two meters
stretch over a span

of three kilometers.

- Now, how are you
going to get through that?

It's impenetrable.

So you literally
have to crawl through

and try to find these mines,
diffuse them, and keep moving

while being shot at it.

- Ultimately, they have
to resort to rolling trees

through the forest to
try to detonate the mines.

That's time consuming,
it's not practical

and in a forest that's this
dense and thick of trees,

it takes forever.

- Even after all of those
losses and that loss of territory,

machines, men,
material, it's still crazy

that Hodges doesn't
understand the totality of the loss.

It is, it is a loss
at that time.

How are you going
and overcome that loss

and go back at the
enemy is another thing.

- Ultimately, General
Hodges comes to his senses

and approves the
withdrawal of American troops

from this little hub, this
little village of Schmidt.

- [Narrator] With
Schmidt lost yet again,

the focus returns to
the Roer industrial area

and the Roer River.

There are seven dams at
the Roer River headwater

for flood control, drinking
water, and hydroelectric power.

The Schwammenauel
and the Urft dams

hold up to 40 billion
gallons of water

between the two of them.

- That's a huge amount of water.

I mean, if that
had been released,

it's a nightmare scenario.

If the Germans had
exploded the dams,

the advance through
Germany would have become

not just difficult,

but might have become
a near impossibility.

- [Narrator] On November 5th,

General Hodges
receives a top secret memo

from General Simpson
of the Ninth Army.

He is to refocus on
securing the Roer River dams

before the Germans
unleash a catastrophic flood.

Hodges insists that
the best path to get there

is to continue to press
through the deadly forest.

- General Hodges, yet again,

ignores the concerns
of his officers

and the intelligence
that the Germans

are considering blowing the
dams to flood the entire region.

His response is damn the dams.

- One of the justifications
for going through the forest

is to get to the Roer dams.

There were seven of
them and two in particular

are so big in terms of
the lakes that they created,

that the feeling is if they're,

if they're blown by the Germans,

they're gonna
unleash a flood tide

that's gonna really
slow down the advance

to the Rhine River.

And this is gonna really
impede allied communication.

So we need to get to these dams

and we need to take them
before the Germans blow them.

But that doesn't
explain the logic

of going through the forest.

Yes, the Roer dams are
at the back of the forest,

but they're not in the forest.

- What I don't understand

is why they don't go
around to the sides.

Because if you look at the map

and then work your
way down stream

so that you incrementally
pick off each dam

that the Germans could
have flooded you with.

- Hodges created
this sub-objective.

I can do the dams, but I
have to get to this point first.

And that's where I
see this real disconnect.

When you're making a
decision and you have a goal,

you tend to plan
to get to that goal.

Most people want to
plan to get to that goal

with the least steps possible.

Hodges is planning
to get to that goal

by adding additional
intermediary steps.

And the only reason
that he's doing that

is because those
were the steps he took

when he was
successful in World War I.

You take the towns,
you move the line,

and that's what
he was trained in,

that's what he was
successful with,

and that's what he
is repeating here.

- [Narrator] At age 57,
Hodges is not the man

he once was
mentally or physically.

- Because of his disconnection
from those around him,

he's not hearing alternate
plans or alternate viewpoints,

which is leading
into tunnel vision

for his overall strategy.

- Hodges, he
misunderstands his soldiers.

I think there's
almost a kind of,

a failure of empathy at
this point for him to keep,

to keep asking this of
them and to not step back

is a profound failure on
his part on a human level.

- Hodges is an
interesting character

when it comes to casualties.

(bomb exploding)

He's very hard as a
commander and likes to drive

and keep moving and keep moving.

But his men often say that
they've watched him break down

when he goes to the hospitals.

Any other time,
he's hard as a rock,

but when he goes into the
medical tents and sees the men,

he breaks down and cries.

- [Narrator] But meanwhile,

the Americans are having a
horrible time in the Kall Trail.

(bombs exploding)

- Sending in tanks
is not a good idea.

It's an even worse idea when
the weather conditions worsen,

you get a lot of rain coming in,

there's a morass on
the floor of the forest

and the tanks are just incapable
of moving and operating.

You either gotta get past them.

You've gotta go and
rescue people out of them.

- [Narrator] Amidst heavy
casualties on both sides,

a small glimmer of humanity
comes from an unexpected place.

German troop doctor
Günter Stuttgen

has a history of
treating enemy wounded

at his field hospitals.

On November 7th,

he makes contact with
American medical personnel

and negotiates what
will become the first

of three cease fires.

Combat stops for several hours

so wounded can be retrieved
and enemy patients exchanged.

Hundreds of men
survive the Hurtgen Forest

who would've
otherwise been left to die.

Years later, Stüttgen was
honored for his actions,

which he explained,

"Came from respect
that only soldiers

"who know the horror of war
can have for one another."

But in November '44,
after the briefest of pauses,

those horrors continue unabated.

- The weather works to the
advantage of the Nazis as well.

It becomes brutally cold.

It snows, the Germans laid
thousands of mines down

the Americans
couldn't see or detect.

So everything about the forest

worked to the
advantage of the Nazis

and worked against
the American invaders.

- [Narrator] The
American offensive force

begins to be affected
by a defensive mentality.

- And they're gonna
be holding their ground,

staying still being
in a covered position.

You get that difference between

being aggressive and offensive

versus a very
defensive type reaction

where you're just
trying to survive.

- [Narrator] This reaction

extends to some of the
highest ranking officers.

General Ralph Huebner

leads the legendary
First Division

known as The Big Red One.

He makes the mistake,

when reporting to Major
General J. Lawton Collins,

of using the phrase,
keeping the enemy in check.

Collins is furious at the
lack of forward momentum

and orders Huebner
to ramp up the attacks.

(intense artillery explosions)

For Collins and his
superior, Courtney Hodges,

it's forward
momentum or nothing.

But by mid-November, there
is plenty of blame to go around

and much of it
is laid at the feet

of General Norman Dutch Cota.

His 28th Infantry
Division is relieved of duty

and the Eighth Infantry
Division is brought in.

On November 16th,
Operation Queen begins.

- The Hurtgen Forest
campaign really occurs

in a couple phases.

The first one begins
in September of 1944,

and that's an
unmitigated disaster.

Finally, later in November,

a second phase, Operation Queen,

it's most of the same tactics,
which again, don't work.

However, they want to try to
use American air superiority,

which ordinarily
would make sense.

But the forest is
so dense, so thick,

that it renders
bombers and war planes

completely ineffective.

- [Narrator] With
no end in sight,

the situation is reported on

by one of the most celebrated
writers of the 20th century.

- Ernest Hemingway is
reporting from the front

for Collier's Magazine,

witnesses some of this fighting

and he's completely horrified.

- [Narrator] Ernest
Hemingway spent 18 days

embedded with the 3000
men of the Fourth Division.

- You have a kind of
chronicler of the madness

on a very personal level.

- One of the grimmest
actions is in late November,

when a regiment is sent to take

the village of Grössau
and in attempting to do so,

it loses almost 2,700
of its 3000 troops.

That's over 90% casualties.

- And of the
futility of the tactics

being used by the Americans,

Hemingway quipped that
it would save everybody

a lot of trouble if
they just shot them

as soon as they
got out of the trucks.

- And describes it as
passion dale with tree bursts.

That pretty much says it all.

- You got shrapnel
starting off the branches

above your head so if
you're not hit directly,

you're gonna be hit with
something raining down on you

that's not just freezing
wintry water from God's skies.

I mean, it's a nightmare.

It's a hell on Earth.

He's reminding
people back in America

that this ain't just headlines.

Oh, Paris, Antwerp,
Brussels, Aachen.

- [Newscaster] The city of
Aachen was so well restored

that refugees from the
nearby internment camp

were allowed to return
to their homes in the city.

The military government
section went to work

establishing order.

- No, passion there
were tree busts.

You know, let's
break up that narrative,

that success story, and
remind people success at a cost.

Hemingway will
eventually write a novel

about what he witnesses.

"Across the River and
Into the Trees" it's called.

- [Narrator] A more
direct literary account

comes from a former
professional wrestler,

the machine gun platoon
leader of Company G

of the 121st Infantry.

- That amazing character,
Leftenant Paul Boesch,

writes a great
book about it after.

It's incredibly
visceral descriptions

of what he'd gone through,
what his men were going through.

- [Narrator] Lieutenant Boesch's
memoir captures the horror

as he leads the 121st
Infantry Regiment

through the thick forest.

Boesch sets up a command
post and a carrying party

to move rations, water, and
ammunition for the regiment.

(machine gun firing)

German machine gunners
catch them in a brutal crossfire,

raining mortars and artillery.

(bombs exploding)

Bearing witness to
the horrors of the forest,

the 121st spends
Thanksgiving in hell.

(bombs exploding)

- Thanksgiving in the
Hurtgen is a lot different

than what you see on
any other part of the line.

It is business as usual.

- [Narrator] On November 23rd,

Lieutenant Boesch
receives a message

that a hot turkey
dinner is on its way

to every man in the outfit.

- They were looking
to build morale,

but it's also way
to remind people

what they're fighting for.

The world is gonna be safe
and your family and friends

are gonna be able
to have Thanksgivings

because of what
you're doing here.

- [Narrator] Boesch objects.

The positions they are
in are nearly right on top

of the Germans, a terrible
time to eat a hot meal.

- And they'll know where we are

and they're gonna shoot at us.

And let's, you know, let's
stay low and keep safe.

- [Narrator] Despite his
protests and appeal to reason,

the Thanksgiving
dinners are sent in

on orders from headquarters.

Privates are called back
to distribute the meals.

- Hodges is playing for
a headline game, really.

You know, the men
were fed on Thanksgiving.

You know, as a note home to
mom, you know, had hot Turkey

or whatever it is you
eat, cranberry sauce.

You know, there's a kind of,

there's a superficiality
to his thinking there.

Did he really think a gimmick
like that was worth any life?

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] The Germans
are lurking closely

and the hot meal service
draws attention to Boesch's men.

(rapid gunfire)

Seven men are
wounded and three killed

for a dinner no
one wanted to eat.

The 121st must move on
after Thanksgiving in hell

but their journey
deeper into the woods

proves even more deadly.

In only three days,

the 121st Regiment loses
20% of their manpower,

50 killed, 600 wounded.

- You've got mines going off.

You've got trees exploding.

How many times can you jump?

How many times can you
have that adrenaline rush

before you've wiped it out?

You just don't have the resources
anymore to engage with it.

- [Narrator] But throughout
this vicious string

of close-range fire fights,

Lieutenant Boesch
leads his platoon

in the Village of Hurtgen
amidst heavy enemy fire.

(rapid gunfire)

He and his men take
cover in abandoned houses

while automatic weapons
clatter and buildings explode.

(dramatic music)

In a brutal struggle, Lieutenant
Boesch and Company G

managed to take
the town of Hurtgen,

taking 350 German POWs.

Bodies of both American
and German soldiers

littered the streets.

For his role in the
strategic victory,

Lieutenant Boesch is
awarded the silver star,

his second one.

The victory at Hurtgen
allows American troops

to begin to make their way
to the Village of Kleinhau,

the next objective.

The 121st gains in Hurtgen

finally place the troops
in decent proximity

to the Roer River dams,

the objective all along of
Supreme Commander Eisenhower,

but the horrible cost to get
there is barely reflected upon.

- You've got this
command structure,

so there's this distributed
lack of accountability

for what's going on here.

Nobody is saying, why
are you doing this this way?

Even Eisenhower who
wants the dams protected

doesn't seem to get
involved in how to get there.

And maybe that's not
part of his command,

but somebody should
have been tracking

just how many lives were lost.

- [Narrator] Instead of
dwelling on the casualties,

the First Army commanders
seize on this momentum.

November 29th, orders
from General Hodges come in

to take the Brandenburg
Burstein Ridge,

securing a launch position
for the US First Army

to make a direct attack and
secure the Roer River dams.

After enduring weeks
of heavy fighting,

the 28th and 121st
Regiments clear the approach

for the tanks to
begin their advance

toward Brandenburg Burstein.

The 28th and 121st
Infantry reached the ridge,

but the Germans have a
major defensive advantage,

positions on Castle Hill.

- Castle Hill is one of
the high points of the fight

and that's with no pun intended
because Castle Hill is high

and it's a great vantage point.

(rapid gunfire)

- [Narrator] With only 11
tanks and 140 infantrymen left,

reinforcements are needed

to protect hard-won
American gains.

- The second ranger
battalion shows up, very good,

well-trained troops.

- And this is where
you get into differences

between Special Forces
and general infantry,

where there is more
independence and decision making

where you can adjust on the
fly to meet a goal or objective

without a very clear plan
necessarily on how to get there.

And so you find that
Special Forces training

tends to be very different
in terms of initiative.

- The Second Rangers
begin their advance.

They quickly overwhelm
parts of the German defenses

and they will engage
very violently and quickly

with the Germans who are
trying to defend Castle Hill.

- [Narrator] The Germans
fire on the rangers

with increasing intensity,

but Company D
takes the top of a hill.

- The Germans were
utilizing it to rain fire down

on the Americans and
now it's in the hands

of the Second Ranger Battalion.

- [Narrator] Of the
ranger reinforcements,

only 22 are still able
to walk on their own

after this battle.

Nineteen are killed, 107
wounded, and four men are missing.

But due to their
sacrifice from Castle Hill,

the Americans concede
the Roer River dams.

On December 16th,

the battered
rangers on Castle Hill

are relieved by
the 13th Regiment.

But swapping Special
Forces back to regular troops

will prove costly.

- And then they weren't
using Special Forces.

They were using
standard infantry troopers

who were trained to
do what they were told,

but they're doing
it in an environment

that is really
biased against them.

- [Narrator] The 13th are
unable to hold onto this victory,

but the struggle to
control the Hurtgen Forest

is about to be eclipsed by
an even bigger challenge

and the Americans
won't retake the hill

until February of 1945.

- One of the reasons
the Germans fight

as effectively as they do is
because they are prepping

for what will become
the Battle of the Bulge,

a position to the south
of the Hurtgen Forest.

- Of course the bigger story

is gonna be the
center of attention.

The Battle of the Bulge
became that center of attention.

- [Narrator] December 16th,

the Germans launched
their last ditch offensive

into the Ardennes.

- The allied planners are
completely caught off guard.

They were not expecting this
overwhelming German regrouping.

- When Hitler orders
the counterattack,

the tanks concentrate
their power

in just one section of the line,

which is an age
old military tactic.

And if you can bust
through that one section,

it compromises the entire line.

They pushed a bulge
out roughly 60 miles

in the American line,
thus giving it the nickname,

the Battle of the Bulge.

- [Narrator] On December 27th,

the 83rd Division
in Hurtgen Forest

enters the Battle of the Bulge.

- Both sides sustain
horrific casualties.

It's also one of the coldest
periods of the entire war.

The weather claims lives also.

- [Narrator] But in contrast
to the Hurtgen Forest debacle,

Allied Forces are now well
organized and well supported.

- By Christmas, you know,
we've got our act together.

You're even seeing a
change in the law in Britain

where women are
drafted overseas.

We need to back up the boys.

You need to feed the boys.

You need to supply the boys.

You need to administer the boys.

And that's what wins
the Battle of the Bulge

is this extra
manpower, this oomph.

Eisenhower comes up
to the front, you know,

there's another 200,000+ men.

How can the Germans fight that?

(bombs exploding)

- Ultimately, Hitler's
last ditch gamble fails.

The Americans win.

That's really one of the
last ditch efforts by Hitler

and the Germans to
hold the American line.

- [Narrator] The Battle of
the Bulge is officially won

on January 25th, 1945,

but it comes at a high cost.

Of the 500,000
Americans who fight,

19,000 are killed in
action, 47,500 wounded,

and 23,000 or more are missing.

- The Battle of the Bulge
is a major turning point

and it is heroic.

Churchill's right to
call it a great victory.

But you can't help but to
think that at least in part

there's that horrible
moment of Hurtgen Forest

that kind of haunts them.

- [Narrator] Finally,
after five grueling months,

there is still unfinished
business in the Hurtgen Forest.

On February 10th,
1945, at long last,

the Roer Dam is taken
by the American forces.

This gives them
control of the Urft Dam

and 20 billion gallons of water.

However, the Germans rally
around the Schwammenauel Dam

and blow the valves
open to flood the area.

- The Germans do
exactly what intel

was hoping they wouldn't do.

They blew the dam.

(suspenseful music)

(dams exploding)

But when the dams blew,

it wasn't this overwhelming
tidal wave of water coming down

through the area like
intel thought it would be.

It caused localized flooding.

It slowed down some of
the movements of divisions

through the area,

but it didn't cause this
huge tidal wave of water.

It was much ado about
nothing for many of the planners.

- [Narrator] On February 17th,

the forest is cleared by
the 82nd Airborne Division

when they reach the Roer River.

The Americans are finally
finished in the forest of hell,

which claims between 35,000
and 60,000 soldiers missing,

wounded, or dead.

The Americans use
their position at the Roer

to support an allied
attack on city of Cologne.

On March 7th, the
Americans crossed the Rhine

as their troops pushed
forward to Berlin.

Two months later,
the war in Europe ends.

On May 8th, 1945, the war
in Europe is officially over

as Berlin is captured
and Germany surrenders.

- Hurtgen Forest is difficult

when you think about the
sacrifices made by the soldiers.

(rapid gunfire)

On one hand, men died
seemingly for nothing.

(loud explosions)

But all this fighting,

it did serve a role
in the larger scheme

of the Second World War.

And ultimately, the
Allies made it to Berlin

and won the war.

- What's most telling
about this battle

in terms of the embarrassment

in the way in
which it was fought

is the amount of
space that Eisenhower,

the Supreme Commander,
gave it in his memoirs.

- It is a starting of the Nazi
defeat on the Western front.

- He devoted under
70 words to a battle

that went on for five months

and resulted in between
35,000 and 60,000 casualties.

- [Narrator] Supreme
Commander Eisenhower

has political ambitions.

He becomes the 34th
president of the United States

and lives to the age of 78.

General Courtney Hodges
continues to be held in high regard

until he retires from
the military in 1949.

- I think history has
diminished his narrative

because he's not the hero
that we've come to expect

of great American
military leaders,

but I don't think we can put
it all on Hodges' shoulders.

- [Narrator] J. Lawton Collins

continues in the military
for another decade

and survives to the
ripe old age of 91.

General Norman "Dutch" Cota
is denied further promotions.

He's eventually
pushed out of the military

due to failing health.

Lieutenant Paul Boesch
survives the viciousness

of Hurtgen Forest.

His memoir and
other written accounts

provides a tenuous connection

to this largely forgotten
chapter of history.

- The entire history of
the Second World War

has many omissions.

Hurtgen Forest is one of
the most significant ones

and it should definitely
be more studied

and more understood by everyone.

- For a lot of the men
who came out of Hurtgen,

it impacted them
for years afterwards,

where they would talk
about the bursting trees.

They would talk
about the mine fields,

or talk about losing
a friend in Hurtgen.

Why is that important?

Why should we learn from
this defeat of the US Army?

Look at the men who
were on the ground.

I think it would
shed a lot of light

on what warfare was like,
how destructive it could be

and how, when you
go into something

maybe with not as good a
plan as you thought you had,

that it could have
disastrous consequences.

(solemn music)