In Germany, the past is never far away. You can experience it in the century old castles everywhere, its cities, of which many go back to Roman times, and in the bullet holes and signs of mortar shelling still visible today in many buildings that survived the war.
Then there are places which despite their history are better known outside of Germany then within it. Hürtgenwald - Hürtgen Forest - is one of them.
Situated close to the Belgian border, the Hürtgen Forest is a lush, dense forest characterized by the hilly landscape of the Eifel national park region. Its climate is influenced by the Atlantic, with frequent rains and foggy days, and winters can be colder and wetter than in many other parts of Germany.
A nature trail with a nice wooden path at the southern end of the forest
Its location and the climate play a role in what the forest is famous for - the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, fought between the U.S. Army and the Wehrmacht in the last months of 1944. It is the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought. The forest lay in what was called the Westwall, or Siegfried Line, a series of fortifications with bunkers, anti-tank obstacles, and minefields. Stretching 690km (390 mi) along Germany's western border, the defensive line was hyped up as an unbreachable barrier by the German propaganda machine.
Many of the old trenches and bunkers are still visible today, 75 years after the war and this direct link to the not-so-far-away-past makes for a somewhat eerie, yet fascinating experience. It certainly is an interesting hike for any history buff, especially when you prefer a tactile experience of history over looking at ceramic vases behind glass.
The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was so fierce that the Allied troops, many of which had taken part in D-Day, and the German defenders, of which many had been relocated from the harsh Eastern Front, both agreed that living through it was worse than both. Despite superior numbers and better overall equipment and air support, the Allied troops could never fully leverage their advantages. The muddy terrain and the temperatures of winter of 1944 (which dropped to almost -20° C, below zero on the Fahrenheit scale), massively reduced the mobility of Allied tanks, clouds prevented air support, and only limited supplies reached the frontline. The German defenders were well prepared: the forest was littered with minefields, booby-traps, many bunkers and fortifications. Both parties used artillery and mortar to shell each other, aiming at the tree tops to add wooden splinters to the shrapnel that would rain down on the soldiers. For that reason, fires were out of the question despite the freezing temperatures to prevent revealing smoke, leading to hypothermia and trench foot, and soldiers had to eat their C-ration frozen solid.
Ernest Hemingway spent a few weeks in the forest as a correspondent and he would later write:
"It was a place where it was extremely difficult for a man to stay alive even if all he did was be there."
In the years following the war, the Hürtgen Forest would sometimes go up in flames on hotter days, when leftover phosphor ammunition would ignite. While tons of mines, grenades, and other deadly remains have been removed from the soil in the years and decades after the war, it is likely that quite a few are still buried in the forest ground (which is why it is generally advisable to stay on the paths). There are several larger war cemeteries nearby, one of them the resting place of a hundred post-war victims of mines. Since the Allies left loads of canned food when the army moved on, many hungry Germans ventured into the heavily mined area to pick up some priceless cans.
The landscape makes for a good hike and offers a beautiful scenery, which is in stark contrast to the history of the place. After three quarters of a century, the trees have grown back and when the sun came out on the day of our visit, it gave the whole forest a calm and soothing vibe.
But between the trees, there are constant reminders of the fierceness of the battle.
Apart from the larger war cemeteries near the towns there are also various individual memorial sites for fallen or missing soldiers throughout the forest, many of which are still being taken care of by the families of the fallen in the states. With at least 33,000 killed and wounded on the U.S. side alone, the battle was costly for the Allies, and all in all of little strategic or tactical relevance. Some places were conquered and re-conquered dozens of times, and the battle basically faded out when the Wehrmacht pulled all its resources into their last-ditch offensive into the Ardennes (aka the Battle of the Bulge). The battle slowed down the Allied advance into Germany in a war that was already decided at that point, and while the German war propaganda focused on the heroics of the German soldiers (and that approach is also true for what the nation tried to convince itself of after the war), it is also clear that every day the war raged on, meant more suffering for the soldiers, the ordinary people, and the countless victims in the concentration camps. The individual memorial sites, some with images of those fallen or missing, lift the anonymity of the statistics - behind every number stood a person, an individual sent to the front to do what they had to do.
When the war cemetery in Hürtgen was opened in August of 1952, Federal President Theodor Heuss closed his speech with these words:
"They were human beings like ourselves. But when we stand in silence at the crosses, we hear their now-tranquil voices: Make sure, you who are still alive, that peace endures, peace between men, peace between peoples"
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