Chapter 6
Even through the enemies main defensive line had been penetrated, he had managed to move up troops to occupy the adjacent sectors of the much vaunted West Wall, and the slow struggle to drive him from the fortifications continued for several weeks. While the main strength of the Corps was punching a hole through these defenses, Tulles cavalry pressed on to the east into the heavily forested areas of Mensch and Hurtgen On September 17th several determined counterattacks were made in a futile enemy attempt to restore the broken line, and on the following day the German forces resumed a defensive role.
There was street fighting in Stolberg, Aachen was threatened, and on the south the cavalry had reached the pillboxes of the Siegfried Line, deep in the forests. Units fighting through the gaps blasted in the defense were advancing against somewhat lighter resistance, and the battle seemed on the verge of being a complete American victory, when one of the most difficult decisions of the campaign was made. VII Corps would forego the attack and would hold and consolidate its positions.
Supply problems beyond the control of the Corps or of the Army dictated that the advance should be held up, at least temporarily. The unexpected speed of the move across France and Belgium could not be met by the Allied agencies furnishing food and fuel to the fighting troops. Gasoline could not be brought up fast enough to refuel the armored divisions leading the drive. Ammunition for a major battle could not be delivered to the guns. Troops ate captured German rations and concentrated American rations to conserve shipping space. VII Corps, leading the First U.S. Army, had outrun its supplies, and its drive was stalled. Only by the whole Army's husbanding critical items was it possible to move up the Corps on either flank. But the drive had been successful. Germany's inner line of defense had been pierced and our troops were securely through the hole.
However, minor operations continued, reducing and destroying the pill-box of the West Wall, probing known defenses, patrolling in the quiet sectors. Aachen, ancient capital of the Holy Roman Empire, was partially surrounded; Stolberg was captured; and units moved up through the forests on the Corps south flank into the defenses of the Wall. VIA Corps was carrying on an active defense, holding and improving its positions, waiting while the flank Corps worked up abreast of it and while supplies accumulated for a coordinated large scale attack.
The German Air Force participated in a day of unusual activity on October the when approximately 75 enemy aircraft operated over the VIA Corps sector. Antiaircraft artillery units of the Corps had their best day of the war, shooting down a total of 27 planes and probably destroying 24 more.
On October the, Major General Louis A. Crags the Infantry Division began a battle which was to prove one of the bloodiest of the war in Europe and which was to go on for four months-the battle for the Roar River dams. As long as these dams were held by enemy, they were a constant threat to any attempt at crossing the Roar River, for by destroying the main dam, sufficient water could be released to flood the Roar Valley, blocking our crossing or isolating whatever troops might be across the river when the dam was blown. The threat of this mass of water had been worked into the German defensive plans for the area, and the fury and tenacity of the defense of the dam area bears witness to the importance they placed on holding the advantage of the situation.
For several days the PST Division attacked to contact troops of the FIX Corps northeast of Achaean in order to cut off reinforcements to that be-leaguered city, and on October 16th the juncture was made in spite of stiff opposition. Meanwhile an ultimatum calling for the surrender of the city was issued and expired without reply, and on the 11th, infantrymen of the 1st Division, supported by artillery and air bombardment, began a systematic reduction of the defenses in the city. For five consecutive days the enemy launched unsuccessful counterattacks to relieve Aachen, where the defenders were fighting a house-to-house battle. Finally, on October 21st, after the German garrison had been driven into one small portion of the city, its leader capitulated, and the first major German city to fall to the allied attack surrendered to the VII Corps.
By the 16th, the attack of the 9th Division to gain control of the Roer dams had reached an impasse, and for several days the Corps' activity was limited to patrolling and artillery shelling. The enemy was defending the Siegfried Line fortifications in front of the XIX and V Corps on the left and right of VII Corps, and while our neighbors attacked to clear out the pillboxes, our Corps defended.
Bad weather which prevented air support also delayed the coordinated attack of VII and XIX Corps to penetrate the main enemy defenses which had been formed east of the ruptured West Wall, and it was November 16th before this new assault began. An aerial bombardment in which over 4,000 planes of the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces participated provided the prelude, smashing enemy concentrations and communications in the Eschweiler area. Based on the experience of heavy bombing in the Normandy break-through, additional safety precautions had been devised, and as 1,300 heavy bombers dropped their cargoes on the target area, no damage was caused by bombs dropping short of their targets.
The 1st and 4th Infantry and 3d Armored Divisions, all old timers with VII Corps, and a newcomer, Major General Terry Allen's 104th Infantry Division, fought their way through well prepared defenses against heavy resistance. Gains on the north and in the center were slow but satisfactory. Eschweiler fell. The Timberwolf (104th) Division found the answer to the challenge of defended towns surrounded by flat, open country in their night attacks as, under cover of darkness, their troops crossed the open areas of successfully carried the fight into the enemy village strongpoints. The armor of the Spearhead Division was pinched out on the twelfth day of the attack, and the doughboys continued to slug their way forward. In the Hurtgen Forest area where the 4th Division has relieved the 9th, Major General Barton's D-Day veterans were having the toughest fight of their career.
VII Corps antiaircraft units had another field day on December 3d when approximately 60 enemy ME 109s and FW 190s attempted to bomb and strafe in the Corps sector. Credit for 25 planes destroyed was confirmed, and 10 more were probably knocked down.
During the next few days, for the first time since November 15th, no offensive action was taken by VII Corps. Battle weary divisions were relieved by fresh troops. After 30 days of fighting in the gloomy forest, the 4th Division was relieved by the 83d. The 9th relieved the 1st, which moved back into Belgium for a well earned rest. The 3d and 5th Armored Divisions assembled to rest their men and service their thanks.
But the rest was a short one, and on December 10th VII Corps launched an attack to reach and clear the west bank of the Roer River. That the enemy intended to defend every yard of German soil was obvious. He fought from open field fortifications, from villages, and from pillboxes. When he was forced to yield ground, he counterattacked fiercely to try to regain his positions. On the second day of the attack, Major General Lunsford E. Oliver's 5th Armored Division was committed on the right of the 83d to bring more weight to bear on the stubbornly defended Roer dam area. By the 14th, the northern half of the Corps zone had been cleared to the river and the enemy-held area west of the Roer was slowly dwindling.
During the next few days the VII Corps sector remained quiet, but some 40 miles to the south a new situation was developing. Enemy attacks drove into an inactive and lightly held sector of the V Corps lines in the Ardennes area. German patrols infiltrated into rear areas and information was confused as whole companies and battalions of American troops were cut off from contact with other friendly units. On the 17th the German Air Force was active along the entire Army front, bombing, strafing, and at night dropping parachutists behind the American lines. Rear area security troops very effectively threw out dragnets for these paratroopers, who were scattered far from their intended dropping zone, and no damage was sustained in the VII Corps sector. Although not clearly apparent at the time, this was the beginning of von Rundstedt's Ardennes counteroffensive, the drive that for some time threatened to cut the first Army's supply line.
Adjustments were quickly made to permit V Corps to concentrate all its efforts on its threatened sector, and VII Corps assumed control of additional areas held by the 8th and 78th Infantry Divisions. The 1st, 9th, and 3d Armored Divisions were dispatched to the breakthrough area, and on December 19th VII Corps assumed the defensive along the Roer.
The initial confusion of the first days of the German offensive through the Ardennes cleared enough to show the enemy's intention, and first Army moved swiftly to counteract the growing threat to its line of communication. VII Corps was selected to assemble a hard-hitting force back in Belgium, to be sued to counterattack the penetration which had broken through some 35 miles into Belgium and Luxembourg. At midnight on December 21st, XIX Corps relieved VII Corps of its sector, and the Corps Headquarters and Corps troops moved westward without delay.