 The city of Aachen was taken by the 1st United States Army on 21st October, 1944, after a battle that raged for nearly six weeks. Out of this heap of rubble, the 1st Army would fashion its base for the next major Allied offensive. This was Aachen the day after its fall. The job of rehabilitation would not be easy. The chief rail station would have to be repaired. The electric power plant was out of operation, as well as the natural gas facilities. The military government section went to work, establishing order, restoring communications. The telephone system, for example, was salvaged when a former official of the company disclosed the hiding place of the city's telephone diagrams. Another problem for the AMG, food for the local population, was partially solved when hidden staples were discovered and hauled to a refugee camp outside the city limits. German civilians were pressed into service for this and other tasks. Soon Aachen was so well restored that refugees from the nearby internment camp were allowed to return to their homes in the city. This suburb of Aachen then became a rest center for the men of the 3rd Armored Division, where they had their first chance to relax since D-Day. A meal like this for men long accustomed to cold fare was a source of genuine pleasure. All up and down the line, rest centers were established throughout the 1st Army's area, stretching from Aachen to the southern tip of Luxembourg. At these, the men found relief after their drive across France and Belgium and gathered the breath needed for their next offensive. Meanwhile at the front, local actions characterized the pre-offensive period, in the south and in the north. Along the German border, while we were attacking an observation post, the distant church steeple, German mortars hidden nearby tried to knock out our battery, which continued to fire making its mark. In the center of the 1st Army front, a local operation was being prepared at this time to precede the main drive. Although the attempt failed temporarily, the orders were to break out of the Hurtgen Forest and attack toward the Ruhr River and the Cologne Plain beyond. The 28th Division was assigned the task. It was to launch a three-pronged drive toward fortified towns controlling key roadways. In preparation for the attack, miles of roads had to be built through the heavily wooded area where the division had previously been pinned down. This section, near Aachen, begun late in October, was by the 1st week in November carrying American military traffic to and from the front. In other parts of the forest, another kind of preparation was underway, protection against the cold. Bivwacked close to the front, the men attended to last-minute details and took care of personal needs. The preliminary drive was launched on the morning of 2nd November, as men of the 28th Division, cautious, alert, moved through the woods which were alive with Germans. In the initial push toward Schmidt, our men fought steadily on, against an enemy that was unseen but ever-present. The same morning, another regiment opened its attack in the center of the drive, directing its fire toward Wosenach, where Air Force was up that day in support of the ground forces. The 3rd spearhead, meanwhile, moved off as planned on the northern flank of the drive in the direction of Hurtgen Village. The men continued to advance for two more days in the face of mounting counterattacks. We took a lot of prisoners. Some of those captured in the northern push were rounded up for evacuation to the rear. Still more Germans poured in to an assembly area in the south, where they were questioned by one of their number and segregated according to their former Wehrmacht units. The stream of prisoners continued to mount until early in November the 1st Army registered the total captured since D-Day. Units of the 28th Division continued their action in the Hurtgen Forest against opposition so stiff as to make advance impossible. We held our ground with light artillery and anti-tank guns. With ready ingenuity, an abandoned tower was strung with telephone wire and converted into an observation post, as we made a second attempt to take Schmidt. From here, the order to fire was transmitted to our tanks hidden in the woods below. And then came the snow blanketing the front a week after the drive had started, adding the final difficulty to those under which the 28th Division was fighting. The men had to dig for protection underground in order to hold their hard-won positions in the Hurtgen Forest Campaign. They had to struggle not only against a well-nigh impregnable enemy, but against the elements as well. In view of the unfavorable circumstances, Major General Leonard T. Giro, Commander of the 5th Corps, ordered on 9th November that the preliminary operation in Hurtgen Forest be called off. Guns were cleaned, oiled, and covered as the campaign drew to a temporary close. To meet the needs of swelling numbers of Allied troops on the march into Germany, the First Army opened a supply depot in Liege. This was designed to be the largest of its kind in the European Theater of Operations. It was only a part of the extensive preparations being made for the main drive. Anticipating the demands of the coming offensive, signal and communication facilities also were expanded from rear areas forward. New transmission equipment of various kinds was received, installed, and put in use. Protected against air attack, the Hadir Steel Works at Differdanga, Luxembourg, taken over by the Supreme Command a month earlier, were providing the First Army with another essential need. Heavy steel for construction and repair. The plant was run by the United States Corps of Engineers who checked the finished beams before shipment to the front. Lumber 2 was needed. Sawmills in Luxembourg and in Germany were taken over and run by our engineers. Board planking like that used on the Hurtgen Forest roads was produced at this mill to build the roads that would lead us to Berlin. We had to repair and sometimes rebuild the bridges destroyed in the Battle of Belgium so that materiel could be rolled forward over the network of rivers. One of the bridges over the mirrors was restored so that again traffic might flow. Special equipment for our armored vehicles. A new type track connector was installed to better grip the mud under the tread of the 3rd Armored Division. A method of coping with Siegfried Line fortifications was devised. Our men found that the dragon's teeth could be effectively buried with the help of a tank dozer and some mud. Worn vehicles, which had already seen heavy duty in earlier campaigns, were being reconditioned to perform their part in the new offensive. The same snowfall, which had halted operations in the Hurtgen Forest campaign, augmented the problems of preparation and supply. Behind the lines the tempo was accelerated as truck convoys rolled eastward in a continuous stream, building up a vast accumulation of food and equipment as the hour for attack approached. On 16 November the 1st Army struck to clear the area to the rear in the direction of the Cologne Plain. The main effort of the 1st Army's drive would be borne by three divisions of the 7th Corps. They would move north of the forest and along the superhighway from Aachen toward Duren. This part of the operation would be carried out in two parallel drives. The 1st Infantry and 3rd Armored Divisions would thrust eastward through Mausbach, while the 104th Division would push north after clearing Stollberg. The morning of the attack on the outskirts of Aachen, barrage balloons manned by the British were floated eastward to mark the line of enemy positions to be bombed. This was the first time that barrage balloons were used for this purpose. Later that morning our planes came over, bombers and fighter bombers, British and American. They softened up the tough road that the 1st and 9th Armies would follow in their joint attack to the rear. Our strategic bombers struck the key city of Duren, straddling the rear river. Duren had been converted into a strong point by the German High Command to compensate for the loss of Aachen. The civilian population had been evacuated. The buildings were forts, storehouses and billets. No advance to the rear or beyond it was possible without the neutralization of Duren. We dropped a saturation load that day, chiefly fragmentation bombs and incendiaries. They set huge fires, the smoke from which was visible for miles. Scanning the skies to note the end of the air raid, ground forces waited for the signal to attack. All armor was put in readiness, camouflage nets were removed. The color plaques mounted on their vehicles served to identify them to the air forces. This reconnaissance group was scheduled to lead the 104th Division's drive through Stolberg. Following the briefing shortly after noon on 16th November, the first section moved off to deploy along the road for reconnaissance. The following day, ground troops of the Division stood by waiting the order to join the attack on Stolberg. They advanced along a forest trail in a flanking movement designed to relieve pressure on two of our battalions which had been pinned down inside the forest. Assault guns of the 3rd Armored Division covered their movement from positions bordering the line of attack. The result of German counter fire, one of our battalion command posts near Stolberg, was completely knocked out by a direct artillery hit. Several American soldiers were wounded. The debris was so heavy in some places that one of their vehicles was buried up to the windshield. German townsfolk were injured by their own guns. This woman and other civilians received first aid from our medics. On 19th November, the 9th Air Force flew through heavy flak in support of the 1st as well as the 9th Army. 1,600 planes attacked frontline defenses that day. They strafed the Germans dug in at Stolberg who were holding up our advance. Fortified houses surrounding the town were peppered by our machine gunners. And they were being hit by heavy guns like this M-12 which could be speedily maneuvered under its own propulsion. Massed 3rd Armored Division tanks acted as artillery to pour in volley after volley of fire. And this at last cracked the defenses of Stolberg. The town was left to the remnants of the civilian population who were beginning to taste the meaning of war on their own soil as they moved their belongings out of the battered city. Stolberg was finally cleared on 21st November by the 104th Division. The town had been strewn with booby traps and mines. In some cases it was necessary to blast structures which could not otherwise be cleared. Two weeks later, the American flag flew over the city. While some units were busy cleaning up Stolberg, others had pushed north to enter Eschweiler on 20th November. This was the largest German city between Aachen and Duren. Quiet on the exterior, the city was alive with snipers. Mopping up began at once and continued for two days. Prisoners ferreted out of their hiding places were gathered into the net. In other parts of the city, the hunt for holdouts continued. Some of our infantry cruised the city streets on tanks as they searched out the enemy. By the end of the second day, we had virtually cleared Eschweiler of all its defenders. And our men were able to look forward to a dry night's sleep. Roadblocks like this, where the enemy had dynamited an overhead bridge, were rapidly cleared by our engineers. As a seal of victory, a military government unit arrived to take over the city's administration. On the following day, the attack pushed on from the outskirts of Eschweiler toward the next town to the east, Weisweiler, which fell to our troops two days later. As the line of attack pressed forward, we approached France, which lay across the Indy River. With all roads leading to the town under German fire, and with all bridges blown, our engineers had to bridge the river in order to enable the division to advance. An hour and a half after construction had started, the first jeep raced across the completed bridge. The attack on France progressed rapidly as heavy artillery was brought up to the line, and on 28th November, the town was ours. The 104th Division hammered at enemy defenses for another five days, fighting its way across the Indy River to take two more towns, thus carving off four-fifths of the way to the rear. Meanwhile, in the Mausbach area to the south, rockets launched the 3rd Armored Division's drive to the river. They blasted the opening wedge for this attack that would move eastward in a parallel line. This was the first time that rockets of this kind were used by the 1st Army. 75 launchers loosened 600 projectiles in a single volley. In the first 30 minutes of the attack, they fired 1,800 rockets. Immediately following the barrage, a task force covered by our tanks moved out from Mausbach toward Grasenich, the first objective. German guns got the range on the column and knocked out one of our vehicles. But the column continued to move ahead under the protection of our tanks. Lined up in artillery array, they flanked the advancing task force and rained fire on the enemy in Grasenich. The enemy, however, held us outside the town for two days. It was essential to keep a constant stream of armor moving up and forward. While some elements were struggling to advance, new units were brought up to the line. Every tank, every gun was needed so that the 3rd Armored Division could operate effectively in the center of the drive, supporting one infantry division on the north and another on the south. Men were needed, too. Troops of the 1st Infantry Division were moving up through the forest near Aachen to break the enemy defense lines, separating us from the rear. They were on their way to Grasenich. Using a ruined factory as an observation post, the attack was renewed. From this vantage point, we could shell and hit the Germans entrenched inside the town. From the edges of the forest, our men moved forward to exploit the work of the artillery units. Continuing to advance until late that day, they finally captured Grasenich on 19th November. Following up the advantage, our armor pressed forward, opening another strongly defended town. During one phase of the operation, some of our tanks had to move out over the open fields, where the tanks themselves were the only cover for our infantry. German counter fire was strong and accurate, hitting the lead tank and wounding its commander. Approaching Wehrath from another direction, men of the 1st Division entered the town which was under enemy Moher fire. We had to fight for Wehrath every inch of it, hugging the buildings for protection, hunting out snipers concealed in the shells of houses, ducking into ruins for shelter. Despite the tough resistance, however, the fanatic foe at last surrendered, and by the evening of 19th November, Wehrath too had been secured. For the next two weeks, the 1st Army continued to advance, fighting through the almost impregnable wall of closely spaced German towns, towns which had been skillfully fortified and bitterly defended, towns like this one, Hamekh, which the 1st Division captured on 20th November and from which it pressed onward. On the march to the rear, these troops moved ahead to punch their way through the next ring of towns blocking their path to the rear. Food and ammunition kept rolling forward despite the handicap of weather. While the main effort progressed in the Stolberg-Eschweiler area, the 4th and 8th Infantry Divisions renewed the previous offensive in the Hurtgen Forest. On the northern fringe, the 4th Division pushed off on 16th November. With field guns supporting the action, this second attempt to clear the Hurtgen Forest got underway. Our men advancing through the woods were sometimes scattered by enemy fire, but they kept on going, inching their way forward. Sometimes they were pinned down, but they crawled ahead. Casualties were heavy in all parts of the forest, but they received prompt attention from our ever-vigilant medical corps. Communications and heavy armor were brought up to support the infantry further up the hill. The advance continued successfully as the 4th Division drove on towards its objective, the town of Grosshau, where it crushed the last German resistance on 28th November. With continuous artillery support, this division was able to fulfill its assignment in the Hurtgen Forest Campaign. The 8th Division joined the action by attacking objectives in the heart of the forest. Supported by one combat command of the 5th Armored Division, it launched its drive on the morning of 26th November with a rocket barrage. The rockets were firing at enemy positions in Kleinhau. It was estimated in the field that one such battery equaled the light artillery power of five divisions. Air support came the following day, when fighter bombers flew more than a thousand sorties over the area. Then the artillery took over, concentrating on the target at close range, and two days later, Kleinhau was captured. Hurtgen 2 was finally cleared and secured late in November. One of the major objectives of the earlier campaign, Hurtgen presented a shell-shattered face to the weary men of the 8th Division who had battled for the town. Turning south, the division moved on to take two more towns, Brandenburg and Bergstein, and then they proceeded to mop up the remaining German positions between them and the Rürer River. At last these troops had a chance to relax. They had succeeded in clearing the Hurtgen Forest, and by 8th December had established one sector of the 1st Army Front along the west bank of the Rürer. Troop replacements were affected during the first week in December when the 1st Army paused before completing the drive. The 9th Infantry Division, fresh from a rest center in Belgium, moved up. It was on its way to relieve the battle-worn 1st Infantry Division, which had been in continuous action since the drive began. As the convoys passed each other, the 9th moved forward to take up positions at the front. Relief and relocations were also taking place in other areas during this brief lull in the fighting, as the 1st Army gathered the strength needed for its final leap to the Rürer River. One thrust of the new drive was launched early on 10th December from this town, Lukaburg, which had been hotly contested. Attacking through a hindern, we began to close in on Peer. On 12th December, after days of stubborn resistance, Peer showed the effects of the battle for its possession. The 104th Division moved on to wipe out German resistance along the west bank of the Rürer north of Duren. At the same time, the 3rd Armored Division pushed through another string of German towns defending Duren, separating the 1st Army from the Rürer in this area. It opened the attack on 10th December by shelling Schlich, one of the remaining strong points west of Duren. Men of the newly arrived 9th Infantry Division went into action in close coordination with the 3rd Armored Division. Objectives in Schlich are visible in the distance. Following the artillery barrage, armor and men moved forward with a new piece of equipment, a rotary mine exploder. While the column pressed doggedly onward, infantrymen rounded up some of the enemy whom they found hidden along the path of advance. Up ahead, our men had to dig for what shelter they could find. The lead tank had been hit. The fire spreading caused a series of explosions. Meanwhile, gunners at closer range continued the attack, pouring in a steady stream of fire until late in the day when the ceasefire order was given. Resistance in Schlich was quelled. The following day, 11th December, those defenders who had survived were assembled for questioning and inspection. The next objective, the strongly defended town of Geich, was already aflame from German and American shell fire when the 3rd Armored Division bore down upon it. Men and guns moved out first. A smoke screen was thrown up to cover the movement as the heavy armor swung into line. As the men entered the town, they found it wrecked and empty of human life. In other parts of the town, the fires burned on unchecked. They gave concrete evidence that the 3rd Armored Division had cleared the enemy from still one more section along the 1st Army Front. Simultaneously from the fringes of the Hurtgen Forest, the last of the three final drives got underway. Armor moved up and forward to strengthen and broaden the attack. Infantry of the 83rd Division recently brought up to the line were marching toward the last objective in this campaign, a suburb of Duren. By 13th December, we were driving the enemy ahead of us, pinning their backs to the river. The attack to clear the town, Girtzenich, began the same day. Our infantry was alert to sniper fire from the enemy, hidden and protected. In some parts of the town, resistance was so great that it was necessary to blast the Germans out of concealment, and to hunt them out individually, both inside the city and on the outskirts. Among those taken prisoner were a number of women who had been collaborating with German soldiers. As our men rounded up the remnants of the fanatic forces defending the rear, they were bringing to a successful finish the tough campaign launched a month earlier from Aachen. The 1st Army had won through to its objective and stood ready to pursue the foe in the next phase of the offensive into the heart of Germany.