The Operations of the 26th Infantry Regiment
(1st Infantry Division) in the Attack on the Hürtgen Forest
16 November - 5 December 1944
(Rhineland Campaign)
(1st Infantry Division) in the Attack on the Hürtgen Forest
16 November - 5 December 1944
(Rhineland Campaign)
By Major Maurice A. Belisle
LESSONS
- Terrain essential to the success of the attack and defense of an objective must be held prior to the attack to secure that objective.
- Replacements should never join an unit in the line when it is in contact with the enemy.
- When fighting in wooded terrain fire lanes should be avoided.
- The most effective use of defensive and/or supporting fires can be had only when accurate locations of friendly units are known.
- When stopped for the night in heavy woods it is believed that a limited withdrawal of the main force for any reason is questionable if not entirely erroneous.
- Timely information of the enemy and the terrain is essential to a successful attack.
- A unit attacking in woods on a wide front is slowed down to the extent that casualties increase at an accelerating rate.
- In heavily wooded terrain the importance of contact increases in degree as observation decreases.