Comment on the report Colonel Haseo Neitzel of the 89th Inf Div in the West Wall sector at Monschau.

The report of the former first general staff officer of the division comprises the period from 13 September to the beginning of October 1944. The division was practically broken up when it reached the above-mentioned West Wall sector after retreat from France. Contrary to all expectations the Americans did not follow immediately. The division gained time to prepare for further operations, incorporating such different units as security troops, battalions of leave personnel etc. It proved possible to make the troops regain their self-assurance! When at the beginning of October, the division operations officer left the unit they were facing the combat ahead of them with confidence.

The report does not contain important combat actions, but it describes in detail the difficulties the division headquarters faced in order to get the unit fit for combat, and it shows the difficult general conditions due to the over-all situation.

On 8 September 1944 the 89th Infantry Division had been comitted by the Seventh Army to the area southwest of Verviers in order to prevent, after the loss of Liege, a breakthrough threatening south of the Vesdre River. The retreat of the 89th Infantry Division to the West Wall has teen described in the report of Seventh Army (MS # B-730).

Neither during the retreat nor after entering the West Wall did the 89th Division face an enemy point of
main effort, its sector was one of the f'ew where even after having occupied the West Wall, the outpost area remained in German hands.

As a consequence, the report of Colonel Neitzel does not contain any descriptions of specific actions. The
division was not even directly effected by the battle for the Hurtgen Forest which began later on.

The report is, however, of interest, because it gives a detailed description of the conditions faced by one of the divisions which took part in the withdrawal from the Atlantic to the West Wall. In this regard the 89th Infantry Division can serve as an example of the conditions faced by almost all the divisions subordinate to Seventh Army. Not only in the sector of the 89th Infantry Division, but also in the other sectors, an enemy attack immediately following the occupation of the West Wall by the German forces, could have achieved a successful breakthrough of the West Wall.