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Looking Upstream - The Urft River Dam and Reservoir
The Urft dam and reservoir
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany > ETO > Siegfried Line, 1945 > Roer River Dams, © 2025 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 24 Jun 2025

Allied forces needed to cross the Roer River floodplain to secure the left bank of the Rhine River preliminary to the planned crossing of the lower Rhine. Upstream dams controlled water flow on the Roer River. Attempts to seize these dams failed.
The major Roer River dam impoundments appear in the lower right corner of the accompanying map. Note the German city of Aachen in the upper-left corner, near the Netherlands and Belgium borders. The relatively featureless area on the map between the Aachen area and the dams is the Hürtgen Forest, the scene of protracted, bloody and on the whole unsuccessful battles between the US First Army and the German forces in the Fall of 1944.

Downstream from the dams, the Roer River passes through Düren in the upper right corner and then flows northwest to the Maas/Meuse River in the southeastern Netherlands. By the end of January 1945, all of the left bank of the Roer downstream from Düren was in Allied hands.
The Roer River dams area
The Hürtgen Forest area
 In December 1944, during the perilous first week of the Battle of the Bulge to the southwest of the region shown above, US VII Corps headquarters assumed a sector of the Bulge and the Ninth Army's XIX  Corps assumed control of the former V Corps sector. On 30? Jan 1945, the 78th Infantry Division began an offensive northeast towards Schmidt with the goal of seizing the Schwammenauel Dam.
The US Ninth Army was scheduled to cross the Roer River downstream from Düren on February 10. However, crossing the Roer with the upstream dams still in enemy hands was not advisable. It was a priority to first seize the two largest dams, the lower dam, Schwammenauel, and the Urft, at the bottom right of the accompanying map.

The steep, wooded Roer dams area lay on The German Siegfried Line of fortifications. Seizing this area was not an easy feat, as indicated by two failed attacks in the Schmidt area northwest of the dams the previous October.
The Roer River Dams
The Roer River dams southeast of the Hürtgen Forest
A company of the 9th Infantry Division captured the Urft Dam on 4 February.

​The task of seizing the Schwammenauel dam was assigned to the 78th Infantry Division, headquartered at Røtgen on the west edge of the above map.  This division had successfully defended the Monshau area just to the south during the recent Battle of the Bulge. On 2 February, the 78th was reassigned from the Ninth to the First Army.

​The 78th was supported by various other units, including British armored units, Combat Command R of the 7th Armored Division, two regiments of the 82nd Airborne Division, and, near the end, the 60th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division.
Conclusion of the Roer River Dams Campaign
Conclusion of the Roer River Dams Campaign
The Schwammenauel Dam was finally seized on 10 February. However, damage to the dam's plumbing caused flooding downstream and delayed the Ninth Army's advance across the Roer by two weeks.
Sources for Big Pigeon's WWII Germany > The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945 > Roer River Dams webpage:
Major Sources: Sources for webpage images:
Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - WWII Germany > The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945 > Roer River Dams:
  • Access full individual records through bigpigeon.us > WWII Dead > Roster Records.
  • 78th Inf. Div. corps assignment:  V Corps, 5 Dec '44 --> VII Corps, 18 Dec '42 --> XIX Corps, 22 Dec '44 --> V Corps, 2 Feb '45 --> XVIII Corps, 3 Feb '45 --> III Corps, 12 Feb '45.
03-06 - WWII Germany > The ETO > Siegfried Line 1945 > Roer River Dams: (three dead, updated 30 Jun 2025)
​​† Collins, Robert W., SN 37-665-559, US Army, Boone Co.
  • Co. I, 310th Inf. Regt., 78th Inf. Div., XVIII Airborne Corps, First Army; KIA 5 Feb 1945 Steckenborn, SW of Schmidt, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; direct hit from 88mm artillery shell.
  • WWII Germany > The ETO > Siegfried Line, 1945 > Roer River Dams
† Grage, Glen Edward, SN 37-116-924, US Army, Crawford Co.
  • Co. B, 311th Inf., 78th Inf. Div., XIX Corps, Ninth Army; KIA 25 Jan 1945 near Simmerath, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany;
  • WWII Germany > The ETO > Siegfried Line, 1945 > Roer River Dams
† Hemsted, John, SN 39-925-782, US Army, Cass Co. & Bannock Co., ID
  • Co. C, 60th Inf. Regt., 9th Inf. Div., V Corps, First Army; KIA 3 Feb 1945 in Monschau Forest between Monschau & Gemünd, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, head wound from artillery shell fragments.
  • WWII Germany > The ETO > Siegfried Line, 1945 > Roer River Dams