Big Pigeon - Pottawattamie County, Iowa
  • Home
    • Usage Hints
    • Acknowledgments
    • Resources >
      • Free Sites
      • Pay Sites
      • Print Resources
      • Search Engines
      • Land Records
      • Resources - Denmark >
        • Finding Danish Ancestors
    • Project Mgt - Public >
      • Website Overview
      • Website Log
      • Project Overview
      • Mac Computer Use
      • Weebly Use
      • Reunion Use
      • Project History
      • Image Provenance
    • Project Mgt - Private >
      • Site Management
      • Site Plan
      • Contact List
      • Backup Info & Log
      • System Info & Log
      • Image Storage
      • E-Mail Log
      • Asset Organization
      • History Index
      • Binders & Photos
      • Upon My Death
      • Donations & Dispersal
  • Family
    • Christiansen
    • Rasmussen
    • Christiansen/Rasmussen News
    • Larsen/Larson
    • Hansen
    • Larsen/Hansen News
    • Allied Families
    • Wall of Honor
  • St. Paul's
    • Early Families >
      • Early Families Help
      • Early Families More Lists
    • St. Paul's Roots
    • St. Paul's Timeline
    • St. Paul's Resources
  • Pott. Co.
    • Early History >
      • Missouri River
      • Native Americans
      • Colonial Period
    • Pott. Co. History
    • Big Pigeon Area >
      • Area Towns >
        • Beebeetown
        • Crescent
        • Honey Creeek
        • Loveland
        • Neola
        • Persia
        • Underwood
        • Weston
        • Lost Locales
      • Danes from Dronninglund
      • Maps & Plats
      • Big Pigeon Galleries >
        • Gallery 1 - Area Historic Structures
        • Gallery 2 - Grange Sunday School
    • Avoca >
      • Gold Star Avoca
      • Cuppy's Grove
    • Pott. Co. Addendum
    • LDS History >
      • LDS Links
      • Gallery 1 - Mormon Maps
    • A House Divided >
      • Endnotes
      • Niels Peder Pedersen
      • Ane Katrine Pedersen
      • Kirsten Pedersen
      • Kirsten's Story >
        • Kirsten's LDS Daughters
        • Kirsten's Daughter, Karen Bondo
        • Kirsten's Son, Anders Johnson
        • Kirsten's Niece, Christine Mortensen
        • Kirsten's Niece, Anne Marie Larsen
    • More History >
      • Iowa History
      • American History
  • WWII Roster
    • The Roster >
      • Roster-A
      • Roster-B
      • Roster-C
      • Roster-D
      • Roster-EF
      • Roster-G
      • Roster-H
      • Roster-IJ
      • Roster-KL
      • Roster-M
      • Roster-NO
      • Roster-P
      • Roster-QR
      • Roster-S
      • Roster-TUV
      • Roster-WXYZ
      • Other In-Service Deaths
      • Post-Separation Deaths
    • Roster Notes >
      • Awards for Valor
      • Iowa Casualties & Dead
    • Homes >
      • Council Bluffs
      • Rural Pott. Co.
      • Cass Co.
      • Harrison Co.
      • Mills Co.
      • Montgomery Co.
      • Shelby Co.
      • Other Counties
      • Other States
    • Deaths >
      • War with Japan Deaths
      • The Atlantic Deaths
      • Mediterranean Theater Deaths
      • European Theater Deaths
      • Stateside Deaths
      • The Air Dead
      • The Sea Dead
    • Roster Photos >
      • Roster Photos - Contents
      • Photos of Individuals
      • Land War with Japan
      • Air War with Japan
      • Sea War with Japan
      • Land War with Germany
      • Air War with Germany
      • Sea War with Germany
      • Stateside
      • Memorials
      • Cemeteries
    • Roster Outliers
    • About the Roster
  • WWII
    • WWII Overview
    • US in WWII - Organization
    • US in WWII - Operations
    • WWII References >
      • WWII Free Sites
      • WWII Pay Sites
      • WWII Personnel Lists
    • WWII Personnel >
      • WWII Casualties
      • WWII Deaths
      • WWII Burials
      • Service Numbers
    • WWII Ground Forces
    • WWII in The Air
    • WWII at Sea
    • WWII at Home
    • Civilian Victims
    • Strategic Bombing
    • The Cold War
    • World War I >
      • Iowa In World War I
  • WWII-Japan
    • WWII - Japan Overview
    • Japan Ascendant
    • US Navy War w/ Japan >
      • US Submarine Force
      • Third & Fifth Fleets
    • US Air Force War w/ Japan >
      • Fifth Air Force
      • Seventh Air Force
      • Thirteenth Air Force
    • Japan Lashes Out >
      • Pearl Harbor
      • Guam & Wake Island
      • Malaya & Singapore Lost
      • The Dutch Indies Lost
      • The Philippines Lost
      • New Guinea & Solomons
    • Japan Overreaches >
      • Coral Sea
      • Midway
    • South & SW Pacific >
      • Solomons Naval War
      • Solomon Is. - Guadalcanal
      • SE New Guinea - Papua
      • NE New Guinea - Lae to Madang
      • Solomon Is. - New Georgia
      • Solomon Is. - Bougainville
      • Bismarck Archipelago
      • Western New Guinea
    • North Pacific >
      • Alaska
      • Attu & Kiska
      • Pacific Lend-Lease Routes
    • Central Pacific >
      • Gilbert Islands
      • Marshall Islands
      • Mariana Islands
      • Palau Islands
      • Pacific Comm. Zone
    • Philippines Liberated >
      • Leyte
      • Battle of Leyte Gulf
      • Philippines Naval War
      • Luzon
      • Southern Philippines
    • Iwo Jima & Okinawa >
      • Iwo Jima
      • Land Battle of Okinawa
      • Naval Battle of Okinawa
    • China-Burma-India >
      • China - 1941-45
      • India - 1942-45
      • Burma - 1941-45
      • Crossing the Hump
    • Japan Overpowered >
      • Japan Under Attack
      • Strategic Air War - Japan
      • Japan Vanquished
  • WWII-Germany
    • WWII-Germany Overview
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • The MTO >
      • North Africa & Sicily >
        • Operation Torch
        • The Race to Tunis
        • Tunisia
        • Sicily
      • Italian Mainland >
        • Salerno-Naples-Foggia
        • To the Gustav Line
        • Battle of Anzio
        • Cassino - the Gustav Line
        • Cassino to Rome
        • Rome To Florence
        • Northern Apennines
        • The Po Valley
      • The MTO Sea War
      • The MTO Air War
      • MTO Comm. Zone
    • The ETO >
      • Normandy Campaign >
        • D-Day
        • Normandy after D-Day
      • France Liberated >
        • Normandy Breakout
        • Northern France
        • Southern France
      • War of Attrition >
        • Netherlands - Fall 1944
        • Rhineland - Fall 1944
        • Third Army in Lorraine - Fall 1944
        • Seventh Army in Lorraine & Alsace, Fall 1944
      • Enemy Counteroffensives >
        • Ardennes/Bulge Overview
        • Ardennes/Bulge Details
        • Alsace - Nordwind
      • Siegfried Line - 1945 >
        • Operation Blackcock
        • First US Effort
        • Roer River Dams
        • VIII Corps to Prüm
        • XII Corps to Bitburg
        • XX Corps to Trier
      • To the Rhine >
        • Ops. Veritable & Grenade
        • Alsace - Winter 1945
        • Patton's Probing Attacks
        • Operation Lumberjack
        • Operation Undertone
        • Ninth & First Armies
        • Third & Seventh Armies
      • Central Europe >
        • Crossing the Rhine
        • Central Germany
      • The ETO Air War
      • The ETO Sea War
      • ETO Comm. Zone
    • The Eastern Front
Picture
Picture
Siegfried Line
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII - Germany > ETO > Siegfried Line - 1945 > Roer River Dams, updated by RAC 25 Jun 2022.  Incomplete.
The 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 borders with the Netherlands and Belgium. The relatively featureless area on the map between the Aachen area and the dams is the part of the Hürtgen Forest, the scene of protracted, bloody and on the whole unsuccessful battles 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

The US Ninth Army was scheduled to cross the Roer River from Düren downstream 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 Roer River dams, the main dam, Schwammenauel, and the smaller, Urft, at the bottom right of the accompanying map.

The Roer River dams area was steep and wooded, and 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 on the southeast edge of the Hürtgen Forest

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 Feb, 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

Sources for the WWII Siegfried Line - 1945 > Roer River Dams webpage:
  • For this webpage, I used The U.S. Army in World War II, European Theater of Operations, The Last Offensive, by Charles B. MacDonald, found online at https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Last/index.html#index.
  • ​The Hürtgen Forest area map is courtesy of mapcarta.com. 
  • The Roer River dams map is taken from The Siegfried Line Campaign and was found  at https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/siegfried/siegfried%20line/siegfried-ch14.htm.
  • For my summary of the seizure of the Roer River dams, I used https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Last/USA-E-Last-4.html#cn10, Chapter IV, The Roer River Dams, of The Last Offensive.
  • The Conclusion of the Roer River Dams Campaign map is taken from Akhil Kadidal's The Green Hell, The Battle for Hürtgen Forest, September 1944 - February 1945,  https://chindits.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/the-green-hell-4e1.pdf . Anyone on a heritage tour of the Hürtgen Forest area should carry this book.

Pottawattamie Area WW II Dead - Siegfried Line - 1945 > Roer River Dams:
  • Taken from the bigpigeon.us WWII Roster module.
03-05 - Siegfried Line - 1945 > Roer River Dams: (dead, updated )
Proudly powered by Weebly