bigpigeon.us webpage WWII - Germany > ETO > Siegfried Line - 1945 > Roer River Dams, updated by RAC 25 Jun 2022. Incomplete.
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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 Hürtgen Forest area
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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 on the southeast edge of the Hürtgen Forest
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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
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Sources for the WWII Siegfried Line - 1945 > Roer River Dams webpage:
Pottawattamie Area WW II Dead - Siegfried Line - 1945 > Roer River Dams:
- 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.