Battle of Heartbreak Crossroads: Difference between revisions

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On the eastern side of the Siegfried Line was an excellent road network leading to the [[Roer River]] dams a few miles to the northeast; the Allies' next goal. The Allies had tried bombing the dams without success, and a ground campaign was decided upon. The Americans were assigned to capture the crossroads with the goal of securing a jumping-off point for an attack on the dams, or failing that, force the Germans to blow them up.<ref name="Hersko"/> The dams were important to the Germans because they could be used defensively to control the flow and depth of the Roer River, delaying or even completely blocking Allied advances at will.

 

A two-lane secondary road ran laterally behind the division center and right wing, leaving the Höfen road at the Wahlerscheid crossroads, which was guarded by a constellation of 25 concrete pillboxes. The Germans had cleared the ground near the crossroads of trees to give their troops a clear [[field of fire (weaponry)|field of fire]], and laced the area with antipersonnel mines and masses of barbed wire six to ten deep.<ref name=macdonald2/><ref name=story2nd>{{cite web|title=Story of the 2nd Infantry Division|url=https://archive.org/details/FromD1To105|publisher=Stars and Strips|accessdate=4 July 2015}}</ref>It continued south through the Monschau Forest and the twin hamlets of Rocherath and Krinkelt, then intersected a main eastwest road at Büllingen.<ref name=Cole>Cole, Kenneth [https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ardennes:_Battle_of_the_Bulge/Chapter_V The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge]</ref>

[[Image:Walter M. Robertson.jpg|thumb|General Walter M. Robertson, commanding officer of the 2nd Infantry Division.]]

 

The U.S. soldiers were met with concentrated fire from hundreds of German weapons. Shortly after the fire fight had begun a patrol from Company E wriggled out into the clearing for more than 80 yards to reach a slight elevation before the barbed wire barrier.<ref group=notes>Although not obvious due to the surrounding forest, the Dreiborn and Höfen-Alzen ridges join a few 100 metres/yards south of the crossroads to form the highest peak ({{convert|655|m|yards}}) in this part of the Ardennes.</ref> about {{convert|80|yards|m}} from the edge of the forest. There the men were stopped by heavy machine gun fire. It was quickly discovered, however, that from this rise in ground a much better view of the pillboxes could be obtained than from the edge of the clearing. Word was sent back to the lines. Artillery was notified. Accompanied by two radio operators, Capt. Homer G. Ross, of Elyria, Ohio, Company Commander of Company E, crawled out in the face of enemy guns to join the platoon. From the middle of the clearing, he directed artillery fire by radio and succeeded in calling down direct hits on pillboxes. The patrol, however, could not breach the barbed wire, and, after the artillery mission had been fired, withdrew.<ref>{{cite web |title=From D+1 to 105: The Story Of The Second Infantry Division |url=https://ia802605.us.archive.org/22/items/FromD1To105/FromD1To105.pdf |publisher=MCoE HQ Donovan Research Library}}</ref> The fight continued for two more days with little progress. On the first day, the battle for the crossing earned the nickname that stuck with it after the war, the Battle of Heartbreak Crossroads.<ref>{{cite book| title=Battle of the Bulge, Vol 1: The Losheim Gap/Holding the Line |first1=Hans |last1=Wijers|isbn=978-0811735926 |publisher=Stackpole Books |date=October 21, 2009 |pages=448}}</ref>{{rp|324}} The Americans pulled their troops back and called in American artillery, including the huge [[155 mm Long Tom|155mm Long Tom cannon]], which repeatedly targeted the pill boxes.<ref name=story2nd/> The Americans tried to clear the waves of barbed wire with [[bangalore torpedo]]es but their progress was slowed by wet fuses.

 

On the south side of the road, two U.S. squads crawling on their stomachs found a way through the well-emplaced German guns and cut the barbed wire to forge a path between the German defenses. They penetrated a trench line behind the pill boxes and held off German patrols for five hours, but when darkness fell they returned to the American lines. On December 15, an American patrol advanced once more through the breach in the barbed wire and captured a portion of the trench line. They alerted the regimental command post, and Colonel Higgens, commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, led two companies of GIs into the trenches behind the pill boxes. By the early morning of December 16, they gained control of several pillboxes, but didn't have sufficient [[TNT]] on hand to destroy them.<ref name=story2nd/> On December 16, the 9th Infantry Regiment pressed the attack another {{convert|1500|yards|m}} against stubborn resistance and captured the crossroads and the road network around it.<ref name=story2nd/>

 

{{main|Battle of the Bulge}}

The U.S. First Army thought the Germans might initiate a spoiling attack to try to break up the U.S. drive.<ref name=spiller>{{cite book|last1=Spiller|first1=Roger J.|title=Combined Arms in Battle Since 1939|date=1992|publisher=U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Press|url=http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/spiller.pdf|location=Fort Leavenworth, Kansas|accessdate=25 June 2015|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626145037/http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/spiller.pdf|archivedate=26 June 2015}}</ref> When the Germans launched a 90-minute artillery barrage on December 16, 1944 at 05:30, the Americans were only aware of what was happening in their sector.<ref name="quarrie">{{cite book|url=|title=The Ardennes Offensive: VI Panzer Armee|work=Osprey Order of Battle Series|last= Quarrie|first=Bruce|year=1999|publisher=Osprey Publishing}}</ref> General Hodges remained convinced throughout 16 December that the counter-attack was nothing more than a spoiling offensive, as did General [[Omar Bradley]] at [[Twelfth United States Army Group|Twelfth Army Group HQ]]. Gerow called Hodges in Paris on the afternoon of the 16th to request permission to call off the attack on Hurtgen and reinforce the 2nd and 99th ID. Hodges said no. The 2nd ID continued to attack eastward throughout 16 December, but late in the evening they were told to hold their lines.<ref name=whiting>{{cite book |first1=Charles |last1=Whiting |pages= 312|title=Battle Of Hurtgen Forest | publisher =Da Capo Press |date=October 9, 2007}}</ref>{{rp|206–209}}