Brutal Battle In the Forest

Although Hurtgen Forest is one of the battles chiseled into the new National World War II Memorial, it is not nearly as well known as the Battle of the Bulge, fought during the same winter, and it is often overlooked in military studies. One reason for the lack of study is that many American units were defeated in Hurtgen Forest, "and we follow winners," said Lt. Col. Thomas Bradbeer. He uses the battle in courses he teaches at the Army's Command and General Staff College to get officers thinking about what to do when everything on the battlefield works against them.

From a distance of 60 years, the enduring memory of those who survived the battle is one of helplessness.

"It was a death factory," said Leonard Lomell, a lieutenant who was sent to Hurtgen Forest as a commando in the 2nd Ranger Battalion. "One way or another, they got you. You froze to death or you got sick or you got blown to bits."

In early December 1944, Lomell's company was ordered to assault Hill 400, named for its height in feet. The attack on the German position began just before dawn.

The enemy saw the soldiers coming. Artillery shells burst among the treetops 70 feet above, showering down pieces of rock, metal and wood.

Lomell, 84, a retired lawyer who lives in Toms River, N.J., recalls running 100 yards across a slippery field of ice and snow, zigzagging to avoid the mortar and artillery fire. Only 20 of the 68 men who started out with him made it to the top of the hill. Then it got worse.

Though the Germans retreated from the hill, they launched a mortar and artillery barrage that lasted all day, all night and through the following day. The impact bounced soldiers high off the ground, causing serious concussions.

"There were tons of shrapnel, with no place to hide," said Lomell, who was evacuated and spent a year recuperating from his injuries.

U.S. forces held Hill 400 for 2 1/2 days. Then the Germans regained control and kept it until February.

Pvt. Edmund J. Lopes, an immigrant from the Azores Islands who was drafted and made a U.S. citizen, in that order, on his 18th birthday in 1943, remembers finding himself in the middle of prolonged shelling in the town of Kommerscheidt in November.

The German counterattack started about 3 in the morning. Panzer tanks rumbled in. Lopes saw a wounded friend staggering toward him and took him to an aid station. That act may have saved Lopes' life as well. He was one of only three or four members of his platoon who survived the day.

"When tanks are coming at you and you've just got a rifle, what can do you?" said Lopes, 78, who lives in Newport, R.I.

Pennegar says it would have helped to have three eyes -- one to look ahead, one to watch for mines and trip wires, and one to search for snipers and artillery spotters who hid in the dense foliage and radioed in targets.

"You had to move slow and deliberate," he said. "It was almost painful, the mental strain of trying to look for so many things that could kill you."