Operation Queen was an American operation during World War II on the Western Front at the German Siegfried Line.
The operation was aimed against the River Roer as a staging point for a subsequent thrust over the river to the Rhine into Germany. It was conducted by the First and Ninth U.S. Armies.
The offensive commenced on 16 November 1944 with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombings of the war. However, the Allied advance was unexpectedly slow, against heavy German resistance, especially in the Hürtgen Forest through which the main thrust of the offensive was carried out. By mid-December, the Allies finally reached the Roer and tried to capture its important dams, when the Germans launched their own offensive, dubbed Wacht am Rhein. The ensuing Battle of the Bulge led to the immediate cessation of Allied offensive efforts into Germany until February 1945.
Background
In June 1944, the Allies conducted the invasion in Northern France and opened a new front. After the Allied breakout from Normandy, the German Wehrmacht was involved in a string of disastrous battles in July and August, most notably the Falaise pocket. Following those events, the German defense in northern and western France disintegrated, leading to a hasty retreat of the German forces. The rapid Allied advance together with the ongoing march of the Red Army in the east led the Allied High command to believe that the Wehrmacht was about to collapse and total victory could be achieved by Christmas 1944. The Allies, therefore, launched a high-risk plan for a direct thrust through the Netherlands into Germany, called Operation Market Garden. This overly ambitious plan failed, as the Wehrmacht was able to reorganize itself and consolidate its strength. By mid-September, the Allied advance abruptly ended, as the Allies suffered from a logistics crisis, outrunning their supply lines. This gave the Germans further time to prepare for the upcoming Allied offensives. The Germans now could man the fortifications of the Westwall (Siegfried Line), although its old bunkers were more symbolic than a real obstacle for the Allies.
First thrust into the Hürtgen Forest
In the north in Belgium, the Allies were still involved in the Battle of the Scheldt, while in the south in France the Lorraine Campaign was still ongoing. In the center, the Battle of Aachen was fought from 2–21 October at the German border. The heavy German resistance upset Allied plans for a fast resumption of the rapid advance. As preparation for Operation Queen, a preliminary offensive into the Hürtgen Forest had to be carried out, to secure the flanks against a possible German counterattack out of the forest. The goal was to clear a pathway to the important road junction at Düren, to gain a respectable starting position for Queen. The 9th Infantry Division was already engaged in the forest since September, so only moderate German resistance was expected. On 2 November, three days before the anticipated start of Operation Queen, the offensive against the town of Schmidt was launched by the 28th Division against the German 275th Division. The town was captured, but the Germans reacted swiftly by reallocating forces of the 89th Infantry Division and mobile reserves from the 116th Panzer Division, which drove the Allies out of the town, transforming the battle into a bloody stalemate.
Planning
The Allied High Command planned a large offensive in the area of the Ninth U.S. Army together with the First U.S. Army and parts of the British 2nd Army against the Roer River, intending to establish bridgeheads at Linnich, Jülich and Düren. The First Army – already stationed near the Hürtgen Forest – had to carry out the main effort through the Hürtgen Forest toward the Roer. The Ninth Army had to advance north of the forest through the Roer plains. The British XXX Corps – together with units from the U.S. XIII Corps – had to reduce the Geilenkirchen salient in the north in a different operation named Operation Clipper. The long term target after the Roer was crossed was to reach the Rhine and establish bridgeheads at Krefeld and Düsseldorf to secure further advances inside Germany after the winter. A great number of American and British strategic bombers were to conduct a series of tactical assaults in the area to cut supply lines and destroy enemy infrastructure, and also to attack the enemy defenders inside their positions. The entire operation was codenamed Queen. The 8th U.S. Air Force was to bomb the fortifications around Eschweiler and Aldenhoven, while the medium bombers of the 9th Air Force were assigned to the second line of defense around Jülich and Langerwehe. At the same time, the RAF Bomber Command was to hit the traffic centres of Jülich and Düren hard; the smaller towns of Heinsberg, Erkelenz and Hückelhoven were designated as secondary targets.
Initially, the starting date of the offensive was set for 5 November, later 10 November, but because of bad weather it was delayed until 16 November. The ground offensive was to begin immediately after the air raids, allowing the defenders no time to reestablish fortifications, supply routes and communications.
German planning was entirely different. Running out of strategic options, the Wehrmacht planned an all-out counteroffensive in the West, codenamed Wacht am Rhein. The first draft of the plan was already completed in secret in October 1944 and was aimed against the Ardennes, mirroring the successful campaign in 1940 against France. The plan required for the best divisions of the Wehrmacht to be held back from the autumn fighting, to gain time to build them up for the planned offensive. For the successful execution of the plan, the holding of the Roer river line was deemed as absolutely important, to prevent the Allies from a flanking attack. The German plan for the November–December Campaign was, therefore, to hold the Roer river line with a minimum of available forces until the Ardennes Offensive could be launched.
The Germans also had a card up their sleeve. With control over the dams on the Roer, they could release the water from them and flood the Roer valley and everything else downstream of it as far as the Meuse and into the Netherlands. That would cause large scale destruction and destroy Allied bridges over the Roer, isolating all troops east of the river. The Allies did not fully recognize the strategic importance of the dams for some time, and only days before the end of the offensive they made their first specific moves towards them.
Opposing forces
The Allied forces participating in the operation were the U.S. First and Ninth Armies, assigned to Omar Bradley's 12th Army Group. The First Army's units for the operation consisted of the V and VII Corps, that latter assigned for the main thrust through the Hürtgen Forest, with V Corps protecting its southern flank. For the upcoming offensive, both armies were heavily reinforced. Total strength of the First Army rose from about 250,000 in September to about 320,000 before the offensive, although only about 120,000 troops would participate in the main operation. The First Army's tank strength was about 700 tanks. In October the Allies suffered from major supply shortcomings, but by early November those had been mostly resolved. The Ninth Army was somewhat smaller, consisting mainly of the XIX Corps and some independent divisions, with the XIII Corps in reorganization. As support for the ground operations, the Allies planned their largest tactical bombing of the war, employing more than 4,500 planes.
After the chain of disasters in the summer of 1944, the Allies expected the Wehrmacht to be unable to recover, but this was not the case. Although manpower losses were enormous, the Wehrmacht sought to compensate for this with transferring of men from the Reserve Army, the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine into frontline troops for rebuilding their forces. Regarding industrial production the situation was even better. Despite the increasing Allied bombing campaign and the loss of territories and factories, Germany reached its peak of wartime production in the autumn of 1944, after the reforms of Albert Speer and the increased use of forced labour. For the preparing of the Ardennes Offensive, the 5th Panzer Army was pulled out of the front and replaced by the 15th Army, although for deception purposes its name was changed to conceal this fact. The Allies, therefore, faced two armies: the 15th army under the command of General der Infanterie Gustav-Adolf von Zangen which was positioned in the Hürtgen Forest; and the 7th Army under the command of General der Panzertruppe Erich Brandenberger was positioned in the north in the Roer plains. Although nominally an equal force to the Allies on paper, the Germans were heavily outnumbered. In some sectors, the ratio of attacker to defender was about 5 to 1. The reason for this was the acute manpower shortage that the Germans were experiencing. Most of the German units were seriously understrength, with some divisions consisting of only a few thousand men. However, heavy entrenchment and the availability of considerable tank and artillery support went some way to compensate for those problems. The German troops were commanded by OB West Generalfeldmarshall Gerd von Rundstedt and commander of Army Group B Generalfeldmarshall Walter Model, with the latter considered a skilled defense specialist.
Offensive
Preliminary air raids
On 16 November 1944 between 11:13 and 12:48, the Allied bombers conducted the preliminary bombings of Operation Queen. 1,204 heavy bombers of the U.S. 8th Air Force hit Eschweiler, Weisweiler and Langerwehe with 4,120 bombs, while 339 fighter bombers of the U.S. 9th Air Force attacked Hamich, Hürtgen and Gey with 200 short tons (180 t) of bombs. At the same time, 467 Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster heavy bombers attacked Düren and Jülich; 180 British bombers hit Heinsberg.
The result of the bombing was mixed. The German towns being hit suffered from severe destruction. German communications after the bombing were heavily impaired, and there was a considerable effect on morale, especially of units consisting of younger and more inexperienced troops. However, the direct damage dealt to the German frontline troops was low, and casualties were few. Allied air commanders admitted that the bombing did not measure up to expectations. About 12 aircraft were shot down during the initial bombing by meager anti-aircraft fire.
First Army's advance through the Hürtgen Forest
VII Corps November fighting
Together with the bombing raids, heavy artillery bombardments preceded the main thrust of J. Lawton Collins' VII Corps. Opposed to his units were the shattered forces of LXXXI Corps, commanded by Friedrich Köchling. The LXXXI Corps consisted of three divisions: the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, the 246th Infantry Division and the 12th Volksgrenadier Division. Another unit, the 47th Volksgrenadier Division, was in the process of being transferred to the front. It was mostly made up of 18– and 19-year-old Luftwaffe personnel. All the German divisions were seriously understrength, but mobile artillery and tank reserves were available.
The attack of VII Corps commenced with a two-pronged attack with 1st Infantry Division on the right and the 104th Infantry Division on the left. In its initial attack 1st Division was only able to make ground slowly against the 47th VGD around Hamich. Casualties were heavy, especially after reinforced counterattacks on Hamich and nearby Hill 232 by the 47th VGD and still-present mobile reserves from the 116th Panzer Division. After four days of fighting Hamich was taken, but 1st Division had only advanced about 3.2 km (2.0 mi), with casualties already numbering more than 1,000 men.
Meanwhile, Collins ordered the American 3rd Armored Division to divide its constituent combat commands. CCA was assigned to assist the 104th Division, while CCB would act independently to take four villages (Werth, Koettenich, Scherpenseel, and Hastenrath) in the northwestern fringes of the Hürtgen Forest, defended by the 12th VGD. This small corridor between the 1st and the 104th Division was one of the few places suitable for an armored thrust. Although CCB was able to accomplish its task in three days, the heavy mud had hindered its movement and tank casualties were heavy; CCB lost 49 out of 69 tanks.