The Battle of Hürtgen Forest: The History of the Longest Battle Fought in Germany during World War II
Written by Charles River Editors
Narrated by Colin Fluxman
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
While the Battle of the Bulge is the most famous fighting in that theater after D-Day, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest cost American forces almost 60,000 battle casualties, and over 70,000 non-battle casualties from illness and accidents. Countless soldiers suffered from what was then known as “combat fatigue,” leaving them psychologically broken and no longer capable of fighting. British and Canadian forces, who became involved in the latter stages of the battle, suffered an additional 16,000 casualties.
In exchange for these casualties, little ground was gained and no tactical or strategic advantage was achieved. Indeed, the battle was a resounding defeat for the Allies, which explains why it was barely reported in contemporary newspapers. Few reporters were allowed into the “Green Hell” that the forest became and, while thousands of Allied soldiers became casualties, newspaper reports at home claimed that the front was generally quiet.
It wasn’t until much later that historians revealed the extent and horror of the fighting in this relatively small forest on the border between Belgium and Germany. It took almost 50 years for the first major book to be published about the battle, despite the fact it was the longest single battle ever fought by the U.S. Army. When it became known, the story of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest was horrifying. Nowhere else in World War II were so many Allied lives lost over such a long period and for so little ground gained. Many U.S. Army units suffered 50% casualty rates during the battle, and a few units suffered 100% casualties during the battle. Some commanders refused to order their men forward, and at one point, the advance was measured in terms of one dead or wounded U.S. soldier for every square yard of ground gained. The 50 square miles of the Hürtgen forest became known to the soldiers of the U.S. Army simply as the “Death Factory.”
More audiobooks from Charles River Editors
The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gnosticism: The History and Legacy of the Mysterious Ancient Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ur: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Sumerian Capital Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The East India Company: The History of the British Empire's Most Famous Mercantile Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineveh: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Assyrian Capital Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legends of the West: Deadwood, South Dakota Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Arnold Rothstein and Meyer Lansky: The Lives and Legacies of the Gangsters Who Reformed Organized Crime in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMysteries of the South: Ghosts, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena in Dixie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mossad: The History and Legacy of Israel’s National Intelligence Agency Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Life and Legacy of the Father of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden: The History of 19th Century America's Most Famous Murder Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denisovans: The History of the Extinct Archaic Humans Who Spread Across Asia during the Paleolithic Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patrice Lumumba: The Life and Legacy of the Pan-African Politician Who Became Congo's First Prime Minister Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Medieval England: The History of England from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Tudor Dynasty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cambrian Period: The History and Legacy of the Start of Complex Life on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Midwest: Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena in America's Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle of Hamburger Hill: The History and Legacy of One of the Vietnam War's Most Controversial Battles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung: The Pioneering Lives and Works of History’s Most Influential Psychologists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Battle of Hürtgen Forest
Related audiobooks
Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The German Aces Speak: World War II Through the Eyes of Four of the Luftwaffe's Most Important Commanders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blitzkrieg: From the Ground Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battle Hardened: An Infantry Officer's Harrowing Journey from D-Day to V-E Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sheer Misery: Soldiers in Battle in WWII Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Foot Soldier for Patton: The Story of a "Red Diamond" Infantryman with the US Third Army Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Death in the Trenches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBattle for the Ruhr: The German Army's Final Defeat in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smashing Hitler's Panzers: The Defeat of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division in the Battle of the Bulge Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Landing on the Edge of Eternity: Twenty-Four Hours at Omaha Beach Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World at War: Amazing Stories of Bravery, Survival and Courage from 1914-1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last of the 357th Infantry: Harold Frank's WWII Story of Faith and Courage Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On a Knife's Edge: The Ukraine, November 1942-March 1943 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5First Over There: The Attack on Cantigny, America's First Battle of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Battle of the Marne: The History and Legacy of the First Major Allied Victory in World War I Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5WW2: Spies, Snipers and Tales of the World at War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doughboys: America and the First World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVerdun: The Lost History of the Most Important Battle of World War I, 1914-1918 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Halbe, 1945: Eyewitness Accounts from Hell's Cauldron Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World War I: An Enthralling Guide from Beginning to End Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDuel Under the Stars: The Memoir of a Luftwaffe Night Pilot in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sand and Steel: The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Wars & Military For You
77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kill Anything That Moves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin - Book Summary: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead And Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Founding Mothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Battle of Hürtgen Forest
2 ratings0 reviews