Battle of the Hürtgenwald / Gr.Rgt.983 Group

[InfanterieSammler]

The bunkers of the Schill line in this part of the forest face predominently WNW. Bunker 112 is (or was indeed to the left of the Mittelweg minor road track. Bunker 111 was on the site of the Owl head parking area.

Cahow was killed during a casualty rescue mission on December 13th 1944, he had volunteered with 2 other men to enter the woods near Bunker 112 to attempt to locate and recover wounded comrades. Unfortunately Robert Cahow set off a mine and the resulting small arms fire drove back his comrades who were unable to come to his rescue.

Somewhere in an album I have photos of Bunker 112, which was later blown up by the Corps of Engineers, there was very little left of it at all when I visited it.

Very interesting information. Thank you for sharing.

Are the photos you have of Bunker 112 wartime or postwar? Would it be possible for you to post on this thread?

Many Thanks!
John

[Willi Z.]

John, you should come over the Kassel Show this fall, as some are considering visiting that area before the show. The Ardennes and places like Eben Emael are within an hour of the Hürtgenwald.

[InfanterieSammler]

John, you should come over the Kassel Show this fall, as some are considering visiting that area before the show. The Ardennes and places like Eben Emael are within an hour of the Hürtgenwald.

Hi Willi,

I would very much like to join you guys, thank you. I doubt I will be able to though. I travel a fair amount for work, leaving my wife at home with our two little ones. I did manage to get the SOS this year, which is a step in the right direction. So I'm not sure how I would sell her on another militaria trip just for me. That is a battle I would be wise not to fight this year.

John D.

[Simon H]

Very interesting information. Thank you for sharing.

Are the photos you have of Bunker 112 wartime or postwar? Would it be possible for you to post on this thread?

Many Thanks!
John

The pictures are ones I took myself. Would love to find some original pictures but have not yet!

Will try to sort them out and post later.

[Archi]

Hello !

Many thanks to Matthias and Willy Z. for taking the time to share those fantastic fotos and the explanations on the area !
Also great and very interesting info shared by Simon H, also adding further value to this thread !

Thanks and best regards,

Archi

[Simon H]

The option to upload from computer doesn't appear to be possible?

[Brian R]

Great thread, guys!!! This is a perfect example of putting the items we collect into the context of their use.

[BCraig]

I really enjoy this thread. It brings back lots of great memories of hiking in the Hurtgenwald many times when I lived in the Netherlands.

I have some photos of what I believe are of Bunker 112. It corresponds to the bunker on the map in the thread and was just to the left of the trail. These photos are from Feb 2008. There wasn't much left of it when we visited it.

Regards,

Ben

[InfanterieSammler]

Posting on behalf of Simon.

"The first 3 pictures a are of 112, the large fragment is all that remains of 111 at the edge of the parking place at Owl head."

[BCraig]

Out of curiosity, when were Simon's photos of the bunkers taken?

The photos of the bunker that I took appear to be the same 112 bunker as from the Traces of War website, but to me, that does not 100% mean that Traces of War is correct with it being bunker 112. I was never 100% certain on the actual number.

When I used to visit the bunkers in the Oschenkopf/Peterberg area, I used the map on the Eifelyeti webpage to locate them. That particular map shows that there were 2 bunkers to the left of the trail, but it didn't call out those specific bunker numbers. I was only able to find one of the bunkers, and it's the bunker in my photos. The other bunker that I could not locate may have also been 112 in my opinion.

http://www.derbuhlert.com/Eifelyeti/...berg_karte.htm

With that being said, there were several of the bunkers on that map that were significantly demolished, covered, and difficult to location.

On a side note, there were several bunkers to the NW of the 105 bunker that were fairly large but had significant demolition damage to them. Photos of these bunkers don't typically show up on various websites. Interestingly, one of the bunkers had been the site of a US 4.2 inch chemical mortar, and there were lots of the end caps from the mortar round tubes laying about.

The whole area on both sides of the L160 road had lots of US foxholes and German trenches and was very interesting to explore.

Regards, Ben

[schneifelquelle]

thanks for posting this v. interesting thread

[Simon H]

Ben, I photographed this in 1991 and since then the KMD have significantly cleared the area and had carried out further reduction of the remains in order to try and erase this history.

[BCraig]

Ben, I photographed this in 1991 and since then the KMD have significantly cleared the area and had carried out further reduction of the remains in order to try and erase this history.

I'm sure that it looked really different in 1991 compared to 2008 and even now in 2018. It is still a historically interesting battlefield to visit.

I'm not trying to diverge from the subject of this thread, but were there very many battlefield relics still laying about in 1991 (assuming that you wandered off of the trails)?

Regards, Ben

[Simon H]

There was a fair amount about back then, the usual spent and live ammunition, US fuze parts - the location was obviously subject to some very heavy US artillery strikes. The most surprising find from this location was part of a leather K98 pouch which I don't have any more. It was lying among the dead foliage.

The Bundeswehr have used parts of the forest for exercises so it is not unusual to find modern war junk. I recall coming across a some freshly made trenches nearby in 91.

[BCraig]

I'm sure that there was considerably less war debris laying around by the time I started visiting the area in early 2008 vs what there had to be in 1991.

In their article on the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest in "After the Battle Number 71", the authors show pictures of them finding mess gear, live ammo, etc. which I always thought was interesting. I believe the article was published in 1991.

Ironically, the same article in the magazine shows a picture of bunker 112 on the top of page 9.

It's a worthwhile edition to pick up if you're interested in the Hurtgenwald. I'm not advertising for them, but rzm.com appears to carry copies.

When I visited the area in 2008 through 2012, there was a fair amount of war debris still lying on the surface rusting away or disintegrating which seemed to indicate just how much fighting had gone on in the area and for the amount of time. Everything that I've read indicated that there was much suffering on both sides.

There was still a lot of shrapnel, parts of German and US Mortar rounds, the occasional artillery shell fuse, and a few .30 casings here and there. There were more personal items like German ration tins (usually crushed), the cellophane-like US lemon powder or coffee packets (they apparently stand the test of time), surprisingly still pieces of US wool blankets or rain coats, and the aluminum liners out of German gas mask cannisters.

They weren't just littering the surface everywhere, but they could still be found here and there. I assume the battlefield had long since been picked over or the items had just rusted away. I'm sure there would be even less these days.

I did run across some more modern/post-war German military aluminum ration cans and containers. I just assumed they were from the EOD teams searching for live munitions. I understood that they had gone over the area many times.

Also when I was there, I could tell there had been some metal detecting going on, but I had been warned about the fines and trouble you could get into so I didn't even think about it.

The photos below show a rugged piece of shrapnel, a German ration tin, a US 81mm mortar round tail section, and US blanket and raincoat pieces around a US foxhole.