by Generalmajor Rudolf-Christoph Freiherr Von Gersdorff
THIRD PHASE 1 Dec - 10 Dec
The defense now gripped onto the battered towns of Hürtgen, Kleinhau, Grosshau to protect the critical hills east of those towns. When the 89 Inf Div was broken through north of Vossenack and the town of Hürtgen threatened from several sides, the defense was unhinged. The attack of an American armored group in the direction of Brandenberg in early December was of critical importance. This thrust threatened a deep penetration with a consequent extension of our thinly spread forces. Every effort was, therefore, made to repel this lunge by counterattacks.
Having no other reserves available, Seventh Army, with concurrence of Army Group, decided to commit the 272 VG Div assisted by assault gun units. It was an unwelcome decision for both Army and Army Group. The Division was scheduled to participate in the Ardennes offensive and it was recognized that heavy casualties in this engagement would seriously hamper its effectiveness. The projection, however, of the American attack on through Bergstein to the Roer River would jeopardize the execution of the Ardennes offensive. For this reason Army Group released the 47 VG Div for the specified purpose of defending east of the Roer River. This Division was in the process of absorbing replacements after its heavy engagement farther north. By these measures a new American breakthrough was prevented but repeated counterattacks against Brandenberg, Bergstein, and Hill 400 enjoyed no success.
Meantime in the north the right flank of the Army had been slowly retiring before the repeated assaults that also drove back the southern flank of Fifteenth Army. But at Gey -- considered the focal point of the defense since it controlled the debouchment of American forces from the woods -- we made special efforts to hold the ground. Army Group considered the threat of a breakthrough, Gey to Düren, so important that they assigned to Seventh Army a task force of the 3 Para Div -again with specific limitations. The task force was to form a second line of defense running generally north-south through Birgel.
On 10 Dec, Seventh Army was relieved in the Düren - Bergstein area by the Fifteenth Army and on its southern front by the Fifth Pz Army. Seventh Army then took over its sector Vianden - Trier. Although we left a dangerously weak front manned by exhausted troops we felt that we had prevented a strategic penetration in the Hurtgen area. The fighting in Hurtgen had cost us dearly in casualties yet we were certain that we had inflicted commensurate losses on the enemy in men and materiel. In what was probably the heaviest fighting in the war, soldiers of both sides performed, under unbelievable hardships, acts of great gallantry and perseverance.
