Hürtgenwald; A Battlefield Cemetery In Progress
The Hürtgen forest is located along the border between Belgium and Germany in the southwest corner of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Hürtgen Forest
The Battle of Hürtgen Forest was fought between September 13, 1944, through February 10, 1945 in a heavily wooded area scarcely 50 square miles in area. Before it was over, both sides named it The Death Factory.
Twenty-four thousand Americans and an unknown but estimated equal number of Germans were killed in the fighting so intense, that artillery and air bombardment often ground men into the very soil they fought over.
For more than 60 years the battlefield is still, slowing, giving up its dead.
Ten years after the battle the scattered and incomplete remains of an unknown German soldier of the 326th volksgrenadier-division had been found by hikers in the valley of Perlenbach (pearlcreek). The helmet penetrated by a shell splinter. To the right the rusted gasmask-canister. He was covered where he was found with a rock Carin.
In April 2000, an explosive ordnance disposal unit discovered most of the remains of G.I. Robert Cahow of Wisconsin in a submerged foxhole. Cahow was a member of K-company, 311th regiment of the 78th ID. He was found beside the still live mortar rounds he was carrying the day he was killed.
It is believed 190 American soldiers are still missing in the Hürtgenwald, as well as an unknown number of Germans. Every few years, another one or two are found. The unidentified are allowed to remain where they have already rested for so many decades.