Part 1 of Essay
September 19 - December 8, 1944 September, 1944. Allied forces were pushing into Germany. General Courtney Hodges wanted to close to the Rhine River, and to do that required driving Nazi forces out of the Hurtgen Forest. Laying on the German-Belgian border, just east of the Roer River, the forest was about 50 square miles. ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... to be there was meaningless. If Allied troops got to the river valley, the Germans to the north could release the Roer's Dams and flood the valley. The forest without Roer's dams was completely useless. The real objective should have been the Dams, which would have been a priceless asset to the Allies. The plan of attack was also severely flawed, turning the campaign into one of the most useless battles in the European Theater of Operations. On September 19, the 3rd Armored and 9th Infantry Divisions began ....