Since the failure of the Allies in Operation Market Garden, they can only face the Siegfried Line, but this line of defense is not only reinforced concrete, but also a powerful mysterious force, of course, not Hydra, but Captain America may not be able to resist.
Resources:
Craig Bayer 《The Huertgen Forrest: The Necessary Battle》
Charles Whiting 《The Battle of Hurtgen Forest》
Rick Atkinson 《The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945》
Wikipedia ：《Battle of Hürtgen Forest》《Meuse》《 George Smith Patton, Jr.》《Omar Nelson Bradley》《Roermond》《Battle of the Bulge》《21st Army Group》《Operation Veritable》《Rur Dam》《River Rur》
Tan Feicheng ,"Soldiers in Wuhan"
On October 28, General Eisenhower reiterated his plan to win the war. "The enemy continues to reinforce his troops on the Western Front," he sent a telegram to his lieutenants. "Current indications are that they intend to gain a foothold on the Western Wall (the Siegfried Line) in order to prevent the war from spreading to German territory." At this time, the port of Antwerp was about to be captured by the Canadian First Army. In this way, he said, the final battle in Europe would be largely divided into "three phases": an unremitting attack west of the Rhine, the capture of the bridgehead on the river, and the last deadly dagger piercing the heart of Germany. Seven Allied armies would advance rapidly eastward, from north to south: the Canadian First Army; the British Second Army; the American Ninth, First, Third, and Seventh Armies; and the French First Army. The enemy's industrial centers in the Ruhr and Saar regions were the primary targets of the north and centre, respectively, and Berlin was the ultimate target.
The 1st and 9th Armies of the 12th Army attacked north of the Ardennes, that is, the Aachen region and the Schütgen Forest, which was detailed earlier in the Battle of The Hutgen Forest, and Patton's Third Regiment Army would attack south of the Siegfried Line. All three armies advanced together toward the Rhine and, if possible, occupied the crossing there.
For such a plan to succeed, the Allies would have to control the dams of the Ruhr (the previous period translates as the Rohr). Patton had no problem attacking from Metz through Saar, but the First and Ninth Armies had to cross the Ruhr to reach the Rhine. Montgomery's 21st Army group in the north also had to cross the Ruhr (actually the lower meuse, which joined Roermond in the lower meuse)
The first time Americans mentioned these dams in writing was in late September. "By regulating the flow of various dams, overflowing and destructive flooding of the embankments can be created on the Ruhr River. Jake S Major A. Houston reported: "If some of them are destroyed, there will be a huge destructive flood that will destroy the ruhr industrial area, including the industrial areas of the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and several Western European countries in the Meuse Valley."
This shows the importance of the Ruhr Dam, a 77.2-metre-high dam that holds the Ruhr river into water and forms a 7.83-square-kilometre Ruhr reservoir located in the Aachen and Durham districts. The U.S. 28th Infantry Division once occupied the town of Schmidt, and the dam was near Schmidt, but was later defeated by a counter-attack. Most Western historians believe that U.S. generals did not recognize the importance of the Ruhr Dam at the Battle of Hutchingen, as Charles Whiting wrote in The Battle of Hurtgen Forest: What purpose? The attack on the forest was launched as the Eighth Army of General Collins of the Lightning Joe (formerly translated as the Legion) attacking the flank guards of Aachen. Even then, this was completely unnecessary. The forest could have been blocked with armor and air power.
The Germans guarding it would be left rotting on the vines. They will not pose a real threat to the U.S. offensive.
However, although the first attack on the Schütgen Forest failed, the generals were not ready to concede defeat after the attack failed. The prestige of the U.S. Army is at stake, isn't it? As a result, one division after another was thrown into a completely useless battle, which had no tactical or strategic significance. Later—much later—they rationalized the huge sacrifices that made no sense: they attacked to occupy strategically important dams outside the forest. But in the first four months of this six-month-long battle, there was no mention of the Ruhr dam to any extent, and the soldiers on the front line did not know what they were for until they died. It can be seen that his meaning is: the bear child fights unconvinced, and then finds a few bear children to lose, in the face of the parents' reproach, can only make up a reason to prevaricate.
But (Craig Bayer) Craig Bayer, in The Huertgen Forrest: The Necessary Battle, argues that General Bradley, judging by his orders to attack Schmidt, seems to have been well aware of the dam's existence at least in early November. In preparation for his main offensive, Hodges, commander of the 1st Army, tried to lead the 28th Division to capture those dam sites on 2 November. He almost caught the target, but the 28th Division was counterattacked and driven out of the town of Schmidt.
Eisenhower seemed to be equally aware: "Because the dam is located in a difficult mountainous area, the attack will certainly be slow and costly." He believed that the Allied leadership had long recognized the importance of the Raul River Dam.
Edward Miller wrote in his book A Dark and Bloody Ground: "The Ruhr Dam is not a goal. The Tasks of the Fifth Army during this period (Field Orders of 30, 31 and 32 of 21 October, 8 November and 14 November) did not mention dams as targets.
But Craig Bayer argued that field orders should not give a reason for attack; They are just offensive commands. It makes no sense to make plans to seize the dam without controlling Schmidt. Once Schmidt is taken over, a new order is given to take over the dam. The first goal was to take Schmidt away.
Not only that Patton's offensive in the Metz area was also criticized, and German commanders interviewed after the war showed that Patton could have bypassed the city directly, marched north to Luxembourg, and cut off the German 7th Army there.
However, when historians argue about this time period, the German army added some material, the German army launched the Ardenne Offensive south of Hutgen and north of Sarbrücken in the Battle of Patton, the German army advanced at high speed towards the Meuse River, if the Allies controlled the Ruhr Dam, it might be able to yield without a fight, so that the German army did not dare to act rashly, even if it dared, it could block the attack. In fact, the Germans were not stupid, although the Battle of the Schütgen Forest was initially a misfire, but in the face of difficult opponents, they also found that the Schütgen Forest could contain a large number of American troops, thus achieving the purpose of covering the Ardennes Offensive. On the night of 16 May 1943, the British sent bombers with special bombs to blow up two dams in the Ruhr area. Floods damaged many factories, roads, railways, bridges, power stations and pumping stations, resulting in a week-long production level of only 50 per cent of normal production in the Ruhr area and a 37.5 per cent reduction in monthly arms production. The Ruhr Dam will not be handed over.
Ardennes offensive
Of course, I can spoil you, Operation Ardenne failed, you sing, I appeared, but the good days of the Allies are still ahead, the Allies launched the Battle of rhine-Lynch, the 21st Army Group carried out the "real" operation Operation Veritable, but the Germans had already blown up many dams, and the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division could only drive amphibious vehicles to clear German positions on the flooded Rhine plain. At the same time, the German army was not idle at the Ruhr Dam, Alfred Schlemm ordered the bombing of the Ruhr Dam, the "Operation Grenade" launched by the US 9th Army was unfavorable, and the rushing flood soaked the offensive route of the US 9th Army into a Zee, delaying its operation for up to 2 weeks.
Battle of rhine-Ley
It is also interesting to say that when Sino-German military cooperation was carried out, Falkenhausen first suggested that President Jiang could blow up the dam on the Yellow River. Interested partners, I also introduced it in the early stage.