Hurtgen Forest

The Hürtgen forest (also: Huertgen Forest; German: Hürtgenwald) is located along the border between Belgium and Germany in the southwest corner of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Scarcely 50 square miles in area, the forest lies within a triangle outlined by Aachen, Monschau, and Düren. The Rur River runs along the eastern edge of the forest.

. Roads in the forest are few, winding, and narrow.

The rugged terrain of this area was the locale of a bloody, drawn-out battle during World War II, often referred to as the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, which took place over three months during a very cold winter from late 1944 into early 1945. Along a road that rises from the Kall River Valley to the town of Schmidt, there is still a length of tank track that melted into the road after a U.S. armored vehicle was hit and burned there.

External links

* [http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=10&ll=50.700807,6.428375&spn=0.3514,1.157684&t=h&om=1 Google maps hybrid view] of the Hurtgen Forest area