Operation Queen
Part of World War II
The ruins of Jülich after heavy aerial and artillery bombardment
Date November 16 – December 16, 1944 Location Rur valley and environs, Germany Result German tactical victory
Combatants
United States United Kingdom	Germany
Commanders
Omar Bradley	Walther Model
Strength
100,000 soldiers	40,000 soldiers
Casualties
?	?

Operation Queen was a joint British-American operation during World War II at the Western Front between Aachen and the Rur river in November 1944. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... Jülich is a medium-size town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, in Germany. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... -1... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The Rur (-German, in Dutch and French: Roer, not to be confused with the Ruhr) is a river in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. ... Image File history File links US_flag_48_stars. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ... Image File history File links US_flag_48_stars. ... Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893 – April 8, 1981) was one of the main U.S. Army field commanders in North Africa and Europe during World War II and a General of the Army of the United States Army. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ... Otto Moritz Walter Model (IPA /mo:dÉ™l/) (January 24, 1891–April 21, 1945) was a German general, and later a Field Marshal, during World War II. He was noted for his defensive skills, and was nicknamed Hitlers fireman. Model served as an infantry officer in World War I... American soldiers cross the Siegfried Line The drive to the Siegfried Line was one of the final Allied phases in World War II of the Western European Campaign. ... The 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade was tasked to cross the Ghent Canal about five kilometers south of Bruges at a small village called Oostcamp. ... Combatants United Kingdom United States Canada Poland Germany Commanders Bernard Montgomery Brian Horrocks Roy Urquhart James M. Gavin Maxwell Taylor Stanislaw Sosabowski Walter Model Wilhelm Bittrich Kurt Student Strength 35,000 20,000 Casualties 17,000 dead or wounded 4,000 - 8,000 dead or wounded Operation Market Garden (September... Nancy is a city in France. ... Combatants United States Germany Commanders Courtney Hodges Walther Model Strength 120,000 80,000 Casualties 33,000 casualties 12,000 dead The Battle of Hurtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hürtgenwald) is the name given to the series of fierce battles fought between the American and German forces during World... Combatants Nazi Germany United States of America Commanders Colonel Gerhard Wilck Colonel George A. Smith Jr. ... Combatants United States Germany Commanders William Simpson Gerhard Wilck Strength 100,000 soldiers 12,000 soldiers Casualties 2000 killed 3000 wounded 5500 killed or wounded, 5,600 POW The Battle of Aachen was a battle in World War II that took place in October 1944 in the German city of... Combatants Canada United Kingdom Poland Belgium Norway Germany Commanders Guy Simonds (acting) (First Canadian Army) Gustav-Adolf von Zangen (German 15th Army) Strength  ?  ? Casualties 12,873 total; including 6,367 Canadian  ? The Battle of the Scheldt was a series of military operations which took place in northern Belgium and south... During World War II, the Western Front was the theater of fighting west of Germany, encompassing France, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Denmark. ... Combatants Kingdom of the Netherlands Germany Commanders Henry G. Winkelman, Jan Joseph Godfried baron van Voorst tot Voorst Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Strength 9 divisions, 676 guns, 1 tank (inoperational), 124 aircraft Total: 350,000 men 22 divisions, 1,378 guns, 759 tanks, 1150 aircraft Total: 750,000... This article is about a Second World War battle in 1940, for the 1658 battle of the same name see Battle of the Dunes (1658) Combatants United Kingdom France Belgium Germany Commanders Lord Gort General Weygand Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Ewald von Kleist (Panzergruppe von Kleist) Strength approx. ... Combatants Canada United Kingdom Germany Commanders Louis Mountbatten J. H. Roberts  ? Strength 6086 1500 Casualties Canada: 907 dead, 2340 captured; United Kingdom: 555+; United States:3+; Germany: 311 dead, 280 missing The Dieppe Raid, also known as The Battle of Dieppe or Operation Jubilee, during World War II, was an... Combatants Croat SS soldiers Germany Commanders Ferid Džanić Unknown Strength 500-1,000 Unknown Casualties 146 N/A The Villefranche-de-Rouergue uprising took place on September 17, 1943, when a division composed of about 500-1000 Croats and Bosnian Muslims from Croatia, which has been sent by force... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B... Combatants United States1 Free France, United Kingdom Germany Commanders Jacob L. Devers Johannes Blaskowitz Strength 250,000 (approx) 230,000 (approx) Casualties 4,500 American, 4,500+ French 125,000+ (approx) Monument to the landings of Allied troops under General Patch on the beach of St Tropez, France. ... American soldiers cross the Siegfried Line The drive to the Siegfried Line was one of the final Allied phases in World War II of the Western European Campaign. ... Combatants United Kingdom United States Canada Poland Germany Commanders Bernard Montgomery Brian Horrocks Roy Urquhart James M. Gavin Maxwell Taylor Stanislaw Sosabowski Walter Model Wilhelm Bittrich Kurt Student Strength 35,000 20,000 Casualties 17,000 dead or wounded 4,000 - 8,000 dead or wounded Operation Market Garden (September... The Battle of Overloon (Code named Operation Aintree) took place between September 30th and October 18th 1944. ... Combatants Canada United Kingdom Poland Belgium Norway Germany Commanders Guy Simonds (acting) (First Canadian Army) Gustav-Adolf von Zangen (German 15th Army) Strength  ?  ? Casualties 12,873 total; including 6,367 Canadian  ? The Battle of the Scheldt was a series of military operations which took place in northern Belgium and south... Combatants United States Germany Commanders Courtney Hodges Walther Model Strength 120,000 80,000 Casualties 33,000 casualties 12,000 dead The Battle of Hurtgen Forest (German: Schlacht im Hürtgenwald) is the name given to the series of fierce battles fought between the American and German forces during World... Combatants United States Germany Commanders William Simpson Gerhard Wilck Strength 100,000 soldiers 12,000 soldiers Casualties 2000 killed 3000 wounded 5500 killed or wounded, 5,600 POW The Battle of Aachen was a battle in World War II that took place in October 1944 in the German city of... Combatants United States United Kingdom Germany Commanders Dwight D. Eisenhower Bernard Montgomery Omar N. Bradley George S. Patton, Jr. ... Located near Alsace in Eastern France, the Colmar Pocket was the site of a ten-day battle during the Second World War that saw four divisions of the French Army and an entire Corps from the U.S. Army overwhelm German resistance. ... During World War II, Operation Plunder was the crossing of the Rhine river at Rees, Wesel and south of the Lippe Canal by the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C Dempsey, and the US Ninth Army, under Lieutenant-General William H Simpson. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... During World War II, the Western Front was the theater of fighting west of Germany, encompassing France, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Denmark. ... Oche redirects here; in darts the oche is the line from which players must throw. ... The Rur (-German, in Dutch and French: Roer, not to be confused with the Ruhr) is a river in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. ...

Prelude

The area of the assault on the map

After the allied invasion in Normandy in June 1944, American and British forces had driven the German armies out of France and began advancing on the German border. In order to reorganize the supply routes and assault forces, the Allies stopped before the Westwall for some time. The German defenders made ample use of this breather and managed to consolidate their stricken forces which had suffered heavy casualties, and often morale breakdowns as well, on the retreat. As a further measure, the whole area behind the Westwall fortifications was heavily entrenched; towns, farms and villages were converted to little fortresses connected by trenches, and tank obstacles and extended mine fields also added to the defence. As the Allies moved into Germany, the swift push towards Berlin came to a sudden halt. Despite the heavy superiority in personnel and armament and their almost total air superiority, their push towards the Rhine became increasingly slower as the Germans tied them down in a bloody trench war. German resistance was particularly stiff in the vicinity of Geilenkirchen, Alsdorf and Würselen west of the Rur river, where heavy fighting went on for weeks which inflicted severe casualties on both sides. Allied attempts to outflank the German defensive position by a push through the wooded hills of the Hürtgenwald ended in disaster. The frontal assault broke on the stiff German resistance in a well-fortified, mountainous and woody area where the attackers could not bring their air superiority and advantage in numbers to bear, and heavy counterattacks and bad planning resulted in heavy casualties. All this broke down Allied morale, as the soldiers had hoped the war would be over by Christmas and now had to put up with the heaviest fighting they had yet encountered. The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allies. ... The original Siegfried line (Siegfriedstellung) was a line of defensive forts and tank defenses built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916-1917 in northern France during World War I. However, in English, Siegfried line more commonly refers to the similar World War II defensive line, built... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... The River Rhine (Dutch: ; French: ; German: ; Italian: ; Romansh: ) is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe at 1,320 kilometres (820 miles), with an average discharge of more than 2,000 cubic meters per second. ... Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of defense. ... Geilenkirchen is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the district Heinsberg. ... Alsdorf is a town in the district of Aachen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. ... Würselen is a town in the district Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... The Rur (-German, in Dutch and French: Roer, not to be confused with the Ruhr) is a river in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. ... Hürtgenwald is a municipality in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ...

Planning the offensive

The Allied High Command planned a big offensive in the area of the 9th US Army together with the 1st US Army and parts of the British Second Army against the Rur, and intended to establish bridgeheads at Linnich, Jülich and Düren; the eventual target was to reach the Rhine and establish bridgeheads at Krefeld and Düsseldorf to secure further advance inside Germany after the winter. A great number of American and British strategic bombers were to conduct a series of tactical assaults in the area to cut supply lines and destroy enemy infrastructure, and also attack the enemy defenders themselves inside their positions. The entire operation was codenamed Operation Queen. The 8th US Air Force was to bomb the fortifications around Eschweiler and Aldenhoven, while the medium bombers of the 9th US Air Force were assigned to the second line of defense around Jülich and Langerwehe. At the same time the RAF Bomber Command was to hit the traffic centres Jülich and Düren hard; the smaller towns of Heinsberg, Erkelenz and Hückelhoven were designated as secondary targets. Initially the start of the offensive was set on November 10, but because of bad weather it was delayed to November 16. The ground offensive was to begin immediately after the air raids, so the defenders would have no time to reestablish supply routes and communications. The Ninth United States Army was one of the main U.S. Army combat commands used during the campaign in northwest Europe in 1944 and 1945. ... The First United States Army is a field army of the United States Army. ... The British Second Army was extant in both World Wars. ... Linnich is a town and a municipality in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Jülich is a medium-size town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, in Germany. ... Düren is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, capital of Düren district. ... Krefeld is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... , ) Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and (together with Cologne and the Ruhr Area) the economic center of Western Germany. ... The city heart of Rotterdam after being terror bombed by Nazi Germany in 1940, the ruin of the (now restored) Laurens Kerk is the only building that reminds people of Rotterdams medieval architecture. ... The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force (NAF) of the major command (MAJCOM) of Air Combat Command of the United States Air Force and it is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. ... This article is about Eschweiler in Germany. ... Aldenhoven is a village and a municipality in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Ninth Air Force is a Numbered Air Force in Air Combat Command (ACC). ... Langerwehe is a municipality in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Bomber Command is an organizational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. ... Heinsberg is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, capital of the district Heinsberg. ... Erkelenz is a town in Rhineland, in the state North Rhine-Westphalia, in the rural district (Kreis) Heinsberg, has 45279 inhabitants (May 2005) and covers an area of 117,35 Km². // Geography Erkelenz is situated in the lowland of the Niederrheinische Bucht. The area is covered by loess, a very... Hückelhoven is a town and a municipality in the district Heinsberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 51 days remaining. ... November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 45 days remaining. ...

Unfortunately, this particular slice of the frontline was guarded very heavily. Apart from the strong defensive positions on the frontline itself, the German 5. Panzerarmee with considerable tank and artillery forces was close behind. Although it was nowhere near full strength, it still was the strongest enemy force along the Western Front and able to provide heavy defensive support. Also known as: Panzer Group West Panzer Group Eberbach The Fifth Panzer Army was a German panzer army which saw action in the Western and North African Fronts. ...

The offensive

Air raids

On November 16, 1944, between 11.13 and 12.48 hours, the US bombers conducted their attacks. 1,204 heavy bombers of the 8th US Air Force hit Eschweiler, Weisweiler and Langerwehe with 4,120 bombs, while 339 fighter bombers of the 9th US Air Force attacked Hamich, Hürtgen and Gey with 200 tons of bombs. At the same time 467 Halifax- and Lancaster-Bombers attacked Düren and Jülich; 180 further British bombers hit Heinsberg.
November 16 is the 320th day of the year (321st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 45 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Gay originally meant in English happy. ... The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engine heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during Second World War. ... The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). ...

The raid on Jülich was particularly fierce. French and US military maps still showed it as a fortress, which it had ceased to be in 1860. The Allies hoped to destroy the alleged heavy fortifications by smashing the whole city, as had been done before in Normandy. Between 15.28 and 15.50 hours the attackers dropped: Jülich is a medium-size town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, in Germany. ...

• 4000 lb.: 75
• 2000 lb.: 361
• 1000 lb.: 1,945
• 500 lb.: 1,613

a total of 3,994 bombs with 1,711 metric tons, plus 123,518 firebombs, dropped individually or in clusters to 106 pieces. The pound (abbreviations: lb or, sometimes in the United States, #) is a unit of mass in a number of different systems, including various systems of units of mass that formed part of English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...

The city was completely destroyed, and burned for several days; roads and railroads, industry and infrastructure including the bridge across the Rur were wiped out together with the lives of an estimated 4,000 citizens and soldiers and about 97% of all buildings. Düren was also utterly destroyed, and Heinsberg took heavy damage as well.

Ground offensive

At 12.45 hours the 1st and 9th US Armies finally attacked after 80 minutes of artillery barrage from more than 700 barrels and supported by strong tank units. Despite the thorough preparations, the cut supply lines and the heavy numerical superiority, the weakened German defenders stood their ground despite severe losses and only fell back very reluctantly; the Allied offensive gained ground very slowly and the attackers suffered heavy casualties. One reason for this was that the carpet bombing had not damaged the defensive positions severely, as most of it was ill-aimed and hit only what was already destroyed and the defenders were already dug in. Secondly, the loss of the artillery support was in many places balanced out by the presence of tanks which were expertly dug in and used to stop the attacks. Although the remaining German artillery could hardly acquire targets because the spotters were blinded by smoke grenades, they had worked out sophisticated fire plans in advance and so managed to hit important targets all the same. On the first day, the American advance was practically nonexistent in many places, and over the next thirty days, the going was also extremely tough. The Americans had high initial casualties by minefields which had been overlooked or not expected at all, contributing heavily to the slow advance. After two days, the initial push was halted everywhere and the battle turned into dirty trench fighting once more. The First United States Army is a field army of the United States Army. ... The Ninth United States Army was one of the main U.S. Army combat commands used during the campaign in northwest Europe in 1944 and 1945. ...

During the next few weeks the heavy fighting on the west bank of the Rur continued, and the Americans managed to reach the river itself eventually, but they had to take every single heavily defended village, town or even farm one by one. The only notably success was the capture of the town of Linnich and a major tank battle in the vicinity in which the Americans prevailed but lost many tanks. Although they reached the river, they failed to establish bridgeheads on the other side because of the stubborn resistance by German ground troops in their entrenched positions, heavy enemy artillery fire, bad weather that brought flooding, deep mud and denied air support plus occasional attacks by German aircraft. Heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding and deep mud restricted attack operations and favoured the defenders, all too often attacks that were initially successful were thrown back by enemy counterattacks. At the same time, the Americans started an advance in the area of the Hürtgenwald which encountered similar difficulties; however, the attacks were so hard that German high command rated them as a threat to the already staged and preparing Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein – if the US armies had reached the Rur dams or crossed the river further downstream, this would have jeopardized the high-risk offensive. To counter this, the Germans released part of the reserves of artillery units and ammunition that were supposed to go to the attacking armies to hold the line, with some success. Although the remains of the German units were quite weak and lacked ammunition and fuel, they succeeded in holding the line not least because of their excellent defensive positions and the devastating artillery fire, which the Americans were not able to silence due to bad weather that hampered flight operations. Although the Germans had virtually no artillery reconnaissance any more, they had worked out fire plans for the region in advance and managed to hit important targets without spotters. During this time, the Germans also used railway guns for fire support. In the nights before the start of the Battle of the Bulge, a great amount of artillery and combat units were withdrawn to the south in order to participate in the assault. As the German offensive started and caught the Allies by surprise, the push to the Rhine had to be abandoned for the time being in order to halt the enemy assault; until February 1945, the American forces did not manage to cross the river. Linnich is a town and a municipality in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Hürtgenwald is a municipality in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... A railway gun (also called railroad gun, and formerly called a railgun during World War I and World War II) is a large artillery piece, designed to be placed on rail tracks. ... Combatants United States United Kingdom Germany Commanders Dwight D. Eisenhower Bernard Montgomery Omar N. Bradley George S. Patton, Jr. ...

Result

All in all, Operation Queen was more or less a complete failure. Although the Allies managed to take the western shore of the Rur for the most part, they failed to crush the enemy defences and cross the river swiftly. Instead, they were involved in heavy fighting inside confined towns and between trenches and minefields, which enabled the defenders to multiply their strength and make the attackers pay for every step of advance. That way, the Germans achieved their objective of thwarting an Allied offensive crossing the Rur, although they paid a hefty price for it, and so kept the staging ground for their own offensive intact. With the start of the German offensive towards Antwerp, the American attack had to be halted. Only in February 1945, the Allies finally managed to cross the Rur, but then the road to the Rhine was clear. For other uses, see Antwerp (disambiguation). ...

References

• Helmut Scheuer: Wie war das damals? Jülich 1944-1948. Verlag des Jülicher Geschichtsvereins, 1985, ISBN 3-9800914-4-9
• Hans Karmp, Rurfront 1944/45, Verlag Fred Gatzen, ISBN 3-923219-00-8