Editing Siegfried Line campaign (section)

===Central Group of Armies (12th Army Group)===
====Northern France and Belgium====
The US First Army advanced rapidly through northern France and Belgium during late August and early September, with its main goal being to reach the Rhine before the Germans could establish defensive positions there. During the [[Battle of the Mons Pocket]] the Allies encircled approximately 70,000 Germans near [[Mons, Belgium|Mons]] in Belgium, and took around 25,000 prisoners.<ref name="Europe Remembers">{{cite web |title=The Mons Pocket, or the "Petit Stalingrad" of the Borinage |url=https://europeremembers.com/story/the-mons-pocket-or-the-petit-stalingrad-of-the-borinage/ |website=Europe Remembers |publisher=Liberation Route Europe Foundation |access-date=21 March 2021}}</ref> 

====Aachen====
{{main|Battle of Aachen}}
[[File:Pursuit to the West Wall 1944.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The advance of Allied forces between 26 August and 14 September 1944]]{{Campaignbox Campaign of Germany (WW2)}}
The U.S. First Army was focused on capturing the city of [[Aachen]], which had to be dealt with before advancing to assault the Siegfried Line itself. Initially, the city of Aachen was to be bypassed and cut off in an attempt by the Allies to imitate the ''Blitzkrieg'' tactics the Germans had so effectively used (see below). However, the city was the first to be assaulted on German soil and so had huge historical and cultural significance for the German people. Hitler personally ordered that the garrison there be reinforced and the city held. This forced the Allied commanders to re-think their strategy.

Some historians, including [[Stephen E. Ambrose]], have suggested that the siege of Aachen was a mistake. The battle stalled the eastward advance by the Allies and caused approximately 5,000 Allied casualties. The fighting was, by all accounts, brutal street-to-street, house-to-house style [[urban combat]] and tied up the available resources of the advancing Allied armies. Ambrose has suggested that a more effective strategy would have been to isolate the garrison at Aachen and continue the move east into the heart of Germany. In theory, this would have eliminated the ability of the German garrison to operate as a fighting force by cutting off their supply lines. This might have forced them to surrender or to move out of the city in an attempt to re-establish their supply lines. In the case of the latter, a confrontation in a more neutral setting would probably have resulted in fewer military and civilian casualties.

====Lorraine====
{{main|Lorraine Campaign}}

In late August, the [[United States Army Central|U.S. Third Army]] started to run low on fuel. This situation was caused by the rapid Allied advance through France, and compounded by the shift of logistical priority to the northern forces to secure Antwerp. By 1 September 1944, with the last of its fuel, the Third Army managed one final push to capture key bridges over the [[Meuse River]] at [[Verdun-sur-Meuse|Verdun]] and [[Commercy]]. Five days after that, however, the critical supply situation effectively caused the Third Army to grind to a halt, allowing previously routed German forces to regroup and the reinforcement of their strongholds in the area.

Soon after, the Third Army came up against [[Metz]], part of the [[Maginot Line]] and one of the most heavily fortified cities in Western Europe. The city could not be bypassed, as several of its forts had guns directed at Moselle crossing sites and the main roads in the area. It could also be used as a stronghold to organize a German counter-attack to the Third Army's rear. In the following [[Battle of Metz]], the Third Army, while victorious, took heavy casualties.

Following Metz, the Third Army continued eastwards to the [[Saar (river)|Saar River]] and soon began their assault on the Siegfried Line.

====Hürtgen Forest====
{{main|Battle of Hürtgen Forest}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J28303, Hürtgenwald, schweres Infanteriegeschütz.jpg|thumb|German troops defending the Hürtgen in November 1944.]]

[[Hürtgen Forest]] was seen as a possible location for incursions into the American flank, and the river dams in the area were a threat to the Allied advance downstream, so the Allies launched an assault to clear the area of German resistance on 19 September 1944. German defence was more stubborn than expected and the terrain was highly favourable to defence, largely negating the American advantages of numbers and quality of troops. The battle—expected to last a few weeks—continued until February 1945 and cost 33,000 casualties (from all causes).

The value of the battle has been disputed. Modern historians argue that the outcome was not worth the foreseeable losses, and in any case, the American tactics played into German hands.<ref>Weigley (1981), pp. 364–369</ref>

====Operation Queen====
[[Operation Queen]] was a combined Allied air-ground offensive against the German forces at the Siegfried Line, which was conducted mainly by the combined effort of the U.S. Ninth and First Armies. The principal goal of the operation was to advance to the Roer River and to establish several bridgeheads over it, for a subsequent thrust into Germany to the Rhine River. Parts of this operation also included further fighting in the Hurtgen Forest. The offensive commenced on 16 November with one of the heaviest tactical air bombardments by the western Allies of the war. Although the German forces were heavily outnumbered, the Allied advance was very slow. After four weeks of intensive fighting, the Allies reached the Roer, but were not able to establish any bridgeheads over it. Fighting in the Hurtgen Forest also bogged down. The exhaustive fighting during ''Queen''  caused the Allied troops to suffer heavy casualties, and eventually the Germans launched their own counteroffensive—Operation ''Wacht am Rhein''—on 16 December, which would lead to the Battle of the Bulge.