the story of the 112th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry
Division in the battle for Schmidt, Germany. by CHARLES B.
MACDONALD Attack on Vossenack The Aachen Front 1 November 1944
By October 1944, the First United States Army in Western Europe
had ripped two big holes in the Siegfried Line, at Aachen and
east of Roetgen.1 (Map V) Having captured Aachen, the army was
next scheduled to cross the Roer River and reach the Rhine. It
planned to make its main effort toward Dueren in the zone of VII
Corps south and east of Aachen and thence toward Bonn on the
Rhine. But east of Roetgen, where the 9th Infantry Division had
breached the Siegfried Line and parts of a forest mass known
generally as the Huertgen Forest,2 V Corps was first to launch a
limited flank operation. The 28th Infantry Division, under the
command of Maj. Gen. Norman D. Cota, was ordered to make the V
Corps attack; its initial objective was to be the crossroads
town of Schmidt. Schmidt was an important objective. Lying on a
ridge overlooking the