Operation Queen

Operation Queen
Part of the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine in the Western Front of World War II

The Schwammenauel dam at the Rur - one of the main objectives of Operation Queen
Date16 November – 16 December 1944
Location
Rur valley and environs, Germany
Result German defensive victory[1]
Belligerents
 United States
Air support
 United Kingdom
 Germany
Commanders and leaders
Dwight Eisenhower
Omar Bradley
Courtney Hodges
William Hood Simpson
Gerd von Rundstedt
Walter Model
Gustav-Adolf von Zangen
Erich Brandenberger
Strength
Twelfth United States Army Group
1st Army
9th Army
Army Group B
7th Army
15th Army
Casualties and losses
38,500 39,000

Operation Queen was an American operation during World War II on the Western Front at the German Siegfried Line.

The operation was aimed against the Rur River, as a staging point for a subsequent thrust over the river to the Rhine into Germany. It was conducted by the First and Ninth U.S. Armies.

The offensive commenced on 16 November 1944 with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombings of the war. However, the Allied advance was unexpectedly slow, against heavy German resistance, especially in the Hürtgen Forest through which the main thrust of the offensive was carried out. By mid-December, the Allies finally reached the Rur and tried to capture its important dams, when the Germans launched their own offensive, dubbed Wacht am Rhein. The ensuing Battle of the Bulge led to the immediate cessation of Allied offensive efforts into Germany until February 1945.

  1. ^ MacDonald (1993), p. 594