December 12, 1944: It’s Tuesday - is D+189, marking 27 weeks (189 days) since the D-Day Invasion at Normandy and the beginning of the liberation of Europe.
Forces of the US 1st Army battle towards Mariaweiler, Hoven, Dueren, and Derichsweiler, through the Hurtgen Forest. 4th infantry Division’s 8th Infantry is detached from the 83rd Division and moves in the morning. The final elements reach Luxembourg that evening. The Combat Team is in its new assembly area by 8 PM, the 1st Battalion in the vicinity of Flaxveiler, the 2nd of Uebersyern, the 3rd of Wecker and the 29th FA Battalion in the vicinity of Flaxweiler. The 12th Infantry maintains its positions. German activity is minor except several exchanges of machine gun and mortar fires across the Moselle river. The 22nd continues active patrolling along its front.
The US 3rd Army establishes another crossing of the German frontier east of the Saar, captures the V-rocket factory at Wittring in eastern France and continues fighting around Dillengen, the Blies, Habkirchen, and Bliesbruck. To the south, in Alsace, the US 7th Army is fighting in Bettviller, Soufflenheim, and Seltz. The French 1st Army continues reducing Colmar pocket, but with less ambitious plan and without 1st Corps.
Over Germany, allied forces continue to hammer the infrastructure and targets of opportunity due to almost total air superiority. US 8th Air Force attacks Merseburg with 337 bombers, Hanau with 270 bombers, Aschaffenburg with 69 bombers, Darmstadt with 461 bombers, and other targets with 60 bombers - losing a total of four bombers and seven out of 831 fighter escorts. US 15th Air Force attacks Blechhammer. RAF Bomber Command sends 140 aircraft (escorted by Mustang fighters) to attack Witten (the only city in the Ruhr industrial area that has not been bombed yet) during the day, 540 aircraft to attack Essen overnight, and 49 aircraft to attack Osnabruck overnight.
On the eastern front, the Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front attacks north of Budapest and the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front, including 46th Army transferred from 2nd Ukrainian Front, attacks south of Budapest.
In Italy, Harold Alexander is promoted to field marshal (backdated to June 4, 1944) and becomes Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater. Troops of the British 8th Army are fighting around Fosso Vecchio canal and Naviglio canal and Brazilian troops attack Monte Della Torraca, southwest of Bologna. Elements of the British 13th Corps (US 5th Army) are under attack around Monte Cerere.
Pictured: A GI from the 9th Division talks to a German soldier captured during the Hurtgen battle, December 12, 1944.; Ernest Hemingway with Col. Charles (Buck) T. Lanaham in Germany, 1944. Hemingway, part of the 22nd, was present at the heavy fighting in the Hurtgen Forest near the end of 1944. After fighting in the Hurtgen he became ill with pneumonia.; Captured German soldiers in a holding area in the ruins of Junkersdorf, Germany, being guarded by Americans of the 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division on December 12, 1944.; Medics from 1st Battalion, 60th Regiment, 9th Division load a wounded American soldier into a medic half-track on December 12, 1944.
