By reading newspapers and listening to the radio, your average citizen in, say, the UK or the United States, could follow the course of the war in a close manner, certainly not hour-by-hour since the Internet had not been invented yet. But, they could follow it day-by-day, gleaming many important details (of course, these were the general details that the military censors and security officials approved for for release to the news media, with no information about specific units or detailed troop movements!) Below are several selected examples of newspaper headlines from Canada and the United States, describing the Americans' advance on and through the Siegfried Line during the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest from September 1944 to February 1945.

Globe and Mail (Canadian):

Friday, September 15, 1944:

LONDON, Sept. 15 (CP). — The United States 1st Army smashed the Siegfried Line at its strongest point east of the German gateway bastion of Aachen today and drove along the last 30 miles toward the great industrial city of Cologne and the Rhine. Climaxing an assault that began Thursday, American infantry battered through the main belt of pillboxes and dragon-teeth concrete tank barriers on which Hitler relied to keep invaders from his source of military strength in the Rhineland.

Monday, September 18, 1944:

American troops in Germany are well through the Siegfried Line on an 18-mile front east and southeast of Aachen. The first heavy German counter-attack since Lt.-Gen. Courtney Hodges penetrated the line was broken there Saturday and early Sunday, but there is still some fighting around Stolberg. The advance through the Roetgen Forest southeast of Aachen is continuing. The enemy admits the loss, of some fortified positions in this area.

Monday, November 6, 1944:

Americans driven out of Schmidt [the tragic climax of the 28th Infantry Division attack; more information can be found here], southeast of Aachen, Saturday struck back with the reinforcing weight of tanks and mobile artillery. They repulsed new German counterblows and made limited advances against strong resistance. Air forces teamed with the ground troops, hurling bombs on already-rubbled Schmidt and then strafing the Germans holding the town. Pilots claimed destruction of 10 enemy armored vehicles, and estimated 12 to 15 German tanks were damaged. Northwest of Schmidt, the Americans inched ahead against Germans stubbornly determined to prevent an advance to the Roer River, one of the last barriers before Cologne. Minefields and artillery barrages slowed progress. Near Germeter, infantrymen encircled one small but strongly entrenched German force.

Tuesday, February 6, 1945:

While the eastward push of the United States 1st Army, now entirely inside Germany, further north was slowed, a gain of nearly two miles northeastward was threatening the system of five dams by which the Germans control the water level of the Roer, main barrier to the Cologne plain. Vanguards of the 78th Infantry Division, 17 miles southeast of Aachen, were battling up the west bank of the Roer, and were about two miles from the largest of the dams.

Monday, February 12, 1945:

Feb. 11 (AP). - The Roer River ran as much as seven feet above normal today, and was two miles wide at one point as a result of the Germans' opening of the control valves at the Schwammenauel and Urft dams. The five-mile-long reservoir behind the Schwammenaul Dam went down 20 feet in 24 hours. The waters flowed north along the United States 9th Army front at from five to seven miles an hour. A flight in an artillery observation plane showed miles of inundated fields, forests and battered German houses along the whole northern sector of the Western front.

The New York Times (American):

Thursday, September 21, 1944:

East [of] Aachen fighting is in progress in the factory area of Stolberg and enemy pressure is being met near Buesbach. Operating in advance of our ground forces, medium and light bombers hit railway yards at Eschweiler, Dueren and Merzenich, on the Aachen-Cologne line. Mopping up of enemy pillboxes and pockets of resistance continues east of Roetgen and in the Hoefen and Alzen areas, south of Monschau. Enemy counter-attacks in this area were unsuccessful.

Thursday, October 10, 1944:

Southeast of Aachen, 1st Army forces fighting through the gloomy Hurtgen Forest were within two miles of the town of that name and were engaged in heavy fighting six miles from Duren, 20 miles from Cologne.

and

Throughout the Aachen sector we are encountering considerable enemy artillery, small arms and machine-gun fire. Southwest of Huertgen we have renewed our advance in rugged terrain meeting stubborn opposition from German field defenses. An enemy counter-attack was repulsed.

Monday, November 27, 1944:

Our forces north of Huertgen are within a few hundred yards of Grosshau and Huertgen itself is under fire from our artillery. Strong points and transportation targets in. the area north of Dueren were attacked. Fighter-bombers attacked a number of pillboxes and gun positions in this area.

Friday, December 15, 1944:

In the Juelich-Düren sector Allied troops, alter overcoming heavy resistance, bare cleared Schophoven. The villages of Mariaweiler and Derichsweiler, west of Düren, and Gey, farther south, are also in our hands. Gains have been made in the areas north and south of Monschau. East and southeast of Roetgen our troops have taken Rollesbroich and Simmerath. Progress has been made in the forest area about four miles southeast of Monschau.

Sources and suggested reading material:

The Battle of the Huertgen Forest - Scorpio's Website

*United States Army in World War II, The European Theater of Operations: The Siegfried Line Campaign, by Charles B. Macdonald

The Objective: Schmidt extract from Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt, by Charles B. MacDonald

A Dark and Bloody Ground: The Hürtgen Forest and the Roer River Dams 1944-1945, by Edward G. Miller