Noon Steve - Siegfried Line 1944-45: Battles on the German Frontier

On September 13, 1944 Task Force X of the 3rd Armored Division penetrated the Siegfried Line near Aachen. Here, one of the divisions M4 tanks drives through some dragons teeth, the first layer of the Scharnhorst Line. (NARA)

T he western frontier of the Third Reich was protected by the Westwall fortifications, better known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line. The Allies began encountering the Siegfried Line in September 1944 after pursuing the retreating Wehrmacht through Belgium and the Netherlands. Fighting along the Westwall lasted for more than six months, with the final major operations in March 1945 in the Saar. All of the major Allied formations, including Montgomerys 21st Army Group, Bradleys 12th Army Group, and Devers 6th Army Group, were involved at one time or another in fighting against the Westwall defenses. However, the focus of this book is on the most concentrated and intense fighting along the Siegfried Line by the US First and Ninth armies, the campaign that epitomizes the grim battles along the German frontier. Given its nature as a historic invasion route towards Germanys industrial heartland in the Ruhr, the Wehrmacht fortified the border area around Aachen with a double line of bunkers. The campaign in the autumn of 1944 and the winter of 1944/45 was one of the most frustrating and costly efforts by the US Army in the European theater in World War II, reaching its crescendo in the hellish fighting for the Hrtgen forest. Although the US Army finally broke through the defenses by the middle of December 1944 and reached the River Roer, the German counter-offensive in the neighboring Ardennes put a temporary halt to the fighting. It resumed in February 1945, culminating in Operation Grenade, the crossing of the Roer.

A pair of GIs take cover from the incessant rain under the rear of an M4 tank. They are from 2/60th Infantry, 9th Division, which teamed up with Task Force Hogan of the 3rd Armored Division to assault the village of Geich beyond the Langerwehe industrial area on December 11, 1944. (NARA)

B y the middle of September 1944, the Wehrmacht in the west was in a desperate crisis. Following the Allied breakout from Normandy in late July, the German forces in northern France had become enveloped in a series of devastating encirclements starting with the Roncey pocket in late July, the Falaise pocket in mid August, the River Seine in late August, and the Mons pocket in Belgium in early September. The three weeks from August 21 to September 16 were later called the void by German commanders as the German defensive positions in northern France and Belgium disintegrated into rout and chaos in the face of onrushing Allied forces. These catastrophes destroyed much of the 7th and 15th armies along with parts of the 19th Army. On August 15, 1944, the US Army staged a second amphibious landing on the Mediterranean coast in southern France. The US Seventh Army raced northward towards Lorraine, threatening to cut off the remainder of German occupation forces in western and central France. As a result, there was a hasty withdrawal of the German 1st Army from the Atlantic coast as well as elements of the 19th Army from central France, precipitously ending the German occupation of France. German losses in the west in the late summer totaled over 300,000 troops, and another 200,000 were trapped in various ports along the Atlantic, such as Brest, Lorient, and Royan.

GIs warily peer around a corner in Thimister, Belgium on September 11, on the way to Aachen. (NARA)