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68-743: The Siegfried Line , known in German as the Westwall (= western bulwark) , was a German defensive line built during the late 1930s. Started in 1936, opposite the French Maginot Line , it stretched more than 630 km (390 mi) from Kleve on the border with the Netherlands , along the western border of Nazi Germany , to the town of Weil am Rhein on the border with Switzerland. The line featured more than 18,000 bunkers , tunnels and tank traps . From September 1944 to March 1945,

136-530: A Blitzkrieg attack through the weakly defended Ardennes, mirroring the successful German offensive there during the Battle of France in 1940, and aimed at splitting the armies along the U.S.-British lines and capturing Antwerp. The plan banked on unfavorable weather, including heavy fog and low-lying clouds, which would minimize the Allied air advantage. Hitler originally set the offensive for late November, before

204-459: A stepped embrasure facing backwards and a combat section 50 cm (20 in) higher. This elevated section had embrasures at the front and sides for machine guns. More embrasures were provided for riflemen , and the entire structure was constructed so as to be safe against poison gas . Heating was from a safety oven, the chimney of which was covered with a thick grating. Space was tight, with about 1 m (11 sq ft) per soldier, who

272-626: A building site in 1939" and, when Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt inspected the line, the weak construction and inadequate weapons caused him to laugh. Despite France's declaration of war against Germany in September 1939, there was no major combat involving the Siegfried Line at the start of the campaign in the West, except for a minor offensive by the French. Instead, both sides remained in

340-427: A joint "small solution" to Hitler. When they offered their alternative plans, Hitler would not listen. Rundstedt later testified that while he recognized the merit of Hitler's operational plan, he saw from the very first that "all, absolutely all conditions for the possible success of such an offensive were lacking." Model, commander of German Army Group B ( Heeresgruppe B ), and von Rundstedt, overall commander of

408-573: A rest area for the U.S. First Army , with limited Allied operational objectives in the area. The Allies defended the Ardennes line very thinly, due to the favorable defensive terrain (a densely wooded highland with deep river valleys and a rather thin road network) and because they had intelligence that the Wehrmacht was using the area across the German border as a rest-and-refit area for its own troops. The Allies faced major supply issues, due to

476-481: A rest area for the U.S. First Army, and the lines were thinly held by fatigued troops and inexperienced replacement units. The Germans also took advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies' superior air forces for an extended period. American resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive, around Elsenborn Ridge , and in the south, around Bastogne , blocked German access to key roads to

544-401: A safe position behind their defences, during the so-called Phoney War . The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda drew foreign attention to the unfinished Westwall, in several instances showcasing incomplete or test positions to portray the project finished and ready for action. During the Battle of France , French forces made minor attacks against some parts of the line, but

612-474: A single foundation. There are two typical sorts of barrier: Type 1938 with four rows of teeth getting higher toward the back, and Type 1939 with five rows of such teeth. Many other irregular lines of teeth were also built. Another design of tank obstacle, known as the Czech hedgehog , was made by welding together several bars of steel in such a way that any tank rolling over it would get stuck and possibly damaged. If

680-609: A time – worked on the Siegfried Line. Transport of materials and workers from all across Germany was managed by the Deutsche Reichsbahn railway company, which took advantage of the well-developed strategic railway lines built on Germany's western border in World War I . Working conditions were highly dangerous. For example, the most primitive means had to be used to handle and assemble extremely heavy armour plating, weighing up to 60 tonnes (66 short tons ). Life on

748-404: A total of 55 understrength divisions. Adolf Hitler first outlined his planned counter-offensive to his generals on 16 September 1944. The goal was to pierce the thinly held lines of the U.S. First Army between Monschau and Wasserbillig with Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model 's Army Group B by the end of the first day, get the armor through the Ardennes by the end of the second day, reach

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816-586: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Battle of the Bulge [REDACTED] 12th Army Group : [REDACTED] 21st Army Group [REDACTED] Army Group B : 24 December: 2 January: 16 January: 24 December: 2 January: 16 January: [REDACTED] British: (U.S. Estimate: 103,900 casualties) Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns The Battle of

884-429: Is not the lack of roads as much as the lack of almost anything else on which to move that matters. The OKW decided by mid-September, at Hitler's insistence, that the offensive would be mounted in the Ardennes, as was done in 1940. In 1940 German forces had passed through the Ardennes in three days before engaging the enemy, but the 1944 plan called for battle in the forest itself. The main forces were to advance westward to

952-466: Is the correct term in Allied military language, the official Ardennes-Alsace campaign reached beyond the Ardennes battle region, and the most popular description in English speaking countries remains simply 'Battle of the Bulge'. There is a popular impression that the chief trouble in the Ardennes is the lack of good roads. As anyone on the ground will agree, the Ardennes has a fairly good road system. It

1020-596: The Battle of Aachen and fighting in the Hürtgen Forest , the strategic situation in the west had changed little. The Allies were slowly pushing towards Germany , but no decisive breakthrough was achieved. There were 96 Allied divisions at or near the front, with an estimated ten more divisions on the way from the United Kingdom. Additional Allied airborne units remained in England. The Germans could field

1088-679: The Eastern Front , the Soviets' Operation Bagration during the summer had destroyed much of Germany's Army Group Center ( Heeresgruppe Mitte ). By November, it was clear that Soviet forces were preparing for a winter offensive. Meanwhile, the Allied air offensive of early 1944 had effectively grounded the Luftwaffe , leaving the German Army with little battlefield intelligence and no way to interdict Allied supplies. The converse

1156-541: The Luxembourgish town of Echternach . German loss of life and material was severe and the effort failed. There were serious clashes along other parts of the Siegfried Line and defending soldiers in many bunkers refused to surrender, often fighting to the death. By early 1945, the last Siegfried Line bunkers had fallen at the Saar and Hunsrück . The British 21st Army Group, which included US formations, also attacked

1224-593: The Meuse between Liège and Dinant by the third day, and seize Antwerp and the western bank of the Scheldt estuary by the fourth day. Hitler initially promised his generals a total of 18 infantry and 12 armored or mechanized divisions "for planning purposes." The plan was to pull 13 infantry divisions, two parachute divisions and six armored divisions from the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht strategic reserve. On

1292-727: The Allied forces and compel the Americans and British to settle for a separate peace, independent of the Soviet Union. Success in the west would give the Germans time to design and produce more advanced weapons (such as jet aircraft , new U-boat designs and super-heavy tanks ) and permit the concentration of forces in the east. After the war ended, this assessment was generally viewed as unrealistic, given Allied air superiority throughout Europe and their ability to continually disrupt German offensive operations. Hitler's plan called for

1360-521: The Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy each of the four Allied armies and force the western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers ' favour. The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans elsewhere and poor aerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. American forces were using this region primarily as

1428-559: The Allied supply situation stretched further than before. In October, the First Canadian Army fought the Battle of the Scheldt , opening the port of Antwerp to shipping. As a result, by the end of October, the supply situation had eased somewhat. Despite a lull along the front after the Scheldt battles, the German situation remained dire. While operations continued in the autumn, notably the Lorraine Campaign ,

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1496-419: The Allies had suspended major offensives to improve their supply lines and supply availability at the front. Montgomery and Bradley both pressed for priority delivery of supplies to their respective armies so they could continue their individual lines of advance and maintain pressure on the Germans, while Eisenhower preferred a broad-front strategy. He gave some priority to Montgomery's northern forces. This had

1564-587: The Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group , over whether Montgomery or Lieutenant General Omar Bradley , commanding the U.S. 12th Army Group , in the south would get priority access to supplies. German forces remained in control of several major ports on the English Channel coast into the autumn, while Dunkirk remained under siege until the end of the war in May 1945. The Allies' efforts to destroy

1632-655: The Bulge , also known as the Ardennes Offensive , was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during the Second World War which took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg . The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split

1700-494: The French railway system prior to D-Day were successful. This destruction hampered the German response to the invasion, but it proved equally hampering to the Allies, as it took time to repair the rail network's tracks and bridges. A trucking system nicknamed the Red Ball Express brought supplies to front-line troops, but used up five times as much fuel to reach the front line near the Belgian border. By early October,

1768-561: The German Army Command in the West ( OB West ), were put in charge of carrying out the operation. The positions of the Allied armies stretched from southern France all the way north to the Netherlands. German planning for the counteroffensive rested on the premise that a successful strike against thinly manned stretches of the line would halt Allied advances on the entire Western Front. The Wehrmacht's code name for

1836-559: The Meuse River, then turn northwest for Antwerp and Brussels . The close terrain of the Ardennes would make rapid movement difficult, though open ground beyond the Meuse offered the prospect of a successful dash to the coast. Four armies were selected for the operation. Adolf Hitler personally selected for the counter-offensive on the northern shoulder of the western front the best troops available and officers he trusted. The lead role in

1904-769: The Siegfried Line northwards as far as Kleve on the Rhine and was built after the start of the Second World War. The Siegfried Line originally ended in the north near Brüggen in the Viersen district. The primary constructions were unarmed dugouts, but their extremely strong concrete design afforded excellent protection to the occupants. For camouflage they were often built near farms. Standard construction elements such as large Regelbau bunkers, smaller concrete " pillboxes ", and " dragon's teeth " anti-tank obstacles were built as part of each construction phase, sometimes by

1972-447: The Siegfried Line was subjected to a large-scale Allied offensive . The official German name for the defensive line construction program before and during the Second World War changed several times during the late 1930s. It came to be known as the "Westwall", but in English it was referred to as the "Siegfried Line" or, sometimes, the "West Wall". Various German names reflected different areas of construction: The programmes were given

2040-892: The Siegfried Line was the subject of a popular song: " We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line ". A French version by Ray Ventura ( "On ira pendre notre linge sur la ligne Siegfried" ) met a great success during the Phoney War ( Drôle de guerre ). When asked about the Siegfried Line, General George S. Patton reportedly said "Fixed fortifications are monuments to man's stupidity." Defense line A defense line may be based on natural difficult terrain features, such as rivers or marshes, mountain ranges, or coastlines; temporary field fortification works such as trenches ; and/or more permanent fortifications such as fortresses and bunkers . Some notable defense lines include: This military -related article

2108-706: The Siegfried Line. The resulting fighting brought total US losses to approximately 68,000. In addition, the First Army incurred over 50,000 non-battle casualties and the Ninth Army over 20,000. That brought the overall cost of the Siegfried Line Campaign, in US personnel, close to 140,000. During the post-war period, many sections of the Siegfried Line were removed using explosives. In North Rhine Westphalia , about thirty bunkers still remain. Most of

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2176-495: The West broke out once more. On 24 August 1944, Hitler gave a directive for renewed construction on the Siegfried Line. 20,000 forced labourers and members of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labour Service), most of whom were 14 to 16-year-old boys, attempted to re-equip the line for defensive purposes. Local people were also called in to carry out work, mostly building anti-tank ditches. Even during construction, it

2244-486: The anticipated start of the Russian winter offensive . The disputes between Montgomery and Bradley were well known, and Hitler hoped he could exploit this disunity. If the attack were to succeed in capturing Antwerp, four complete armies would be trapped without supplies behind German lines. Several senior German military officers, including Generalfeldmarschalls Model and von Rundstedt, expressed concern as to whether

2312-455: The attack was given to the 6th Panzer Army , commanded by SS Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich . It included the most experienced formation of the Waffen-SS : the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler . It also contained the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend . They were given priority for supply and equipment and assigned the shortest route to the primary objective of

2380-437: The base was closed, workers, digging up the base's fuel tanks, discovered lost bunkers buried below the tanks. Since 1997, with the motto "The value of the unpleasant as a memorial" ( Der Denkmalswert des Unerfreulichen ), an effort has been made to preserve the remains of the Siegfried Line as a historical monument . It was intended to stop reactionary fascist groups from using the Siegfried Line for propaganda purposes. At

2448-548: The building site and after work was monotonous, and many people gave up and left. Most workers received the West Wall Medal for their service. German propaganda, both at home and abroad, repeatedly portrayed the Westwall during its construction as an unbreachable bulwark. At the start of the war, the opposing troops remained behind their own defence lines. As a morale booster for British troops marching off to France,

2516-540: The contour of the land allowed it, water-filled ditches were dug instead of tank traps. Examples of this kind of defence are those north of Aachen near Geilenkirchen . The early fortifications were mostly built by private firms, but the private sector was unable to provide the number of workers needed for the programmes that followed; this gap was filled by the Todt Organisation . With this organisation's help, huge numbers of forced labourers – up to 500,000 at

2584-463: The east and consisted mainly of concrete flak foundations. Scattered MG 42 and MG 34 emplacements added additional defence against both air and land targets. Flak turrets were designed to force enemy planes to fly higher, thus decreasing the accuracy of their bombing. These towers were protected at close range by bunkers from the Limes and Aachen-Saar programmes. The Geldern Emplacement lengthened

2652-404: The effectiveness of Allied Ultra intercepts. Nevertheless, some 40–50 messages per day were decrypted by Ultra. They recorded the quadrupling of German fighter forces, and a term used in an intercepted Luftwaffe message ( Jägeraufmarsch , literally, 'Hunter Deployment') implied preparation for an offensive operation. Ultra also picked up communiqués regarding extensive rail and road movements in

2720-593: The end of July 1944 and the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced towards Germany more quickly than anticipated. The speed of the advance of the Allies caused several military logistics issues: By December 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower (the Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front ) and his staff decided to hold the Ardennes region primarily as

2788-473: The former borders of the Roman Empire ; the cover story for the programme was that it was an archaeological study. Its Type 10 bunkers were more strongly constructed than the earlier border fortifications. These had 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) thick ceilings and walls. A total of 3,471 were built along the entire length of the Siegfried Line. They featured a central room or shelter for 10–12 men with

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2856-476: The front, only at the sides of the bunkers. Embrasures were only built at the front in special cases and were then protected with heavy metal doors. This construction phase included the towns of Aachen and Saarbrücken , which were initially west of the Limes Programme defence line. The Western Air Defence Zone ( Luftverteidigungszone West or LVZ West ) continued parallel to the two other lines toward

2924-685: The goals of the offensive could be realized. Model and von Rundstedt both believed aiming for Antwerp was too ambitious, given Germany's scarce resources in late 1944. At the same time, they felt that maintaining a purely defensive posture (as had been the case since Normandy) would only delay defeat, not avert it. They thus developed alternative, less ambitious plans that did not aim to cross the Meuse River (in German and Dutch: Maas); Model's being Unternehmen Herbstnebel ('Operation Autumn Mist') and von Rundstedt's Fall Martin ('Plan Martin'). The two field marshals combined their plans to present

2992-528: The harbor before it could be taken. It took many months to rebuild its cargo-handling capability. The Allies captured the port of Antwerp intact in the first days of September, but it was not operational until 28 November. The estuary of the Schelde river that controlled access to the port had to be cleared of both German troops and naval mines . These limitations led to differences between General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery , commander of

3060-504: The highest priority, putting a heavy demand on the available resources. The origin of the name "Westwall" is unknown, but it appeared in popular use from the middle of 1939. There is a record of Hitler sending an Order of the Day to soldiers and workers at the "Westwall" on 20 May 1939. At the start of World War II, the Siegfried Line had serious weaknesses. After the war, German General Alfred Jodl said that it had been "little better than

3128-736: The lead element of Patton's U.S. Third Army reached Bastogne from the south ending the siege. Although the offensive was effectively broken by 27 December, when the trapped units of 2nd Panzer Division made two break-out attempts with only partial success, the battle continued for another month before the front line was effectively restored to its position prior to the attack. The Germans committed over 410,000 men, just over 1,400 tanks and armored fighting vehicles , 2,600 artillery pieces, and over 1,000 combat aircraft. Between 63,000 and 104,000 of these men were killed , missing , wounded in action , or captured . The battle severely depleted Germany's armored forces, which remained largely unreplaced throughout

3196-546: The lives of 24,000 American soldiers, along with 9,000 so-called non-battle casualties — those evacuated because of fatigue, exposure, accidents and disease. The German death toll is not documented. After the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge began, a last-ditch attempt by the Germans to reverse the course of the war in the West. The offensive started in the area south of the Hürtgenwald, between Monschau and

3264-611: The majority was left untested in battle. When the campaign finished, transportable weapons and materials, such as metal doors, were removed from the Siegfried Line and used in other places such as the Atlantic Wall defences. The concrete sections were left in place in the countryside and soon became completely unfit for defense. The bunkers were used for storage instead. With the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, war in

3332-516: The northwest and west which they had counted on for success. This congestion and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops. The farthest west the offensive reached was the village of Foy-Nôtre-Dame, south east of Dinant , being stopped by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division on 24 December 1944. Improved weather conditions from around 24 December permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines . On 26 December

3400-513: The offensive was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ('Operation Watch on the Rhine'), after the German patriotic hymn Die Wacht am Rhein , a name that deceptively implied the Germans would be adopting a defensive posture along the Western Front. The Germans also referred to it as Ardennenoffensive ('Ardennes Offensive') and Rundstedt-Offensive, both names being generally used nowadays in modern Germany. The French (and Belgian) name for

3468-495: The offensive, Antwerp, starting from the northernmost point on the intended battlefront, nearest the important road network hub of Monschau . The Fifth Panzer Army under General Hasso von Manteuffel was assigned to the middle sector with the objective of capturing Brussels. The Seventh Army , under General Erich Brandenberger , was assigned to the southernmost sector, near the Luxembourgish city of Echternach , with

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3536-559: The operation is Bataille des Ardennes , 'Battle of the Ardennes'. The battle was militarily defined by the Allies as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, which included the German drive and the American effort to contain and later defeat it. The phrase 'Battle of the Bulge' was coined by contemporary press to describe the way the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps. While the Ardennes Counteroffensive

3604-545: The rate of their advance coupled with the initial lack of deep-water ports. Over-the-beach supply operations using the Normandy landing areas, and direct landing ships on the beaches, were unable to meet operational needs. The only deep-water port the Allies had captured was Cherbourg on the northern shore of the Cotentin peninsula and west of the original invasion beaches, but the Germans had thoroughly wrecked and mined

3672-601: The region, as well as orders that movements should be made on time. Hitler felt that his mobile reserves allowed him to mount one major offensive. Although he realized nothing significant could be accomplished in the Eastern Front, he still believed an offensive against the Western Allies, whom he considered militarily inferior to the Red Army, would have some chances of success. Hitler believed he could split

3740-551: The remainder of the war. German Luftwaffe personnel, and later also Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement ) also sustained heavy losses. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were effectively out of men and equipment, and the survivors retreated to the Siegfried Line . Allied forces eventually came to more than 700,000 men; from these there were from 77,000 to more than 83,000 casualties, including at least 8,600 killed. The "Bulge"

3808-522: The remains of the Siegfried Line valuable as a chain of biotopes where, thanks to its size, rare animals and plants can take refuge and reproduce . That effect is magnified by the fact that the concrete ruins cannot be used for agricultural or forestry purposes. Small bunkers with 50 cm (20 in) thick walls were set up with three embrasures towards the front. Sleeping accommodations were hammocks. In exposed positions, similar small bunkers were erected with small round armoured "lookout" sections on

3876-473: The rest were either destroyed with explosives or covered with earth. Tank traps still exist in many areas and, in the Eifel , they run over several kilometres. Zweibrücken Air Base was built on top of the Siegfried Line. When the base was still open, the remnants of several old bunkers could be seen in the tree line near the main gate. Another bunker was outside the base perimeter fence near the base hospital. Once

3944-597: The roofs. The programme was carried out by the Border Watch ( Grenzwacht ), a small military troop activated in the Rhineland immediately after the region was re-militarised by Germany from 1936 onwards, after having been de-militarised following the First World War . The Limes programme began in 1938 following an order by Hitler to strengthen fortifications on the western German border. Limes refers to

4012-437: The same time, state funding was still being provided to destroy the remains of the Siegfried Line. Consequently, emergency archaeological digs took place whenever any part of the line was to be removed, for example for road building. Archaeological activity was not able to stop the destruction of those sections, but furthered scientific knowledge and revealed details of the line's construction. Nature conservationists consider

4080-524: The short-term goal of opening the urgently needed port of Antwerp and the long-term goal of capturing the Ruhr area , the biggest industrial area of Germany. With the Allies stalled, German Generalfeldmarschall ('Field Marshal') Gerd von Rundstedt was able to reorganize the disrupted German armies into a coherent defensive force. Field Marshal Montgomery's Operation Market Garden had achieved only some of its objectives, while its territorial gains left

4148-483: The task of protecting the flank. This Army was made up of only four infantry divisions, with no large-scale armored formations to use as a spearhead unit. As a result, they made little progress throughout the battle. In an indirect, secondary role, the Fifteenth Army , under General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen , recently brought back up to strength and re-equipped after heavy fighting during Operation Market Garden,

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4216-530: The thousands. Frequently vertical steel rods would be interspersed between the teeth. This standardisation was the most effective use of scarce raw materials, transport and workers, but proved an ineffective tank barrier as US bulldozers simply pushed bridges of soil over these devices. "Dragon's teeth" tank traps were also known as Höcker in German ('humps' or 'pimples' in English) because of their shape. These blocks of reinforced concrete stand in several rows on

4284-416: Was becoming clear that the bunkers could not withstand newly developed armour-piercing weapons. At the same time as the reactivation of the Siegfried Line, small concrete " Tobruks " were built along the borders of the occupied area. Those bunkers were mostly dugouts for single soldiers. In August 1944, the first clashes took place on the Siegfried Line. The section of the line where most fighting took place

4352-512: Was equally damaging; daytime movement of German forces was rapidly noticed, and interdiction of supplies combined with the bombing of the Romanian oil fields starved Germany of oil and gasoline. This fuel shortage intensified after the Soviets overran those fields in the course of their August 1944 Jassy-Kishinev Offensive . One of the few advantages held by the German forces in November 1944

4420-407: Was given a sleeping-place and a stool ; the commanding officer had a chair. Surviving examples still retain signs warning "Walls have ears" and "Lights out when embrasures are open!" The Aachen-Saar programme bunkers were similar to those of the Limes programme: Type 107 double MG casemates with concrete walls up to 3.5 m (11 ft) thick. One difference was that there were no embrasures at

4488-415: Was that they were no longer defending all of Western Europe. Their front lines in the west had been considerably shortened by the Allied offensive and were much closer to the German heartland. This drastically reduced their supply problems despite Allied control of the air. Additionally, their extensive telephone and telegraph network meant that radios were no longer necessary for communications, which lessened

4556-471: Was the Hürtgenwald (Hürtgen Forest) area in the Eifel , 20 km (12 mi) south-east of Aachen. The Aachen Gap was the logical route into Germany's Rhineland and its main industrial area, so it was where the Germans concentrated their defence. The Americans committed an estimated 120,000 troops plus reinforcements to the Battle of Hürtgen Forest . The battle in the heavily forested area claimed

4624-640: Was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history . It was one of the most important battles of the war, as it marked the last major offensive attempted by the Axis powers on the Western front. After this defeat, Nazi forces could only retreat for the remainder of the war. After the breakout from Normandy at

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