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Hitler and WWII: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Westwall.jpg|left|220px|Map of the Siegfried line]] | [[Image:Westwall.jpg|left|220px|Map of the Siegfried line]] | ||
The | The Siegfried Line, called the ''Westwall'' by the Germans, was a defense system stretching more than 630km (392 miles) with more than 18,000 bunkers, tunnels and tank traps. It went from Kleve on the border with the Netherlands, along the western border of the old German Empire as far as the town of Weil am Rhein on the border to Switzerland. More with propaganda in mind than for strategic reasons, Adolf Hitler planned the line from 1936 and had it built between 1938 and 1940. | ||
Battles along the Siegfried line include the Battle of Hurtgen Forest (Sept. 19, 1944 - Feb. 10, 1945; 33,000 estimated American casualties, 9,000 estimated German casualties), the Battle of Aachen (Oct. 1944, 5,000 estimated American casualties, 5,000 estimated German casualties), and Operation Market Garden (3,500 American casualties, 6,484 British Casualties, and 4,000 - 8,000 German casualties). Other major offensives across the Siegfried Line that did not include the American forces, including the Battle of the Schelt and the Battle of Moerbrugge (both led by Canadian forces), were Allied successes with few casualties and large numbers of German soldiers captured as POWs. | |||
One reason so many American soldiers perished in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest was the German method of bombing, and the American soldier's method of defense. Ernest Hemingway, who was there, described the battle as ''Passchendaele with tree bursts''. Tree bursts is a technique of using artillery shells that burst in the treetops causing hot metal shrapnel and wood fragments to rain down. Since American soldiers had been trained to fall prone when artillery fired, this technique proved particularly deadly until American G.I.s learned instead to "hug-a-tree" during bombardment. Passchendaele was a reference to a terrible battle in the first World War. | One reason so many American soldiers perished in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest was the German method of bombing, and the American soldier's method of defense. Ernest Hemingway, who was there, described the battle as ''Passchendaele with tree bursts''. Tree bursts is a technique of using artillery shells that burst in the treetops causing hot metal shrapnel and wood fragments to rain down. Since American soldiers had been trained to fall prone when artillery fired, this technique proved particularly deadly until American G.I.s learned instead to "hug-a-tree" during bombardment. Passchendaele was a reference to a terrible battle in the first World War. | ||