The Battle for the Rhine 1944: Arnhem and the Ardennes, the Campaign in Europe by Neillands Robin

Author:Neillands, Robin [Neillands, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2015-10-05T16:00:00+00:00

8 - THE WEST WALL

The first thrust towards the West Wall and the Rhine devolved upon

the V and VII Corps, both widely extended, virtually devoid of hope for early reinforcement and dangerously short of supplies. Still there was reason to believe that the reconnaissance in force might succeed.

CHARLES B . MACDONALD , THE SIEGFRIED LINE CAMPAIGN

The end of Market Garden and the subsequent opening of the Scheldt in November marks the end of operations of 21st Army Group west of Antwerp: from now on Monty would concentrate on clearing the enemy from the west bank of the Rhine in preparation for a major attack east, through the Reichswald. While this is in hand there is time to turn our attention to the exploits and problems of Bradley’s 12th Army Group, and in particular Hodges’ attempts to gain the Rhine via Aachen.

It is therefore necessary to go back to the start of September and follow the operations of Bradley’s 12th Army Group — Eisenhower’s ‘Central Group of Armies’ — astride the Ardennes and against the German West Wall, a network of fortifications west of the Rhine. These defences were generally known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line, and that name is used in the official history of the campaign, but the German term West Wall will be employed here.

Construction of the West Wall started in 1936, immediately after Hitler’s forces had reoccupied the Rhineland. The Wall was first intended as a narrow defence line on a limited front, running parallel to the French Maginot Line. In 1938, however, the Führer decided to extend the West Wall along the entire western face of the Reich. Half a million men, a third of Germany’s concrete production, a great quantity of Reichmarks and the construction talents of Fritz Todt, builder of the autobahn, went into this defensive line, which by 1940 stretched from Cleeve, north of Aachen, south across the frontier with Eastern France to the Swiss border. While strong everywhere, a notably strong set of defences protected the Saar industrial area and a double line of defences — the Scharnhorst Line in the west and the Schill Line further east — spanned the Aachen Gap. These last two lines blocked the traditional invasion route into Germany.

The West Wall consisted of about 3,000 bunkers and pillboxes, all offering interlocking fields of fire, fronted by deep minefields and forests of concrete anti-tank obstacles, generally known as Dragons’ Teeth, the whole covered by artillery and machine guns. The defences varied in depth from a few hundred yards to five miles between the Scharnhorst and Schill Lines, running between Geilenkirchen and Aachen, but they were formidable everywhere if supplied with men, artillery and ammunition.

With the outbreak of war and Germany’s rapid conquest of France and the Low Countries, work on the West Wall ceased. When the war gradually turned against the Nazis in 1943, more attention was paid to the new defence line along the Western coast — the Atlantic Wall — than the straggling, overgrown and neglected fortress network east of the Rhine.

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