Siegfried Line

The Siegfried Line at the start of the Second World War had serious weaknesses. German General Alfred Jodl said after the war that it was "little better than a building site in 1939", and when Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt inspected the line, the weak construction and insufficient weapons caused him to laugh. Despite France's declaration of war on Germany at the beginning of the Second World War, there was no major combat at the Siegfried Line at the start of the campaign in the west, except for a minor offensive by the French.[3] Instead, both sides remained stuck in the so-called Phoney War, where neither side attacked the other and both stayed in their safe positions.

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.[4] During the Battle of France, French forces made minor attacks against some parts of the line, but the majority was left untested. When the campaign finished, transportable weapons and materials (metal doors for instance) 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 instead used for storage.

Front line in December 1944

With the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, war in the west broke out once more.[5] On 24 August 1944, Hitler gave a directive for renewed construction on the Siegfried Line.[6] 20,000 forced labourers and members of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labour Service), most of whom were 14–16-year-old boys, attempted to re-equip the line for defence purposes. Local people were also called in to carry out this kind of work, mostly building anti-tank ditches.

Even during construction, it was becoming clear that the bunkers could not withstand the 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. These bunkers were mostly dugouts for single soldiers.

American soldiers cross the Siegfried Line and march into Germany.

U.S. soldiers pause for a rest among the ruins of the Siegfried Line in the Rhine Valley, February 1945

In August 1944, the first clashes took place on the Siegfried Line; the section of the line where most fighting took place was the Hürtgenwald (Hürtgen Forest) area in the Eifel, 20 km (12 mi) southeast of Aachen. The Aachen Gap was the logical route into Germany's Rhineland and a main industrial area and was therefore 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 this heavily forested area claimed the lives of 24,000 American soldiers plus 9,000 so-called nonbattle casualties—those evacuated because of fatigue, exposure, accidents and disease.[7] The German death toll is not documented. After the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge began, starting in the area south of the Hürtgenwald, between Monschau and the Luxembourgish town of Echternach. This offensive was a last-ditch attempt by the Germans to reverse the course of the war in the West. German loss of life and material was severe, and the effort failed. There were serious clashes along other parts of the Siegfried Line and 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 also attacked the Siegfried Line. This army group included US formations and 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. This brings the overall cost of the Siegfried Line Campaign, in US personnel, close to 140,000.[8]

Bunker ruins near Aachen

Bunker on the Siegfried line

The Siegfried Line as a chain of biotopes

During the postwar period, many sections of the Siegfried Line were removed using explosives.

In North Rhine Westphalia, about thirty bunkers still remain; most of the rest were either destroyed with explosives or covered with earth. Tank traps still exist in many areas; 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 base's main gate. Another bunker was outside the base perimeter fence near the base hospital. Once 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. This was intended to stop reactionary fascist groups from using the Siegfried Line for propaganda purposes.

At the same time, state funding was still being provided to destroy the remains of the Siegfried Line. For this reason, emergency archaeological digs took place whenever any part of the line was removed, for example for road building. Archaeological activity was not able to stop the destruction of these sections but furthered scientific knowledge and revealed details of the line's construction.

Nature conservationists consider 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. This effect is magnified because 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 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 after having been de-militarised following the First World War.

Type 10 Limes programme bunker seen from the rear

The Limes programme began in 1938 following an order by Hitler to strengthen fortifications on the western German border. Limes refers to 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 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 m² (11 sq ft) per soldier, who 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 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 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.

Geldern Emplacement bunker near Kleve

The Geldern Emplacement lengthened 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.

• Atlantic Wall
• Linea P (Spain)
• Maginot line
• Międzyrzecz Fortified Region
• Czechoslovak border fortifications
• Alpine Wall
• National Redoubt (Switzerland)
• Mannerheim Line

• List of surviving elements of the Siegfried Line
• Besseringen B-Werk, museum in a preserved bunker complex
• Orscholz Switch (aka Siegfried Switch), part of Siegfried Line and scene of heavy fighting between German and US troops
• Regelbau, standard bunker construction
• Siegfried Line Museum, Pirmasens