Siegfried Line, The The German Defense of the West Wall, September-December 1944

The battles for the Germans last line of defense in World War II, including Arnhem, Aachen, the Huertgen Forest, and Metz. Built as a series of forts, bunkers, and tank traps, the West Wall--known as the Siegfried Line to the Allies--stretched along Germanys western border. After D-Day in June 1944, as the Allies raced across France and threatened to pierce into the Reich, the Germans fell back on the West Wall. In desperate fighting--among the wars worst--the Germans held off the Allies for several months.

Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr., is the author of more than twenty books on World War II. He lives in Louisiana.