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

How German commanders made decisions under fire

Built as a series of forts, bunkers, and tank traps, the West Wall--known as the Siegfried Line to the Allies--stretched along Germany's 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 war's worst--the Germans held off the Allies for several months.