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Siegfried Line
 On
September 13, 1944, the first allied troops crossed the border of Nazi-Germany.
They found ahead of them a gigantic barrier; the Siegfried Line or Westwall, a
continuous concrete defense system. It ran from Kleve, in the vicinity of
Nijmegen, to the Swiss border. Between 1936 and 1940 thousandfold constructions
were built which ranged from simple 'Dragon's teeth' to complete fortresses
comparable with the French fortifications of the Maginot Line. At the end of
August 1939, 16,455 constructions were ready. If one takes into account the
constructions built between 1939/1940 and 1944/1945, one can imagine the
problems which faced the US GI. The allied optimism disappeared in the bitter
fighting of October 1944 because of the problems encountered while attempting to
penetrate the Siegfried Line.
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