Siegfried Line

The Battles for the Last Line of Defense

• 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.