The Siegfried Line

A couple of years ago, I picked up the U.S. Army Atlas of the European Theater in WWII - it is full of official combat maps, and also has a couple of maps that were derived from captured German maps. Many of the maps show the exact path of the Siegfried Line (or known as the West Wall) - the line of tank obstacles, barbed wire, pillboxes, and trenches that lined the western border of Germany (see National Archives picture below of American troops advancing through a gate in the line - note "dragon's teeth" tank obstacles in background).



One particular map in this book is incredibly detailed - it actually showed the precise locations of pillboxes. Most pillboxes are now gone, but much of the dragon's teeth are still there.

The below map is from just south of Geilenkirchen, Germany. I inserted the two green arrows to indicate where the tank obstacles (dragon's teeth) were located. You can click on any picture to enlarge it.



On Google Earth (the program, not Google maps), many of the tank obstacles can still be seen today, and many people have uploaded photographs of the line. The faint jagged line in the landscape indicates where the tank obstacles were for the green arrow in the south. The jagged line in the picture below that indicates where the tank obstacles were for the green arrow in the north.



Note the town of Frelenberg - the shape of the town is relatively unchanged since the mid-1940's, other than some development to the south.

One thing that's interesting (maybe only to me), in my research on Google Earth with the Siegfried Line, the tank obstacles that are just south of Geilenkirchen are the first ones I've run across where it appears as though they've been removed recently. Either I can really see them, or there is no trace.

Most pillboxes have been dynamited, and the remnants carted off. Very few pillboxes along the line remain. The one we visited below in the Huertgen Forest appears as though it was dynamited, but the roof did not break apart when the walls caved in (in order to haul it away easier). In the close ups, you can see the air vents. This pillbox covered an intersection, and immediately across the road from it was a foxhole that most likely held a German machine gun emplacement.




However, I have been asked by a number of people why most of the tank obstacles still remain. After walking among the obstacles in summer of 2006, they are not merely sitting on the ground. Concrete ties them all together, and is reinforced with rebar. It is difficult to see what I am talking about, as most of the pictures I've seen from WWII, there's dirt covering the concrete that connect the obstacles, and now it's all overgrown with weeds and grass. The picture I took below kind of shows it - you can see the concrete connecting the obstacles (you can also see why they're called "dragon's teeth"). It's not as simple as bulldozing the things over, since they're all interconnected. Just outside of the picture to the left, while I was taking this shot, a German farmer was out driving his tractor around. Our friend Albert told us that the great majority of the line was built by civilian contractors.


Another angle.


While standing in this section of the Siegfried Line and seeing the farmer just going about his daily business, I couldn't help but think of how Germany is constantly reminded of how every time they see the remnants of this, that it was originally meant to preserve a way of life that was no way of life at all.

For more information, the history portion of the Army's official website at army.mil has the entire book online - The Siegfried Line Campaign, by Charles MacDonald. Click here for the link.