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Five times the length of Hadrian's Wall, American forces lose close to 140,000 troops trying to get through Hitler's Siegfried Line......
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00:07Twelve thousand Nazi bunkers.
00:10Four hundred miles of tank traps
00:13and hidden underground fortresses.
00:16It was one of the most formidable defenses ever built in Europe.
00:20Built to protect the sacred soil of the Fatherland
00:23and intimidate their enemies.
00:25Our forces must fight for every inch of ground.
00:34Its sheer scale, the sheer nerve and arrogance
00:38of thinking up such a project is quite breathtaking.
00:42The Allied campaign to crack these defenses raged for six months.
00:47This place is armed to the teeth.
00:50And resulted in some of the biggest and bloodiest battles
00:54of World War II.
00:56The enemy must be destroyed.
01:02This is Hitler's Siegfried Line.
01:09The biggest construction projects of World War II.
01:13Ordered by Hitler to secure world domination.
01:17Now they survive as dark reminders
01:20of the Führer's fanatical military ambition.
01:24These are the secrets of the Nazi mega-weapons.
01:49November, 1944.
01:51Five months after D-Day.
02:00The Nazis are battling to stop the Allied advance across Europe.
02:06But they're in retreat and now face an Allied assault
02:10on Germany itself.
02:1321-year-old German Army Private Fritz Tillmans is on the front line,
02:17fighting to defend the fatherland.
02:22His life and the future of Nazi Germany
02:25now depends on one of Hitler's most ambitious mega-weapons.
02:36Called the Siegfried Line by the Allies,
02:38this network of deadly defences is known to the Germans
02:42as the West Wall.
02:45If the line is breached,
02:47the Allies are a step closer to Berlin
02:50and winning the war.
02:57Former Lieutenant and Infantry Commander Patrick Burry
03:00is exploring what remains of the fortifications.
03:03The Siegfried Line defences
03:05are some of the most complex defences ever built.
03:07They're designed in belts and to create defence in depth
03:10and they consist of concrete bunkers,
03:13log-lined trenches, fortresses,
03:15hundreds of miles of barbed wire
03:16and thousands of mines.
03:20It's stretched all the way
03:21from the north of Germany's western border
03:23down to the south.
03:25And it was part of Hitler's plan
03:26to make the western part of Germany impregnable.
03:30The story of the Siegfried Line starts in 1936
03:34when Hitler makes a decisive move towards world domination.
03:41In total defiance of World War I's Versailles peace settlement,
03:46he stations troops in the Rhineland.
03:51The Allies had banned the German military
03:54from this industrial border zone
03:55to prevent further European conflict.
04:00Hitler's master plan hinges on remilitarising the Rhineland
04:04and the construction of massive defences.
04:09Hitler's very keen to defend his western frontier
04:13because he has big plans.
04:15And those plans involve German expansion.
04:19But he sees that expansion taking place to the east.
04:25What he feels is that it's Germany's manifest destiny
04:28to take territory.
04:30And he's going to do that in places like Poland and the Ukraine.
04:34And so defending his western frontier
04:37allows him to do that to the east
04:40without worrying about attack from the western powers.
04:46Hitler starts construction on a series of fortifications
04:49that will eventually stretch 400 miles
04:52along Germany's western border.
04:55It's an interlocking system of tank traps,
04:59anti-personnel devices, trenches, pillboxes,
05:02and subterranean command centres.
05:07The Siegfried Line is what is known as a defence in depth.
05:10A defence in depth doesn't rely on a single line of fortification.
05:13It's not a single line of trenches.
05:15Rather, it is a series of interlocking defensive zones.
05:19As an enemy advances into a defence in depth,
05:21the way that the defensive zones and obstacles are structured
05:24forces to take certain paths into pre-planned killing grounds.
05:30As the attackers are drawn deeper into the maze of defences,
05:33they are stripped of their supporting armour and artillery.
05:37Exposed and isolated, they can be easily eliminated.
05:43In June 1936, the army starts building a thin line
05:48of gun emplacements and observation bunkers
05:50along the German border with France.
05:53But there's little funding or raw materials,
05:56and progress is slow.
06:01After two years, just 640 bunkers are complete.
06:06At this rate, the wall will not be finished for another ten years.
06:11Hitler can't wait that long.
06:15He makes the Siegfried Line a national priority,
06:18and in May 1938 brings in engineer Dr. Fritz Tott to oversee the works.
06:27Modest and unassuming, Tott is not your typical Nazi.
06:33But as the creator of the world-famous Autobahn road system,
06:38he's proven that he can think big,
06:42which is just what Hitler wants for the defence of the Third Reich.
06:45Mein Führer, the fortifications will be complete before the start of winter,
06:53including the extra armour and concrete structures you ordered.
07:00287,000 workers are now assigned to this project from our organisation alone.
07:08The fortification has been established.
07:13Excellent.
07:18Hitler wants the fortifications ready in just four months
07:22to coincide with plans to invade Czechoslovakia in October 1938.
07:30Tott is authorised to call upon all the resources Germany has to offer.
07:36Tott throws everything at the project.
07:38I mean, all other major construction projects
07:40which are underway in the right are cancelled,
07:42they're put on hold.
07:43A vast amount of manpower.
07:45Virtually every single civil engineer in the country
07:47is diverted to us to feed this one big project of the Siegfried Line.
07:56With Tott in charge, construction moves forward at a rapid rate.
08:01The Siegfried Line development is a hugely, hugely ambitious project.
08:06I mean, the amount of concrete involved, the amount of manpower involved,
08:10the cost involved is truly phenomenal.
08:16400,000 conscripted labourers and 50,000 army engineers
08:21are brought in from across Germany to build the wall.
08:29One hundred trains a day bring construction materials to Western railheads.
08:35From there, over 8,000 trucks transport the materials to site.
08:41Workers spread seven million tons of gravel,
08:45pour six million tons of cement
08:47and unfurl three million coils of barbed wire.
08:52You've got around 70 new defensive positions every day being constructed
08:56and the net result is that in four months,
08:59around 10,000 bunkers have been built.
09:02Nothing like this has ever been built in Germany before.
09:09Battlefield archaeologist Dr. Tony Pollard is near the German border with Belgium.
09:15He's searching for evidence of how Fritz Tott engineered Hitler's Siegfried Line.
09:21This looks like a hedge line, the edge of any field,
09:25beautiful rolling agricultural landscape.
09:27But when you get into it, what you'd find are these huge concrete chunks.
09:33They're known as dragon's teeth.
09:35And these are anti-tank defences.
09:38And they're one of the characteristic components of the Siegfried Line.
09:43Tanks roll forward and become trapped on the dragon's teeth.
09:47The hull of the vehicle is exposed and can then be targeted with explosives.
09:54Here's a broken tooth.
09:56It gives us a great idea of how these things were constructed.
09:59They would take wooden moulds, put in the iron reinforcing rods
10:03and then pour in the concrete.
10:07This is just one tooth, but there are thousands of them.
10:09A massive undertaking.
10:11You're looking at 193 tonnes of this iron per kilometre of dragon's teeth.
10:17Five and a half thousand cubic metres of concrete for every kilometre.
10:23But dragon's teeth are just the beginning.
10:26Hitler also orders the construction of another 10,000 bunkers.
10:30The Siegfried Line is hugely ambitious.
10:33Its sheer scale, the sheer nerve and arrogance almost,
10:37of thinking up such a project is quite breathtaking.
10:41The Siegfried Line bunkers range in size and style.
10:45There are simple concrete shelters, machine gun emplacements,
10:49and then the enormous and highly sophisticated underground forts known as beaver bunkers.
10:57The Siegfried Line is made up of a huge number of installations.
11:02And among the most impressive of those are the subterranean beaver bunkers.
11:07And this is one of them.
11:09And this is one of them.
11:10The cat's head.
11:17Though unassuming at ground level, the Katzenkopf bunker is one of the largest
11:22and most complex fortifications ever built by Nazi engineers.
11:30It's one of 32 command and control centres placed at key tactical points along the German border.
11:42Four stories deep, this sprawling underground lair contains everything an 80-man troop needs
11:48to be self-sufficient for up to 30 days.
12:00Wow, down here, we've got an absolute spaghetti junction of twisted pipes and boilers and taps.
12:08This is where water would have been brought into the fortress.
12:12They've drilled down 150 metres until they've reached the water table,
12:17and so they can pump that up.
12:19They've got a limitless supply of fresh water here.
12:21It's incredible.
12:25The bunkers use cutting-edge technology to give occupants the maximum chance of survival.
12:32Look at this.
12:34These big ducts coming through the wall.
12:37This is the ventilation system.
12:39And if there is a gas attack, the bunker is sealed.
12:42All of those heavy iron doors are closed.
12:45So even if the outside is covered with gas, you can still function in here.
12:50It's an incredibly intelligent structure.
12:55But the most important features are the gun turrets.
13:00There would have been a steel turret here, 30 centimetres thick,
13:06and mounted inside it were a pair of twinned machine guns.
13:10And this thing would have been capable of turning 360 degrees,
13:14and if you looked out, you'd have an amazing view of the valley.
13:18So this could spray machine gun fire across the entire landscape.
13:22But this isn't the only armament that this bunker had.
13:26In another, there's a flamethrower, or a flammenwerfer, as the Germans describe it.
13:31And that could fire flames for over 80 metres, again around a 360-degree circle.
13:37This place is armed to the teeth.
13:52Four floors down, an 80-metre tunnel leads to a second, smaller gun turret.
14:09Oh, that's neat.
14:10That's a gun port, so a man behind here could shoot all the way up the tunnel
14:14if the enemy was storming through.
14:18But that would have been a pretty last-ditch stand, I think.
14:22This remote turret is a self-contained unit.
14:26It's equipped with yet more machine guns and grenade launchers.
14:33Looks like the accommodation block for the crew,
14:36and these brackets would have held bunk beds.
14:46I wouldn't really fancy being on the bottom bunk here.
14:50This would be reassuring.
14:52If things get really bad, here's an escape hatch.
14:58But not everything in this bunker is high-tech.
15:04Whoa. I know what this is.
15:07There would have been a trap door over here that most of the time would have been closed.
15:10But if the place was under attack, the trap door would have been lifted.
15:14And if the enemy broke through the door, they'd fall straight into this.
15:21Hitler watches closely as the Siegfried Line takes shape.
15:26He carefully stage-manages his frequent visits to site.
15:31And projects an image of Nazi Germany as an impenetrable fortress.
15:38The Siegfried Line is a very important propaganda tool for Hitler.
15:42It demonstrates Germany's ability to muster manpower, resources, and also represents its military strength.
15:50And it's a warning shot to the West.
15:52When visiting the site once, he said,
15:55I am the greatest builder of defenses of all time.
16:03March 1939.
16:05Hitler annexes Czechoslovakia.
16:08Desperate to avoid another war and intimidated by Germany's new defenses, Britain and France have agreed not to intervene.
16:24Stage one of Hitler's master plan is a success.
16:39With Germany's western border finally secure, behind thousands of bunkers and gun emplacements, Hitler sets his sights east on Poland.
16:54By the beginning of September 1939, the Siegfried Line is, to all intents and purposes, completed.
16:58And that's a huge relief for Hitler, because he's itching to get into Poland.
17:02He does invade on the 1st of September 1939.
17:10Poland falls in just four weeks.
17:13The Siegfried Line now becomes the front line for Hitler's expansion west.
17:18Once Poland's under Nazi control, he then turns his attention west.
17:22And on the 10th of May 1940, he invades Belgium, Holland and France.
17:26France is one of the biggest military countries in the entire world.
17:29And all three countries are completely overrun within six weeks.
17:34By the summer of 1940, Nazi Germany has more than doubled in size.
17:39In the west, the Third Reich reaches the Atlantic Ocean.
17:45With all these victories, the Western Front is no longer on the borders of Germany, but actually on the Atlantic
17:50coast.
17:51What that means is for the Siegfried Line is suddenly it's no longer needed.
17:57Despite being completed only a year earlier,
17:59the Siegfried Line's valuable weapons and fittings are now shipped westward.
18:07So what happens is a whole kind of decommissioning process where everything is stripped out.
18:12All the guns, all the amazing optics, even the air conditioning is removed.
18:20Then, in December 1941, Hitler declares war on America.
18:30His western border along the French coast is now at risk of Allied invasion.
18:37He orders the Siegfried Line to be dismantled and used to strengthen the Atlantic wall.
18:42And they take away the doors.
18:44They take away the ventilation systems.
18:46And look at this.
18:47This huge steel blast door has just been ripped out and recycled.
18:51The gun mounts, anything that's of use.
18:53And it's all shipped over to the Atlantic wall to bolster its defenses.
18:58But the problem is that weakens the Siegfried Line.
19:02The German army abandons the bunkers, dragon's teeth, and trenches of the Siegfried Line.
19:09The once formidable structures fall into disrepair.
19:18With the war now playing out on a global scale, hundreds of thousands of young men are conscripted into the
19:27German army.
19:31Among them, Fritz Tillmans, who recalls the war in his memoirs.
19:37On the 13th of April 1942, I was drafted into the Beermacht.
19:42Fritz Tillmans.
19:43Jawohl Herr, Fritz Herr.
19:45After just 12 weeks of training, I was sent to the Eastern Front to build defensive positions and fight the
19:51Russians.
19:54I didn't realize at the time that these experiences would stand me in good stead to serve on the Siegfried
19:59Line.
20:03While the war rages, the Siegfried Line is virtually forgotten.
20:09Until D-Day.
20:11On June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops storm the beaches at Normandy and overrun the Atlantic wall.
20:23Hitler has made a terrible mistake.
20:27It's all very well taking all this stuff from the Siegfried Line, as long as you don't ever need it
20:30again.
20:31The problem is, is that their allies overrun the Atlantic wall, the Germans are in full retreat from Normandy,
20:37and suddenly they're heading back to the Siegfried Line, which is nothing more than a concrete shell.
20:42And it's made worse by the fact that so many of the things they need are just simply gone forever.
20:47Hitler has two problems.
20:50Not only are his defenses inadequate, but his prize-winning engineer, Dr. Fritz Tott, has been killed in a plane
20:59crash.
21:03Hitler decides to oversee the renovations himself.
21:07The Western Front must be strengthened at once!
21:13I want an immediate report on the organization of labor and the progress of construction.
21:18Our forces must defend every inch of ground from our enemy!
21:27That is an order!
21:31The Nazis race to reinforce the Siegfried Line.
21:36They install small bunkers with circular openings for weapons, known as Tobruk's.
21:42And 5,000 tube-like Koch bunkers, which act as extensions to existing structures.
21:48There's also a heck of a lot of mines and a lot more wire.
21:51It's just doing what they can as quickly as possible to make this as impregnable as they possibly can in
21:58the time allowing.
21:59It's only been five years since the Siegfried Line was completed.
22:04But technological innovations during the course of the war mean that defenses are already outdated.
22:13Technology has really changed over the intervening years, and guns have become a lot more powerful.
22:17So a lot of the concrete that would have withstood Allied firepower in 1939 no longer will.
22:23And that's a major problem.
22:25Also, you know, certain positions were designed for a particular type of gun,
22:29which either has become obsolete or simply no longer exists anymore.
22:33So there's a whole host of problems facing them.
22:36To solve these problems, Hitler brings in his best defensive tactician,
22:41Field Marshal Walther Model.
22:46He is a ruthless and actually not particularly well-loved commander by the officers.
22:50The men like him. They nickname him the front pig because he spends a lot of time visiting the soldiers
22:54on the front,
22:55and he's very careful to make sure that he's taking risks that his soldiers take.
22:59On a number of occasions, he actually personally leads defenses with pistols in his hand.
23:03Because of this sort of aggression and his lack of finesse, Hitler particularly likes him.
23:09On August 15th, 1944, Hitler summons Model to the Wolf's lair.
23:17Ah! My favorite general.
23:20Heil Hitler.
23:25I have something for you.
23:30You are my lion of defense.
23:38For your accomplishments in restoring the front in central Poland.
23:47After decorating Model, Hitler reveals his plan.
23:51I have a new assignment for you.
23:54Jawohl, mein Führer.
23:56You are to take over the command of Army Group West with immediate effect.
24:01The defense of the Fatherland's western border is in your hands.
24:07Herr General.
24:10Under Model's command, the Nazi war effort in the west is now focused on the Siegfried Line.
24:20After storming the beaches at Normandy, the British and other allies push north along the coast to liberate Belgium and
24:26Holland,
24:27while the Americans head straight for the Siegfried Line to strike at the heart of Germany.
24:36After storm!
24:38Model waits for the Americans at the point most prone to attack.
24:42Everything in order, men?
24:46A zone called the Aachen Gap.
24:51Yeah.
24:54The Aachen Gap is a narrow corridor between the city of Aachen and the densely wooded Hertgen Forest.
25:02A historic invasion route, it's the most direct way into Germany's industrial heartland.
25:11Rich in coal, steel and iron resources, the Ruhr Valley is a vital tactical position.
25:18They really need to keep Germany intact, especially the industrial regions of the Ruhr Valley.
25:23If the Americans take those, the war is effectively lost.
25:26So Model is put in effectively to save Germany.
25:29Model is pleased with what he finds.
25:33Exactly!
25:35The position is fantastic!
25:38The combination of bunkers and dense forest around Aachen will cause major problems for the Americans.
25:49The remains of these fortifications can still be found in the forests of Western Germany today.
25:55In the Hertgen Forest, Hitler has engineered a nightmare for the Allies.
26:00This bombed out bunker mightn't look like much now, but 70 years ago it was a pretty formidable position for
26:05the Allies to have to take, and it cost them a lot of casualties in doing so.
26:08It was bunkers and pillboxes like this that formed the heart of the Siegfried Line.
26:12This one would have been complemented by another one, perhaps 200 yards up there, and another one 200 yards over
26:19there, all interlocking with each other so they could support each other as best as possible.
26:25This is one of almost three and a half thousand Type 10 bunkers that Model strengthens in preparation.
26:34So here we've got a gunning portal where they could have put any kind of machine gun or maybe perhaps
26:39a larger calibre weapon here to fire out on the attackers.
26:42You've got the air intake duct here, and we know they're very keen to keep the building gas-tight.
26:49And then we move in, where you would have had a heavy, thick door, perhaps up to between 20 and
26:5450 mil thick, which would have closed tightly against this to keep the structure airtight.
27:02Past the gas-proof entrance is a stand-to area, which acts as living and sleeping quarters.
27:09Separate to this is the combat room.
27:14You can see here you've got a mount for probably a machine gun, and you've got the wide open port
27:19for the gun to fire from.
27:20And if you look just how wide the field of fire is, you've almost got arcs of probably about 160,
27:29150 degrees, so it's really quite impressive.
27:31They have the gun set up here, and it's quite low for any oncoming attackers who's going to shoot them
27:35in the legs or in the chest, but only as they get closer to you.
27:39And then you can see here, they've got another position, a secondary position, which has got far tighter field of
27:46vision, but can cover the approaches to the door here.
27:50And the final, last man standing position is basically this hole here, which means you can shoot through any attackers
27:58coming through while you're protected behind this heavy wall.
28:02With ceilings and walls five feet thick, each bunker holds up to 12 men.
28:08The conditions here would have been cramped, they would have been grim, and it would have been cold.
28:12But if you're a German soldier, you'd much rather be in here with overhead protection than out there where you're
28:17totally exposed.
28:22Not only does it protect you from artillery shells landing, but crucially, it protects you from tree bursts.
28:27Now, tree bursts are when artillery shells land or hit the tops of the trees and then cause shards of
28:33timber and trap-nut to come down on the troops exposed underneath.
28:37They were one of the biggest causes of American casualties in the Battle of Hurkan.
28:40But for the Germans inside, they're protected.
28:46Mortals' troops dig in, waiting for the American attack.
28:51Among them is Private Fritz Tillmans.
28:54He's already battle weary from serving on the Eastern Front.
29:03In 1944, they were desperate for experienced soldiers to fight on the Western Front.
29:10I'd fought in Russia, but been injured by shrapnel and admitted to hospital.
29:15As soon as possible, I was discharged and sent straight to the Hürtgen Forest.
29:26Five years after being built, Hitler's mighty Siegfried Line will finally be tested in battle.
29:40On October 2nd, 1944, American troops launched their attack north of the historic city of Aachen.
29:48After annihilating the Germans at Normandy, the Americans believe they are fighting a broken, second-rate army.
30:03By this point of the war in Europe, the Allies had numerical advantage over the Germans.
30:08They had air superiority, they had more men on the ground, and importantly, they outnumbered German tanks by about ten
30:14to one.
30:16What the Germans had was the Siegfried Line.
30:20It quickly becomes clear that Aachen is a focus of Nazi resistance.
30:27Bypassing it is not an option. The Americans will have to take the city.
30:32There are effectively two strong lines of defense built around Aachen.
30:36It is really a hard nut, a hinge on which the rest of the Siegfried Line is sitting.
30:41So the Americans are anticipating a fairly easy fight, but it's actually been integrated as the hard point in a
30:46very complex defensive system.
30:49The American strategy is a two-pronged assault on the Siegfried Line from the north and south.
30:55Once they have encircled the city, they can pulverize it with bombs and shells.
31:03If they succeed, Aachen will be the first major German city to fall.
31:08But the Nazis have taken extra care to protect this strategic city.
31:15There are more dragon's teeth, reinforced bunkers, and bigger anti-tank obstacles.
31:25Grief.
31:29This is an anti-tank wall.
31:32Part of the defenses of the Siegfried Line, and much grander than the dragon's teeth.
31:41Wow.
31:42I can see, stepping back, that it's at the base of a hill.
31:46And what it does, as part of the original design of the Siegfried Line, what it does at really minimal
31:53expense.
31:54It makes this hill theoretically impregnable.
32:00What they've done is use the terrain intelligently.
32:04It's that combination of blocky defenses in tactically important locations.
32:10So this is right at the foot of a hill, so it effectively stops any advance upslope.
32:15It's an incredibly impressive structure.
32:23After three weeks of hard fighting, the Americans overwhelm the tank defenses.
32:29They are close to encircling Aachen.
32:33Model must act fast to save the city.
32:36We must stop them surrounding Aachen.
32:40I've come from Aachen.
32:43The Führer has commanded that we will not give up one inch of ground.
32:50His command is sacred.
32:53But fight to the last man.
32:57If necessary, be buried in the ruins.
33:03Send in the 116th Panzer and the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Divisions.
33:10Yes, General Field Marshal.
33:13Nicknamed the Fireman, Model is the man Hitler sends in to rescue the Third Reich from desperate situations.
33:20But even his tactical expertise is no match for the American firepower.
33:27Model really just doesn't have enough armor to stave off this great American attack.
33:32The Americans have such an advantage in armor and firepower that Model's limited resources simply can't keep up.
33:40On October 11th, the Americans unleash hell.
33:44In a single hour, artillery battalions fire 5,000 shells into the city, while Allied air forces drop over 62
33:52tons of bombs.
33:58They finally blast their way into Aachen.
34:02For the first time in World War II, the Nazis are fighting for a major German city.
34:11Americans punch through and they get into Aachen, but that isn't the end of the fight, because it isn't a
34:15single line that they've punched through.
34:16They've effectively punched into a defensive zone, of which Aachen is part.
34:20The city itself contains fortified zones and bunkers and lines of defense.
34:25So the fight into Aachen isn't a triumphal entrance.
34:29It is a brutal, hand-to-hand, door-to-door, house-to-house fight to capture what is effectively a
34:35fortress city.
34:43The Germans knew this town like the back of their hands, and they used it to their advantage.
34:47They used everything it had to offer as a form of defense.
34:50They were in the cellars, they turned them into bunkers, and the Americans passed, the Germans would pop out and
34:55attack them from the rear.
34:56The Americans were forced to attack them with grenades and flamethrowers.
35:00Imagine what the guys in there suffered during that fight.
35:02They were in the sewers.
35:04The Americans had to block up the manholes to stop them popping up.
35:07They took to the rooftops the snipers.
35:09They even dragged pieces of artillery up to the upper stories to rain fire down onto the Americans.
35:14They made them pay for every inch of this town.
35:22After heavy street fighting, this is where the Germans made their last stand in Aachen.
35:27When Hitler built the Siegfried Line, he also fortified Aachen, and that's what this building represents.
35:31It's a massive air raid shelter for the civilians.
35:34But as the battle progresses and starts to go badly for the German military, they move in as well, and
35:38by the end of the battle, it's their command post.
35:40By the 21st of October, the situation for the defenders of Aachen is hopeless.
35:45The Americans are in this street shooting at this air raid shelter, and you can see how heavily the Americans
35:51have hit it.
35:51This entire wall is peppered with machine gun fire and shrapnel scars, and especially around the doorway.
35:58So you certainly wouldn't want to be coming out of this building without a white flag in your hand.
36:10The German commander puts out his last radio message to the high command, and it goes along the lines of,
36:15after very heavy street fighting, all ammo expended, no water, no food.
36:20The enemy are close to the command post of the last defenders of the imperial city.
36:24Radio prepared for destruction.
36:26It doesn't get any more evocative than that.
36:28And not long after, the Germans surrender.
36:35It is a brutal battle, which takes a huge human toll.
36:42More than 10,000 American and German troops killed, wounded, or missing in action.
36:5080% of the historic city of Aachen destroyed.
36:58American forces have punched through a small section of the Siegfried Line and captured their first major German city.
37:06But the fight for the Siegfried Line is far from over.
37:09The Americans do ultimately capture Aachen after a protracted attack and a lot of very dirty urban fighting.
37:15But that's not the end of it for the Americans.
37:17They now have to go through the Hurtgen Forest.
37:19And the Hurtgen Forest is a very complex defense in which they have no advantage.
37:26The Americans are about to stumble straight into Motel's death trap.
37:32The Hurtgen Forest.
37:41On November 2nd, 1944, American troops are in the forest flanking the city of Aachen.
37:48The Hurtgen Forest.
37:52Motel prepares his men.
37:55After losing Aachen, the situation looks desperate.
37:59But Motel has built his reputation on winning against the odds.
38:05Everyone must understand the gravity of the situation.
38:13This moment will be enough to distinguish the true men from the inept ones.
38:29Every soldier has the same responsibility.
38:37If one falls, another must be ready to take his place.
39:02The battle moving into the Hurtgen Forest feeds into Motel's hands because not only have you got the fixed defenses
39:07of the bunkers and the mines and gun positions and all the rest of it, you've also got the natural
39:12defenses of the forest.
39:17The two great American strength in firepower, tanks and close air support aircraft, are stripped away.
39:24They simply can't operate in the Hurtgen Forest.
39:26The trees are too tightly packed, the ground is too close.
39:33The Hurtgen Forest's rugged terrain levels the playing field, giving the Germans a fighting chance against the superior military might
39:41of the Americans.
39:46The Hurtgen Forest's rugged.
39:47Get ready, lads.
39:49Hans, are you ready?
39:52Yeah.
39:54Fritz Tillmans recalls the start of the battle.
39:58Our troops mission was to defend the village of Schmidt, a key position on our supply route.
40:05We could see the Americans across the valley were trying to attack with tanks and infantry.
40:10There were so many of them and we couldn't believe how they just kept coming.
40:17Men like Fritz Tillmans and his units would have been dug in in this area holding firm.
40:25And here could well have been a fighting position and if you get down here you can see that basically
40:33this would be a decent enough position for a machine gun.
40:42You can see over the brow of the hill it can support the other positions which would have
40:46been over there and down that way and crucially there would have been another big bunker position
40:50up in that hill.
40:52So it's all part of an interlocking defensive plan trying to make it as tough as possible
40:57for the Allies to get into this area.
41:01The Siegfried Line is not just concrete structures and trenches but barbed wire, booby traps and
41:08mine fields.
41:11Surrounding the trenches and bunkers are belts of anti-personnel mines.
41:16Throughout the Hurkan forest these can be laid as deep as one mine every eight paces.
41:29If you're an American soldier trying to attack the Germans it is a nightmare.
41:33It's practically impossible.
41:34It is the last thing that you want to be doing.
41:37It's a really, really tough place to be fighting.
41:40From September through October the Allies battle to clear the Hurkan forest.
41:44But the German defenses prevent any notable advance.
41:49Conditions are cold and wet.
41:51The fighting is brutal.
41:54Two American regiments are completely wiped out.
42:01GIs call this dense forest the Death Factory.
42:10Every two weeks a new wave of American troops is thrown against the Siegfried Line.
42:16But they just can't break through.
42:21It's one, two.
42:23These look like foxholes that were dug by the Americans here.
42:27We've got a few of them.
42:30It's basically a simple prepared position dug by infantry soldiers.
42:33That's all it is, you know, compared to the Germans who've got, you know, concrete defenses
42:37on the Siegfried Line.
42:39All the poor bloody infantrymen here can do is dig in with their spades, you know, and
42:44their shovels, their small shovels.
42:50Muddle's tactics are working.
42:53But he's not content with just holding the Americans back.
42:57He wants to destroy them.
43:12Muddle is considered to be a ruthless commander.
43:15Hitler says to one of his staff officers at one point, by God, did you see that man?
43:20I trust him, but I wouldn't want to serve under him.
43:37They're not going to be one of his friends at one point, but it's a nice, but it's
43:42Forget it!
43:44Which one, and so close it is.
43:50Oh boy!
43:53Determined to turn the war for Hitler,
43:56Model orders his men to drive the Americans
43:58out of the Hürtgen and Germany.
44:21November 8th, 1944, German Army Private Fitz Tillmans has no choice but to leave the safety
44:28of the Siegfried Line and enter the fray.
44:31It's a doomed mission.
44:34We'd seen a huge number of GIs digging in the day before,
44:38and we only had a strength of about 30 to 40 men,
44:41many of whom were not experienced soldiers.
44:44I had serious doubts about our attack.
44:47It seemed like a suicide mission.
44:54The problem now is the shoes on the other foot,
44:58and attacking is very different to defending.
45:04Without the protection of the Siegfried Line,
45:06Tillmans' unit becomes vulnerable.
45:11We received orders to push our attack further along the east side of the valley.
45:16The first few hundred yards went fine, but then we came under artillery fire,
45:21and we had our first casualties.
45:24Go, Hans!
45:26Go, Hans!
45:27I'll cover you!
45:32Hans!
45:35Are you hit?
45:37Oh, no!
45:40Pigs!
45:43One of my best friends was badly wounded.
45:46He died later at the first aid station.
45:56The Germans quickly retreat through the forest.
46:03Things are getting pretty desperate. The conditions are horrendous here.
46:06We know that the quality of the troops is declining.
46:09They're losing a lot of senior NCOs, which are non-commissioned officers,
46:13basically leaders, so they're not as well led.
46:16And then supplies are running out too.
46:17They've got fewer and fewer ammunition.
46:19They don't have enough artillery shells to support them.
46:21And crucially, they don't have enough of their kind of personal fighting equipment,
46:25like sleeping systems, and also rations.
46:32Field Marshal Model's counterattack may have failed,
46:35but the Siegfried Line is still holding firm.
46:39Hertgen Forest is one of the longest and bloodiest battles the US Army ever fights.
46:45And the truly horrific costs aren't really borne out on the ground.
46:51They haven't advanced that far. The Siegfried Line, where the positions are,
46:55and the forest defenses are still largely intact, so they haven't fulfilled their objectives.
47:01In just under five months, the Allies have liberated over 220,000 square miles of Western Europe.
47:10But now they've stalled at the Siegfried Line.
47:14The Battle of the Hertgen Forest ends in a kind of bitter, bloody stalemate,
47:19in which casualties on both sides are absolutely enormous.
47:23About 30,000 men on both sides are killed.
47:28Critically, the stalemate in the Hertgen Forest has bought Hitler time.
47:31He has been secretly planning a major offensive just 20 miles further south,
47:38and is moving troops into position, ready to launch them at the Allies.
47:47The man he puts in touch with it is the man who's so tenaciously defended the Siegfried Line,
47:53up to that point, Field Marshal Modell.
47:56On December 16th, Hitler's miracle worker, Field Marshal Modell, puts the Fuhrer's audacious plan into action.
48:11250,000 German soldiers, 2,000 artillery pieces, and 1,000 tanks assault a 75-mile stretch of the American
48:21line.
48:28The plan is to surge forward through Belgium and drive the Allies back into the sea.
48:39It would become known as the Battle of the Bulge.
48:51December 1944.
48:53The German counterattack across the Siegfried Line is Hitler's last roll of the dice.
49:00Hitler, in all his irrationality, still thinks he can somehow scrape a victory,
49:04or some advantage at the end of the war with an offensive.
49:09Catches the Americans by surprise, and actually does gain some initial advantage,
49:14and some initial advances. Really, it's never going to succeed.
49:19But the German forces can't sustain their ferocious momentum.
49:24Outside of the defensive advantage offered by the Hertgen Forest and the Siegfried Line,
49:28the Germans really don't have the capability to launch an attack.
49:31They don't have sufficient air power, they don't have sufficient artillery, and they're running out of fuel.
49:38Once American reinforcements arrive, they quickly halt the Nazi advance.
49:48Hitler's desperate gamble to change the course of the war falters in just three weeks.
49:55The great offensive that Hitler's plan that Models carried out has proved a busted flush,
50:00and they now have no choice but to retreat back away from the Siegfried Line, abandon it,
50:05and fall back behind the next great obstacle, which is the river right.
50:11The Allies coordinate a massive final push on all fronts.
50:19With the German troops now in retreat, the Siegfried Line falls at a rapid rate.
50:25Models no longer has the ability to counterattack, to stop those breaches.
50:29When he can't plug the holes, because he doesn't have the tanks, the material, the men to do it,
50:34then the line becomes pointless. It can't be defended. It's just a bunch of furniture out in the forest.
50:47For all its technology and weaponry, the Katzenkopf bunker is overrun in a day.
50:54And the reason is simple.
50:58It's all well and good, having a really impressive defensive system like the Siegfried Line.
51:02But you need the soldiers to man it, and by the time the Allies are knocking on Germany's front door,
51:08their military machine is pretty much broken, and Hitler just doesn't have the resources to throw at it.
51:13And they can't stave off the inevitable.
51:17Although the Siegfried Line was a really strong defensive network, ultimately it was only as good
51:21as the men who occupied it. And when they lost their fighting spirit, it was easily overcome.
51:28The Siegfried Line was an extraordinary feat of military engineering.
51:34It was a successful propaganda weapon that gave Hitler the power to instigate World War II.
51:42It allowed the Nazis to hold their enemies back long enough to counterattack in the Battle of the Bulge.
51:56Just six weeks after the Americans break through the final Siegfried Line defenses,
52:01Hitler commits suicide, and the end of the war swiftly follows.
52:09As the Allies advance towards Berlin, they capture Private Fritz Tillmans.
52:31Field Marshal Muttall refuses to surrender to the British on hearing he could face charges
52:40for war crimes.
52:49He shoots himself.
52:53He shoots himself.
52:54He shoots himself.
52:55He shoots himself.
52:56He shoots himself.
52:58He shoots himself.
53:00Described by one Allied commander as the strongest net of fortifications ever constructed by the human race,
53:06the Siegfried Line campaign cost the Americans 140,000 casualties.
53:15But ultimately, it was an overly ambitious project that the German forces simply couldn't maintain.
53:22The truth is, with the Siegfried Line, and it applies to so many of the big Nazi projects,
53:28is that Germany is just resource poor.
53:30They don't have enough of anything.
53:32And so they start these huge, great projects, but they just don't have the manpower or the materials
53:37to really see it through.
53:39This is certainly the case of the Siegfried Line.
53:41It's just too vast.
53:43It's too big an obstacle to effectively man.
53:50Many of the structures along the Siegfried Line were so solidly built
53:54that the Allies found them impossible to demolish.
53:59They are testament to one of the biggest construction projects ever undertaken on German soil,
54:05and a reminder of the men who lost their lives fighting to defend and destroy it.
54:37Consider that very, very, very strategic project and unreasonable調査ing around her career.
54:48The
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