AACHEN

AACHEN. An important, if costly, symbolic victory for the Allies during World War II, Aachen was the first German city captured and held by Allied troops. Sitting along a system of German defensive works known as the West Wall, the city was taken by the American First Army, commanded by General Courtney Hodges, after a bitter series of street-to-street battles in September and October 1944.

The original American advance toward Aachen in September came as a result of General Dwight Eisenhower's decision on 10 September 1944 to support the ill-fated British and U.S. airborne operation code-named Market Garden, which occurred west of Aachen in Belgium and Holland from 17 September to 26 September 1944. Even after Market Garden's failure, Hodges kept up the fight for Aachen. The bitterest fighting occurred from 15 to 21 October, with the Americans using heavy air and artillery bombardments to support infantry slowly advancing from house to house. The German Seventh Army, having delayed the Americans by five weeks, withdrew to more defensible positions on the 21st. Aachen demonstrated that despite its defeat in France, the German army was far from beaten. The optimistic claims of some officers that the Allies would be in Berlin by Christmas were laid bare. Much hard fighting remained.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Doubler, Michael. Closing with the Enemy: How GIs Fought the War in Europe. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994.

Michael S. Neiberg