AACHEN: OCTOBER 24, 1944

Aachen located in a triangular area on the border of Luxembourg, Netherlands and France is the area where heavy fighting begins. Army focus was to be through southern Belgium and Luxembourg towards German land south of Rhine.

The first German city to fall into Allied hands was Aachen It took five months of heavy fighting to get into the area. Once the Allies moved into Aachen they began to infiltrate into Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Five months of heavy fighting ensued.

The main obstacle that had to be overcome was the heavily fortified pill box. Germans could easily hide behind the concrete structures set in the ground. The pill box was normally located on a steep hill in regions that were heavily forested and where there was thick underbrush. The box could possibly be covered with wire so that it was even more inaccessible and had deep trench tunnels where the Germans could lie in wait. The pill box was an excellent camouflage for machine guns and mortars. When anyone was within a reasonable distance, the Germans would open fire on the unsuspecting GI’s. The goal for the Allies was to completely destroy the pill box either be detonation or by having a tank demolish the box completely. The purpose was to insure that the Germans would not be able to use them later on.

The best way to move into an area was to crawl along the ground in the hours just before daylight. For the Germans, the heaviest fighting was usually one hour after dark. That gave them time to study the landscape and get their bearing. That gave the Germans over the GI’s and the Germans had the advantage. Once the Allies were aware of the German fighting hours the Allies would stop fighting one hour before dark so that they would have time to study the area and have a better opportunity to maintain the attack.