Although it had a role to play in Nazi propaganda, the first real action along its length came about as a consequence of Allied advancement following the D-Day landings.
Referred to as the Westwall by the Germans, it ran from Kleve, on the border with the Netherlands, to the town of Weil am Rhein, near the Swiss border in the south.īuilt between 19 upon Adolf Hitler’s plans and roughly opposite to the French Maginot Line, the defensive line built in part by vast numbers of forced laborers was made up of some 18,000 bunkers, tunnels, trenches, tank traps and other fortifications. The Siegfried Line was a World War II German defensive system stretching some 390 miles along the western border of the old German Empire.
