Battle of Aachen

The Battle of Aachen took place in October 1944 in the city of Aachen during the Second World War. During the fighting, 20,000 of the original 160,000 inhabitants (1939) still lived there. The city was defended by soldiers of the Wehrmacht. From 12 October, Colonel Gerhard Wilck was its commander.

Location

Aachen is the furthest western city in Germany. It was and is of high cultural importance as the imperial city of Charlemagne as well as the coronation site of the German emperors. In military terms, however, the city did not play a major role, as the main battle line on the Westwall (also known as the Siegfried Line to the Allies) ran east of the city and Aachen was only integrated into it by weak fortifications. Consequently, the large built-up area of Aachen was primarily an obstacle for the Allied forces, which they wanted to bypass as quickly as possible in order to be able to attack or push through the Westwall further east. The defending German forces were also relatively weak.

The Allied forces involved in the Battle of Aachen consisted of the American VII Corps and the XIX Corps, which attacked on both sides of the city. On the German side, Aachen was in the defensive area of the LXXXI Army Corps with four weak divisions of about 18,000 men combined and the garrison force in Aachen under Colonel Maximilian Leyherr. The latter was replaced on 12 October by Colonel Gerhard Wilck; Hitler assigned Wilck about 5,000 soldiers of the Volkssturm.

History

After pursuing German forces through France, VII Corps crossed the German border on 12 September 1944 and advanced south of Aachen on the Westwall until 15 September, when difficult terrain and growing Wehrmacht resistance brought the advance to a halt in the Stolberg area. In the process, strong positions to the south of Aachen were bypassed. Already on September 14, 1944, U.S. units had captured the southern district of Kornelimünster without causing any major destruction there.

Operating north of VII Corps, however, XIX Corps had fallen back a few days and was scheduled to move to attack the Westwall north of Aachen on 20 September. The overstretched supply lines, however, delayed an attack until 2 October, as the forces were still being supplied by the ports at Cherbourg and Normandy (the port of Antwerp was in Allied hands; but it could not be used until after the Battle of the Scheldt Estuary). The ports of the Channel coast had been declared "fortresses" and were still occupied by German garrisons.

In early October, the 30th U.S. Infantry Division (XIX Corps) and the 18th Infantry Regiment of the 1st U.S. Infantry Division (VII Corps) began to encircle Aachen in a pincer attack. While the 18th Infantry Regiment reached its operational objectives in the Verlautenheide/Haaren area east of Aachen as early as 8 October, the 30th U.S. Infantry Division needed until 16 October to reach its attack objective in the Würselen area and thus close the ring around Aachen. Both pincer arms had to contend with expanded German positions, fierce resistance, and repeated counterattacks. Here, not in Aachen itself, was the focus of the fighting, in which German reserves repeatedly attempted to dislodge Aachen.

On October 10, an offer of surrender was made to the garrison of Aachen. When this expired, the city was bombed by artillery and air forces. In particular, demoralizing hour-long sorties were carried out by US fighter-bombers of the type P-47 "Thunderbolt".

On October 12, Hitler replaced Maximilian Leyherr, who had been the city commander until then, with Colonel Gerhard Wilck. Wilck was committed to unconditional holding "to the last man". This was in accordance with Hitler's order, according to which the defenders of German towns and villages could only "hold their ground or be destroyed". Field Marshal von Rundstedt reminded Aachen's defenders of this order several times. Wilck knew that holding out in Aachen was militarily futile.

There was no assault on Aachen at first, as the two U.S. divisions had to defend themselves against heavy German counterattacks that lasted until October 19.

On October 12, the 26th Infantry Regiment of the 1st U.S. Infantry Division made a direct attack on downtown Aachen. One battalion of the regiment occupied the factories in the northeast of the city, and two other battalions launched an attack on 13 and 14 October in the direction of the Lousberg, at the foot of which an air raid shelter housed the headquarters of the trapped Aachen defense forces. It also succeeded in occupying another important elevation to the north (Stadtgarten), which gave U.S. troops an overview of the city. On 15 October, another battalion was assigned to the 26th Infantry Regiment to occupy the captured parts of the city. Shortly thereafter, a mixed task force of one tank and one infantry battalion was deployed and by 19 October, after heavy fighting, was able to take the assault objective.

At 12:05 a.m. on October 21, Colonel Wilck surrendered and went into captivity with 3,473 men after U.S. troops broke through to his command post. In all, nearly 12,000 German soldiers went into captivity.

According to the reports of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda, the fate of Aachen received strong attention in all parts of the Reich. Wilck had heroic radio messages sent before the surrender.