AACHEN

An important, if costly, symbolic victory for
the Allies duringWorldWar 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 illfated
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.