Defense of the Rhine 1944-45 (Fortress) [Paperback]

This latest offering by Mr Zaloga makes an ideal companion book to the author's earlier works: "The Siegfried Line 1944-45" and "Remagan 1945". These earlier books describe the fighting between the adversaries to cross the Rhine while the latest book describes the fortifications that were built to help keep the Western Allies from entering Germany. By the end of 1944, there were 400,000 volunteers working the project. In addition to the fortifications, a discussion is made on how it would be armed and how the Volkssturm would man the line.
In the introduction a general history describes the legacy of the West Wall; the rudimentary beginning during WWI, the expansion of the late 1930s and then the desperate final expansion of 1944-45 after the Normandy landings. By this time though with Hitler's fatalistic resistance and the nation's dwindling resources and the sudden surge of the Allies, the West Wall though still difficult to breach never achieved its potential. The Atlantic Wall had taken priority and the West Wall was scavenged to supply the other wall. By 1944 sectors of the West Wall were poorly supplied, void of guns or had antiquated guns. The situation was made worse by the huge losses of men and materiale the Germans suffered in the "Bulge".

After the introduction, Mr Zaloga moves on to design and development of the 1500 mile project that transverse Army Group H, B, G sectors. Before construction began, a close study of the terrain was made to map out each pillbox, bunker, antitank wall and trench to achieve maximum support and resistance. The engineers created a three tier protection system based on bunker type. The lowest grade were the small MG pillboxes and worked its way to the highest grade which included artillery and personnel bunkers that could withstand a 1,000 lb blast.

To help the reader understand the effectiveness of this defense zone, an example of an American assault on a fortified section in March 1945 is presented. The village is Steinfeld on the French border not far from the old Maginot line and is attacked by 7th Army. The area was considered important and the Germans built a dense defense zone that incorporated all types of fortifications as well as many of them. When Operation Undertone launched, it had the support of the 155mm guns that was needed to subdue the big bunkers. By April this sector and most of the Rhine line had been breached and the Allies were rushing toward Berlin. This engagement was brief but was sufficient to give the reader an understanding of the effectiveness of these defenses. Analysis and evaluation was presented to close the book.

There were many great photos and color illustrations of all the fortifications, ideally placed in the book for the reader to see an example as the structure was being discussed. The photos also included the weaponry used in these bunkers. A photo of the rare Flakwerfer 44, which was a unguided anti aircraft missile launcher is shown and photos of camouflaged command posts that looked like typical homes but underneath were Grade A bunkers. In addition to the photos, there were tables to summarize the data that was presented.

The author used mostly US and German archival data but presented a nice reading list if further research is wanted.

As a standalone book or in conjunction with the other books mentioned, this book is an interesting and informative read that will appeal to many students of WWII.

Most readers are aware that Germany built a line of fortifications on its western border prior to World War II known as the West wall (or popularized by the Allies as the Siegfried Line). Few readers are aware that in the last stages of the Second World War that Hitler ordered the construction of a far more extensive line of fortifications known as the West-Stellung that was three times the size of the earlier Westwall. Much of the positional fighting that occurred in the western theater in the winter of 1944/45 involved the West-Stellung. Steven J Zaloga reveals the details of the virtually-unknown West-Stellung in Osprey's Fortress series volume no. 102. There is a good deal of new material in this volume, but also considerable overlap with earlier volumes in the Fortress and Campaign series, so it is a bit of a mixed bag. Nevertheless, Defenses of the Rhine 1944-45 fills a valuable gap in our knowledge of the Third Reich's proverbial last-ditch defenses.

Zaloga states that, "the West-Stellung was a crutch to keep the Wehrmacht on its feet after the crippling losses suffered in the summer of 1944. The tenacious defense of the western German frontier in the autumn of 1944 was substantially buttressed by the West-Stellung." He begins by discussing the design and development of the West-Stellung in July 1944, as the Battle of Normandy began to turn against Germany. Hitler ordered the rehabilitation of the abandoned Westwall and the creation of new fortified zones to defend the entire German border and the Netherlands. Lacking time and resources to build extensive concrete fortifications, the West-Stellung was based on large numbers of machinegun bunkers (often built of timber), field works, anti-tank ditches and other improvised defenses. Zaloga notes that the West-Stellung construction effort only used 15 percent as much concrete as the earlier Westwall effort. However, unlike the earlier effort which relied on the Organization Todt, the West-Stellung was primarily built by mobilizing about 300,000 German civilians to do the digging. A few specialized bunkers were built, using similar patterns as employed in the Atlantic Wall, to house 88-mm anti-tank guns. However, Zaloga also notes that the West-Stellung employed open-pit gun mounts as well as a few Panther turrets, with color plates provided for each. Indeed, a lot of old tank turrets were used in the West-Stellung, including Pz I and Pz II turrets. About half the volume is devoted to the design and development phase.

The author then gives a quick tour of the main West-Stellung defenses in each of the German army group areas in the West in late 1944. One of the most interesting sections in the volume discusses the Battle for Steinfeld in March 1945, where the American 14th Armored Division attacked a heavily fortified town in the West-Stellung. Zaloga provides a detailed tactical map as well as numerous photos of the defenses in the town. It is particularly noteworthy how so many German bunkers were disguised to look like houses, with false frames built around them. Overall, this is an interesting volume and serves to complete the author's numerous volumes on the German fortification programs in the Second World War.

A fine addition to the Osprey series, "Fortress." Here, the fortress at issue is the German fortification of the Rhine River. It began as the Westwall and became redesignated as the West-Stellung. The Westwall was operational early in the Second World War; it was, as the work terms it, a pale imitation of the opposing Maginot Line.

A useful way of comparing the Westwall with West-Stellung is a map on page 5. The Westwall was a narrow line; the West-Stellung was a defense in depth with fortifications stretching many miles in depth. The Germans begin work on the deeper defensive line as their fortunes began to decline on the Western front. The line was in place by 1944 through 1945. However, it was not as sturdily fortified as desired.

When Allied forces began to press against it, the soldiers defending the line were much degraded over what the German forces fielded earlier. The book describes the different places along the fortress and also considers how the line was actually defended. The book concludes by noting that (Page 60): "The value of the West-Stellung declined after the defeat of the Ardennes offensive, due in part to the drastic decline in the effectiveness of remaining German formations. . ."