Hindenburg Line

The Hindenburg Line (also known as the Siegfried Line) was a vast system of defences in northeastern France during World War I. It was constructed by the Germans during the winter of 1916–17. The line stretched from Lens to beyond Verdun.

The decision to build the line was made by Field-Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff, who had taken over command of Germany's war effort in August 1916, during the final stages of the First Battle of the Somme. The Hindenburg Line was built across a salient in the German front, so that by withdrawing to these fortifications the German army was actually shortening its front. The total length of the front was reduced by 50 km (30 miles) and enabled the Germans to release 13 divisions for service in reserve. [Gilbert, Martin. "The First World War" (1994), chapter 16: "The intensification of the war".]

The withdrawal to the line began in February 1917, and the territory between the old front and the new line was left devastated as the German army employed the scorched earth tactic. The fortifications included concrete bunkers and machine gun emplacements, heavy belts of barbed wire, tunnels for moving troops, deep trenches, dug-outs and command posts. At a distance of one-km in front of the fortifications was a thinly-held outpost line, which would serve a purpose comparable to skirmishers: slowing down and disrupting an enemy advance. In addition, villages (called "Outpost Villages") immediately in front of the outpost line were sometimes fortified and used to reinforce the main defenses.

The line was subdivided into five areas, named from north to south:. [Herwig, Holger H. "The First World War: German and Austria-Hungary 1914-1918" (1999), pages 250 to 251.]

* Wotan Stellung - from near Lille to St Quentin
* Siegfried Stellung (Note that this differs from the Siegfried Line, built along the German border with France prior to World War II) - from near Arras to St Quentin
* Alberich Stellung
* Brunhilde Stellung - the northern portion of the "Hunding Stellung", and went from near Craonne to near Riems
* Kriemhilde Stellung - the southern portion of the "Hunding Stellung", and went from near Riems to near Verdun

(Note: That there was an extension of the "Hunding Stellung" further south from Verdun to Metz, called the "Michel Stellung".)

Of these areas, the Siegfried Stellung was considered the strongest.

The German command believed the new line was impregnable. However it was temporarily broken through in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917 by British and Newfoundland forces including tanks, and was successfully breached a number of times during the Allied Hundred Days Offensive in September 1918.

References

ee also

* Battle of Cambrai - for the first (temporarily) successful attack of the Wotan Stellung in November 1917
* Second Battle of Bullecourt - Where the British 5th Army (mainly using Australian troops) nearly penetrated the Siegfried Stellung in May 1917
* Battle of the Drocourt-Quéant Switch - breaking a switch line of the Siegfried Stellung in front of the Wotan Line in September 1918
* Battle of St Quentin Canal - a 30 mile break (by British, Australian and American troops) in the Siegfried Stellung around the village of Bellicourt in late September 1918
* Battle of Cambrai (1918) - Canadian troops (continuing after breaking the Siegfried Stellung at the Battle of the Drocourt-Quéant Switch) breaking the Wotan Stellung at the 2nd Battle of Cambrai in October 1918
* Meuse-Argonne Offensive - American troops breaking the Kriemhilde Stellung in late October 1918

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060522205746/http://www.westernfront.co.uk/thegreatwar/articles/research/hindenburg.htm The Hindenburg Line: The Apotheosis of German Fortifications on the Western Front in the Great War]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/breakhindenburg00priesuoft Sir Raymond Edward Priestley, Breaking the Hindenburg line : the story of the 46th (North Midland) Division / with an introduction by G. F. Boyd (1919)]
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