Neil Short Hitler´s Siegfried Line

On 24 August 1944 ( the day before the fall of Paris )Hitler issued his orders for the construction of a new West Wall. Besides members of the local population, workers from the Greater Reich and forced labour from conquered territories were also employed, supplemented by youngsters from the Hitler Youth and the Labour Service. It was hoped that this levée en masse would yield one million workers for the construction of the new defences. However, by the middle of September only 235,000 workers were employed and even with this it would take at least six weeks to make any significant improvement.

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