02x03 - Deadly Defiance

[bunniefuu]

January 1945. Eastern France.

When defiant n*zi forces

threaten a newly captured position,

an American soldier

runs towards the onslaught

to put himself between

his unit and the attack.

But when the enemy closes in

The battle has gotten bad enough

that he's going to call down a*tillery

basically on his own position.

Will saving the battalion

cost him his life?

On June 6th, 1944,

Allied forces finally

land troops in Normandy

to open the western front.

But n*zi fanatics and diehards

continue to fight ruthlessly for survival.

D-Day was a battle.

The Allies still need to win the w*r.

January 23rd, 1945.

The Colmar Forest, eastern France.

Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd Ramsey

leads Third Battalion of the American

Seventh Infantry Regiment

through the woods.

By his side is First Lieutenant

Garlin Conner,

Ramsey's intelligence officer.

The battalion spearheads

an attack on German forces,

launched the night before

with a surprise crossing over

the Fecht River.

The fighting conditions are terrible.

The winter of 1944 and '45

was one of the coldest ever on record.

There had been quite a bit of snow,

which, uh, of course makes the environment

that much more miserable for the soldiers.

Their advance

proves relatively quick.

Down!

Until they are hit

with fire from a German tank

on the southern edge of the forest.

Shells explode all around,

then the Germans open up

with r*fle and machine g*n fire.

With the battalion under pressure

from its left front

Ramsey must hold their position

against a determined enemy.

The Americans had crossed

on foot bridges the night before,

which could not support

the weight of armor.

Without tank support,

Ramsey relies on American a*tillery

positioned to their rear for back up.

With detailed maps

of the French countryside, soon,

American shells begin to

drop into the German positions.

But n*zi soldiers will not

just give up this place

they believe is a part of Germany.

Alsace had been a source of

contention between

Germany and France for centuries.

The local population

speaks a German language,

but at various times in history Alsace

has been under the French kings.

In more recent times,

after the Franco-Prussian w*r,

Alsace went back to Germany.

And then when World w*r I ended,

Alsace went back to France.

n*zi forces occupied

the region in 1940

reclaiming it as German ethnic soil

and some of its people as members

of the new Reich, or empire.

After D-Day, the Allies push hard

to liberate France,

and drive out Hitler's soldiers.

In autumn 1944,

Alsace is the last French part

occupied by the Germans.

And when the US and French forces

push towards Strasbourg and seize it,

Colmar to the south

is the only part

that is left over in German hands.

A bridgehead to the west

of the River Rhine.

The Germans now defend

roughly 850 square miles

around the city of Colmar.

This stubbornly held region becomes known

as the Colmar Pocket.

The Allies had tried to, to overrun

the Colmar Pocket

in December 1944

and fought several, very,

very bloody battles

and did not succeed

in reducing the pocket.

After the Nazis

launch two counter attacks

from the area in January,

Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower

orders a full scale effort

to expel the Germans from Alsace.

The operation will complete

the liberation of France

and set the stage for the Allied invasion

of Germany from the west.

The effort is led by the French first army

plus several American divisions.

Lieutenant Garlin Conner

serves as part of

Seventh Infantry Regiment,

within the American

Third Infantry Division.

He has already earned three Silver Stars

for valor in combat,

to go along with three Purple Hearts.

His most recent injury

was a shot to the thigh while on patrol,

just a few days before.

Conner refuses

to stay in a field hospital,

and insists on rejoining his unit.

He's the kind of person

who feels that

if he leaves before the job is done

that perhaps he's shirking.

If I'm there, I'll save more lives

and if I'm not there,

I'll have to then live with

the guilt of what might happen

especially to my guys

in the unit if something happens to them.

Conner has been with

Third Infantry Division since 1942.

The Third Infantry Division

was one of the more experienced divisions

and one that saw the most combat

in World w*r II.

They had fought in North Africa,

landed in Sicily and battled up

the Italian boot.

After action in Rome and Anzio,

they land in occupied France

in August 1944,

and fight to Alsace from the south,

rather than Normandy to the west.

If you were a guy who was

in the invasion of North Africa

and you were still with the unit

as of Colmar two plus years later,

you were a real fugitive

from the law of averages.

Stay low!

Conner is now

just a little more than

ten miles from the Rhine River

and the border with Germany.

Finally, American a*tillery

shells and mortar

extract their toll from the enemy.

Third battalion have cleared

the strong points

in their sector of the Colmar Forest.

These kind of bloody brawls

of attack

and counter attack and the Allied advance

kind of trying to move forward

in very slow increments

is really very, very common throughout

much of the Colmar Pocket.

Lieutenant Colonel Ramsey

orders his battalion

to advance towards its next objective,

another patch of forest

called the Brunnwald Woods.

He must hold here

until the other two battalions arrive

to cover his right flank.

Then all three will capture

the town of Houssen together.

But they must ensure the woods are secure.

As they make their way through the trees,

Ramsey's men spot

what looks like an bunker.

It belongs to members

of the German 64th corps,

under the command of

General Der Infanterie Helmut Thumm,

which defends the pocket.

Helmut Thumm is a general

who sees things very realistic.

He understands that the time

of big offensives are over.

The only thing he can do

is hold the Colmar Pocket.

Along with the weather,

Thumm's greatest advantage

may be the terrain itself.

It is very flat and criss-crossed with

rivers and canals

patches of forest provide

the only sources of cover.

Thumm's men have added to these.

The Germans have had a lot of time

to prepare for the defense.

So every little town, every little village

is a kind of hedgehog.

So with barbed wire, minefields,

and so forth.

The bunker is

yet another fortification.

Ramsey.

Ramsey's men are cold and tired.

Ready to hunker down and wait

for reinforcement,

but they must assume it is occupied.

Ramsey sends

a squad forward

to see if anyone is home.

January 23rd, 1945.

Eastern France.

American and French forces attack

and press towards the city of Colmar.

American Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd Ramsey

sends a squad forward

to investigate a dugout

in the Brunnwald Woods.

His men make their way

to the bunker's entrance.

Hearing nothing, they force their way in.

Hey, you!

The Americans surprise

a group of German soldiers.

Get up. Get up!

Who then surrender.

Ramsey sets up his command post

in the bunker

to prepare for their attack

on the town of Houssen

when the other battalions of

the Seventh Infantry Regiment arrive.

They fight in Alsace,

a region of eastern France,

occupied by the Germans in 1940.

De Gaulle desperately

wants to liberate the last section

of what they consider France.

And likewise, the Germans who regard

Alsace as German want to defend it.

German General Helmut Thumm

soon receives word

that Americans have captured

the woods near Houssen.

According to German

military doctrine,

if you lose a position,

you have to counter attack immediately,

in order to exploit

the weaknesses of the enemy

when he's still trying to consolidate.

When Thumm

asks for reinforcements for the task,

he learns he has been assigned battalions

from the Second Mountain Division.

Second Mountain Division

is a specialized infantry division

fighting in cold weather conditions.

Their soldiers hail from Austria

and the division

had been fighting in Norway.

The Second Mountain Division

have held off British and Soviet forces

in the Arctic since 1940.

They have hard-won experience

in utilizing terrain

and weather conditions to their advantage.

They are now sent in to defend against

an Allied winter offensive in France.

Sending a specialized formation

like Second Mountain Division

to the Colmar Pocket

shows that this area has got

a high military priority.

Thumm knows he must

force the Americans back at all costs.

He plans to sneak a battalion

of the German Mountain Division soldiers

to within few hundred yards

of Ramsey's position

and launch a surprise counter attack

to retake the woods.

While unaware of the elite German forces

being mobilized against him,

Ramsey does expect

a German counter attack

and organizes defense

of his exposed flanks.

He sends companies to the west,

south, and eastern edges of the woods.

They dig into their defensive positions

in the bitter cold and wait.

The fighting for the Colmar Pocket

was very heavily shaped by the weather.

It was extremely cold.

The rivers were freezing,

which is unusual in that sector.

It was a particularly stiff winter.

Meanwhile

Seventh Infantry Regiment's

second battalion

fight to advance to protect

Ramsey's right flank.

But the company's become separated.

Visibility's just really bad

for the second battalion.

Now add the fog to it, the fear.

It's kind of a dark and brooding place

at that point of the year.

In the confusion,

German soldiers infiltrate

the battalion's rear elements.

Hey, you!

The Americans must flush out

the intruders in their midst.

Get him!

Some are captured.

Drop it!

By afternoon,

second battalion is clear to advance.

Later that day,

Private Robert Dutil,

an intelligence aide in third battalion,

approaches Ramsey

and Lieutenant Garlin Conner

with some fresh information.

A POW taken prisoner by second battalion

revealed that the Germans

plan a counter attack

on the Brunnwald Woods

at 0630 the next morning.

Ramsey radios for immediate a*tillery

and armor reinforcement.

Defensive preparations

take on a new urgency.

Soldiers dig in

and camouflage their machine g*ns,

but with the ground frozen,

it proves difficult

for all the men to entrench.

As 0630 approaches,

the riflemen are alert to

any movement in the fields ahead.

But visibility is poor

in the pre-dawn darkness.

The expected time of attack passes.

The typical mindset would be,

oh, intelligence thinks

that there's going to be an attack coming

at 6:30 this morning.

Man, I hope they're wrong.

After more

than an hour of waiting,

their vigilance wanes.

But if you had any

experience as a rifleman

by that point in time you would've known

the Germans well enough to know

they're not going to just give up

this terrain easily.

There's going to be another fight,

and you better be ready for it.

The n*zi Mountain Division

just now moves into position.

They leave from the town of Houssen

via a long irrigation ditch,

and occupy a concealed position

behind a d*ke.

Inside the American command post,

Ramsey remains wary.

He is sure the Germans are up to something

and wants to send out

some scouts to confirm,

but none are available.

Garlin Conner volunteers.

Conner and Ramsey had

fought together since January of 1944.

When Ramsey had transferred in,

wanting to serve in a combat unit

after serving as an aide de camp

to a British general.

He witnessed Conner earn

multiple b*ttlefield honors,

as well as numerous wounds.

Knowing Conner qualifies to be sent home,

Ramsey wants to keep him safe

and ensure he makes it back alive.

As Ramsey considers his options

mortar shells crash outside.

Get ready.

Their battalion is under attack.

January 24th, 1945.

You, go! Go!

Eastern France.

A battalion of the US Seventh

Infantry Regiment surges ahead

in an attack on the last

German occupied territory in France--

The Colmar Pocket.

Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd Ramsey's men

occupy a small patch of forest

with exposed flanks.

And the enemy has just

announced its presence

with a round of mortar and a*tillery

shells in the woods outside.

The men of K Company report

a Mark Six Tiger Tank,

one of the most potent

of all German w*r weapons,

emerging from some trees.

9 feet high, 27 feet long

and 12 feet across,

the Allies have nothing like it.

Some of its armor is four inches thick.

But it is not a Tiger Tank.

There were no Tiger Tanks

in the Colmar Pocket.

Even though there's many accounts from

the American side

and from the French side.

Enemy armor often creates

fear and confusion in soldiers,

making misidentification more likely.

They never received any specific

identification training,

so to them a German tank

whether it's a Panther

or a Tiger or Panzer 4 or StuG III.

It's a Tiger.

It is probably

a StuG III armored fighting vehicle,

built on a Panzer tank chassis,

the g*n does not rotate.

But still discharges a deadly salvo.

And rakes the American lines

along the edge of the woods.

As it fires,

the German Mountain Division soldiers

swarm over a d*ke

about 200 yards away,

charging across the field

towards the American infantry.

Ramsey's companies unload

on the advancing Germans

with machine g*n and r*fle fire.

Back at the battalion command post,

as the mortar and a*tillery

shatter the woods outside,

Ramsey gets word that

six of these Tiger Tanks

along with an entire battalion of soldiers

close in on his position.

It is not a welcome development.

It has to be dealt with somehow.

You want to make sure that your

battalion doesn't break and run,

uh, that probably isn't going to happen

in the, in the 7th infantry.

But still, how do you fight back?

With his men facing a crisis,

Conner approaches Ramsey

with a plan to set up

a forward a*tillery position

between the American line

and the oncoming enemy.

If he can get out front,

perhaps he can bring down

the big American a*tillery pieces

against the German attack.

Ramsey hesitates.

If there's anybody

in whom you'd have confidence

to go forward and do

this kind of thing it's Conner,

but there's another dynamic.

One of the reasons why Ramsey

has assigned him to a staff job

is to keep him out of danger.

Ramsey struggles

to find another option,

but Conner insists.

You're kind of throwing him

to the wolves, maybe,

and knowing how he courts danger,

there's a really good chance that

he's not coming back from this.

All that must've rushed through his mind

in a hurry, I would think.

Without another word,

Conner grabs a radio,

a reel of wire and a sound power telephone

and takes off into the woods.

He has two ways to communicate.

The main means

of tactical communication in World w*r II

was field telephones.

Everyone thinks, oh, we have

radios by now,

why isn't everybody using radios?

But the radios in World w*r II

weren't very reliable,

they didn't carry very far.

But to use field telephones

a physical line must be laid

sometimes for hundreds,

or thousands of yards,

without a break in the wire.

Conner charges ahead, unspooling the line,

Private Robert Dutil in pursuit to help,

if he can.

They dash through the forest

towards the battalion's front line.

German a*tillery explodes all around.

Garlin Conner is on a mission.

January 24th, 1945.

Eastern France.

American Lieutenant, Garlin Conner

races towards an enemy attack

of incoming a*tillery and mortar fire.

He is determined to set up

a forward observation position.

An intelligence aide follows close behind.

It had to be so awkward,

the dash to the front line.

Radio strapped along and then

stringing the telephone wire.

You're weighted down

with all this camo gear.

You're moving the telephone line yourself,

which isn't generally done, uh,

by an officer, much less an intel officer.

As the enemy

a*tillery hits the forest,

some shells land within 25 yards.

Debris from the tree bursts

shower the soldiers.

It's a very single-minded thing.

Because that's what's going to be needed

to break up this enemy battalion's attack.

Simple as that.

Conner pauses for a moment

at the edge of the American line,

surrounded by the riflemen protecting

their position.

Then breaks out about 30 yards beyond.

Cover him!

And throws himself into a ditch.

Private Robert Dutil is not far behind.

He doesn't have a lot of cover.

It's a very shallow kind of

ditch or indentation,

which is by all accounts

a foot and a half two feet, maybe.

You'll often hear in the descriptions his

cheeks, quote unquote, the butt cheeks,

could've been exposed

but also having to raise your head above

in order to observe,

just a really, really wild situation.

Conner gets the phone to his ear

and calls Ramsey.

Communications are

the whole key to this thing,

beyond his own courage,

uh, and the courage of the accompanying

riflemen with him.

To make sure that you can access

the kind of firepower you need

in order to destroy the enemy.

Conner calls in coordinates

to target the attacking soldiers,

which Lieutenant Colonel Ramsey

relays to the a*tillery battery.

Fire!

The shells shriek in overhead,

and land amid the charging

German Mountain Division soldiers.

Conner stays focused

and determines the next target--

A skirmish line about 100 yards ahead.

He adjusts fire

and calls in another barrage.

The American a*tillery crew responds,

firing off another round from

their field a*tillery piece.

The 105 millimeter Howitzer was one of

the most important weapons

in the American arsenal.

With a range of up to 7 miles,

each shell could create chaos

within a 33 yard radius

at a rate of two

to four strikes per minute.

Conner's coordinates direct the shell

in the midst of the advancing Germans.

But some of the n*zi

Mountain Division soldiers

continue towards Conner's position

in front of the American line.

He estimates the distance between

the last shell and their advance

and calls in an adjustment.

Conner hears the shell

flying in over his head.

He is spot on.

Conner's ability to act

as a forward a*tillery observer

is every bit on par

with someone who's been trained

and it's not an easy job.

Mastering trigonometry

and the properties of the projectiles

and all this kind of stuff.

But he has obviously picked that

up under the school of combat.

Conner calls in

another round to target the skirmish line.

And the accurate shelling eventually sends

the soldiers of the German

Mountain Division

back to the cover of the d*ke.

But the German tank still fires.

An American tank destroyer commanded by

Lieutenant Leonard Lebo

arrives at the woodline to protect

the American defenders.

Lieutenant Lebo lines up

his three inch g*n,

and with an accurate shot

takes out the troublesome tank.

Conner remains in his ditch.

A lot of people would've

just sort of retired back

to being the intel officer

and gone back to the command post,

we leave it at that.

I think he understands, enough about,

the pace and the nature of combat

that the Germans probably

aren't finished yet.

Conner eyes the field and beyond

for any signs of movement.

He spots more German armor

hidden in the trees.

Conner tells Ramsey he will be

out of contact for a few minutes

and takes off towards

the American tank destroyer.

Conner directs the volley

of the tank destroyer's g*n

and the hidden tank is eliminated.

Then Conner dives back

into his ditch under heavy fire.

The Germans ready themselves

behind the d*ke.

Another wave of counter attack

is about to begin.

January 24th, 1945.

Eastern France.

American troops of the Seventh

Infantry Regiment

fight to clear the Colmar Pocket--

The last German-occupied territory

in France.

STEVEN" The military reason

that it's important is

Eisenhower and the Allied high command

want to push across the Rhine

sometime in early 1945.

And in order to do it in southern France

they need to capture the Colmar Pocket.

American Lieutenant

Garlin Conner occupies a ditch

in front of his men's forest position.

Operating as a forward a*tillery observer,

Conner has successfully

turned back the first attacks

by German Mountain Division soldiers.

Rather than retreat to the relative safety

of the command post,

Conner remains on high alert.

Lieutenant Conner

has decided to stay put

because it's apparent to him

that he's probably still needed there.

The battle isn't over.

The Germans regroup

and prepare for a second wave of attacks.

Conner himself, might

be one of their targets.

As the Germans rush

toward the American line,

a soldier with a grenade appears to break

for Conner's position.

Conner just continues to

call in more very witheringly

accurate a*tillery fire

and that's the job.

That's why he's there.

A shell shrieks overhead

taking out some of the rear

elements of the German attack.

Conner quickly calls in another,

and hits his target again.

But the determined

Mountain Division soldier

continues his dash,

and closes in on Conner's ditch.

The grenade carrying German

seems to be in a position

to throw the grenade at Conner's position.

At the same time though he's been

spotted by American riflemen,

we don't know who, shoots him.

And kills him before he can

throw the grenade at Conner.

Unfazed,

Conner calls in another fire mission.

He's got this kind

of single-minded purpose

and tunnel vision

of staying right in that spot,

which is apparently a very good

observation spot

and calling in the a*tillery

and also, quite significantly

his communications hold out.

Conner's fire adjustments

continue to take out the Germans,

and send others back towards

the cover of the d*ke,

while his men hold their positions

at the woodline.

The field is silent for a few minutes,

and Conner watches closely

for evidence of a retreat.

But instead, he sees another

huge wave break over the d*ke.

Conner calls in shell after shell,

adjusting on the fly

as the surge advances.

Fire!

But the number

of German Mountain Division soldiers

is too great.

He cannot target them all

they are getting too close.

The Germans begin to move in

to what had been the American lines

and to threaten that entire

position of Third Battalion.

Conner must

make a difficult decision.

The Germans are so close,

that the only solution is to target

the edge of the American line.

The battle has gotten bad enough

that he's going to call down a*tillery

basically on his own position.

It's very possible, you're going to

get k*lled by your own shells.

So, you're really choosing,

self-sacrifice

to destroy the enemy attack.

His commanding officer

is concerned.

When Ramsey asks Conner

if he is bringing in the fire

too close to his own position

Conner is matter of fact.

He says it's fine.

I'm calling it where it needs to be.

Kind of understated.

He really is.

As shells continue to explode

all around him

Get down!

Conner's

intelligence aide is hit.

Private Robert Dutil,

who had followed Conner from

the battalion command post

earlier that day,

is severely wounded by the friendly fire.

But the German onslaught falters.

After three hours,

the attack of the elite

n*zi Mountain Division finally breaks.

Medic!

Medics tend to

the wounds of Private Dutil.

Incredibly, Garlin Conner is unhurt.

Garlin Conner's actions

are extraordinary.

It's just remarkable,

in so many ways and yet,

maybe they wouldn't have

seemed like it at the time.

Calling in a*tillery,

doing his thing

throughout the whole crisis,

many hours long at this battle.

From our vantage point

all these decades later,

it is just an extraordinary moment.

January 24th, 1945.

The Alsace region, eastern France.

American Lieutenant Garlin Conner

climbs out of a ditch

at the edge of a field

strewn with the aftermath

of a brutal, bloody battle.

Conner's calm courage and accurate calls

has turned back an attack by a battalion

from an elite German Mountain Division.

The precise a*tillery fire

kills some 50 German soldiers

and wounds about 100 more.

But the fight at Brunnwald Woods

is just one battle for the Colmar Pocket.

It is the last remaining region of France,

occupied by n*zi Germany.

The next day Conner's commanding officer,

Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd Ramsey advances

and encounters a German patrol.

In the fighting, a German soldier

lobs a potato masher,

a type of percussive grenade.

With quick reflexes,

Ramsey snatches it and throws it back.

He is wounded by a second.

It explodes,

sending razor sharp tin slivers outwards,

to slash the Lieutenant Colonel.

The Germans are k*lled in the skirmish,

and Ramsey needs medical care.

He walks back

to the battalion aid station.

The surgeon there removes

the shrapnel without anesthetic

and Ramsey walks back

to the observation post.

But the w*r for

the Colmar Pocket continues.

The men of Seventh Infantry Regiment,

including Garlin Conner

remain in American lines

to drive the Germans

back across the Rhine.

In the early days of February,

Conner volunteers to take command

of L Company when its C.O. is k*lled.

The r*fle companies have

absorbed terrible causalities

and it tends to be among the leaders

and so you need somebody to step in

and lead this sort of ad hoc unit.

Third battalion attempts to

liberate the French village of Biesheim.

Where K Company has been cut off,

encircled by n*zi forces

in a section of German trenches.

Keep firing!

With 20 men

and backed by two Sherman tanks,

Conner and the remainder of L Company

enter the trenches

and proceed to advance

by hand to hand fighting.

That means with whatever weapons

or implements we happen to have,

this isn't the sort of combat,

that the Americans like to think about.

Once again, here we have Conner

right in the middle of this.

Hey!

We've just seen him use

heavy firepower, heavy technology,

in a way to bring about victory.

Now we seem him in a little bit

different context of right there,

at this worst level of combat,

fighting and maybe dying.

They relieve K Company.

They k*ll 12 Germans,

but 75 others surrender.

That tells us something, doesn't it?

It tells us those other 75

have looked at what's happened

and they're like, I'm done with this.

You can have this town.

That's the kind of

the fighting that it's been.

This is what goes on just on that day

in that little corner

of the Colmar Pocket battle.

Conner earns

a fourth Silver Star

for his heroic leadership at Biesheim.

The American Third Infantry Division

finishes its longest stretch

of combat February 19th,

having fought since they landed

in southern France

on August 15th the year before.

As for Lieutenant Conner's

actions at Brunnwald,

Lieutenant Colonel Ramsey

intends to request

the highest award possible

for an American army soldier.

But Ramsey is still on active duty,

while recovering from wounds of his own.

He cannot track down the witness accounts

required for the Medal of Honor.

Instead, he recommends Conner

for the second highest award--

the Distinguished Service Cross.

On February 10th,

Garlin Conner receives the D.S.C.

from General Alexander Patch,

Commander of the Seventh Army.

Conner finally leaves Europe on March 4th,

returning home to Aaron, Kentucky

to a hero's welcome.

Then he goes back

to just being a farmer.

A farmer in Kentucky, and that's his life.

He was pretty deeply affected,

as you might expect.

I don't know that the w*r

was ever too far away from his mind.

After his death in 1998,

the quest to get Garlin Conner

the Medal of Honor

was taken up by supporters.

Witness accounts of

the dramatic events were found

and after decades of delays

and technicalities,

Conner finally receives

the posthumous award

on June 26th, 2018, at the White House.

It makes Garlin Conner

possibly the second most decorated

American soldier of World w*r II,

but his proud commanding officer

did not live to see it either.

Ramsey had a long career,

led many combat soldiers,

from World w*r II through Vietnam.

Uh, he had Colin Powell under his command,

he had Norman Schwarzkopf

under his command.

He'd seen and he'd done

a lot of valorous things.

And he felt that

Garlin Conner had no peer.

That there was no one who exceeded him,

in terms of bravery, dedication to duty.

He saw Garlin Conner

as being really in the first rank

among all the combat soldiers he had led.

On February 8th, 1945,

n*zi forces finally conceded

the Colmar Pocket.

When the battle for

the Colmar Pocket is over,

19th army is virtually wiped out.

And the Germans withdrew

over the River Rhine.

The Rhine is now the new front line.

With Allied forces

lined up for hundreds of miles

along the west wall, or Siegfried Line,

the stage is set for a desperate showdown

and the w*r in Europe will

continue for three more months.