Photo Credit: In the close quarters of a rubble-strewn street in Aachen, American soldiers fire a 57mm antitank weapon against a distant German target.
Urban warfare became a new concept for Allied armies, and they adapted during the advance into Germany. National Archives. To enter Germany, the U. Army would first need to capture the city of Aachen in one of the toughest urban battles of World War II.
This article appears in: December By the autumn of , German resistance in the West was quickly crumbling as the British and Americans approached the German border days ahead of schedule.
Two army groups, the 21st, commanded by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, and the 12th, under the command of General Omar Nelson Bradley , had galloped across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Holland at an unexpected pace, overcoming whatever sporadic opposition the retreating German forces could throw in their paths. By September 11, the Americans had reached positions on the German frontier that pre-invasion planners had not expected to reach before May The door to the heart of Germany seemed to be wide open and beckoning.
Only the ancient city of Aachen, near the junction of Germany, Holland, and Belgium, created a concern for the advancing armies. The scene for the famed Battle of Aachen was set.
