Word: aachen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...midweek, when Aachen had been beaten into mortar-stained destruction, the German command apparently came to its decision: the battle centered on Aachen was indeed the real thing. Now quick to act, the Germans plunged into desperate attacks to break the left arm of Hodges' army. Recklessly they expended sorely needed first-rate fighting "men in futile efforts to smash the most advanced spearheads. In two days they spent more than 60 tanks, gave up the intensive battle for the next two days to gather more strength...
...clear that the Germans feared the First Army's strength most of all the forces they faced in the west. They warned themselves of U.S. concentrations "for a grand-scale assault" aimed at the Cologne plain east of Geilenkirchen (twelve miles north of Aachen). To dispose his forces to meet it, the enemy shifted his dwindling reserves under the protection of swarms of mobile antiaircraft guns. Still Allied airmen in complete command of the air took a heavy toll of men & material...
Even the big business of pulverizing Aachen could not keep American whittling-fingers from gadgeteering. When Army engineers on the ridge outside the town found seven trolley cars of post-Tooner-ville design, they couldn't resist making their own V-weapon. A car was hauled to the tracks that led down to the city, packed like a Christmas stocking with captured shells, bullets, rockets, dynamite, TNT, hand grenades and ack-ack. On its sides G.I.s daubed a picture of Hitler, "Heil Heel," "Aachen Express...
...bulldozer shove started the old streetcar down the hill toward Aachen. The engineers, watching from the bleachers of the ridge, saw the squeeze play fail: the rocking trolley blew up before it reached the town. Maybe it shook up a few Nazi machine gunners. Well, they had another. The second improved model exploded prematurely, destroying the launching ramp...
...territory (a narrow strip of land along the Niemen's north bank) are old East Prussian land. They were given to Lithuania after World War I; Hitler took them back by a bloodless coup in the spring of 1939. Fighting for Memel as desperately as they fought for Aachen on the west front, the Germans last week threw in four reinforcement divisions, launched 30 counterattacks in one day. They even attempted, vainly, an amphibious attack behind the Russian lines. At week's end Bagramian isolated the post by a drive south of it which reached the Kurisches Haff...