Word: aachen
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...Aachen was doomed, but the destruction of Charlemagne's historic residence was now no more than an episode in the tense tactical drama on the western front. The battle that raged in mounting fury northeast of the German border city was far more significant. This week there were ample signs that here the Allies hoped they might achieve their breakthrough to the Rhine...
...arms which Lieut. General Courtney Hicks Hodges' First U.S. Army had thrown around Aachen in a classic bear hug had posed two deadly questions to the Germans : 1 ) should the ancient spa (and modern textile and coal mining center) be defended to the last cellar, as a Stalingrad-like model for the German home front? 2) was it also the focus of the main Allied offensive to smash the Siegfried Line...
...Nazi command-not Aachen's 20,000 unevacuated civilians- quickly answered the first question. It chose certain destruction of the city rather than surrender a point that had become tactically valueless. But the High Command could not so quickly make up its mind about the second and more important question...
...this week the Germans' hard crust had been definitely broken where Hodges' smashes north of Aachen had sunk in past Ubach and Beggendorf (see map). The crust south and east of Aachen (which was in peril of encirclement) showed signs of breaking in the Hürtgen forest area...
...breaks or fight around the northern flank on to the north German plain before he can break his tanks loose. For the time. Hodges' First was in the best position to bring about that situation. But only history would tell whether the First's drive in the Aachen sector would be written down as a diversion or the main and decisive effort...