Aachen

by Robert W. Baumer

By September 1944, the Allied advance across France and Belgium had turned into attrition along the German frontier. Standing between the Allies and the Third Reich's industrial heartland was the city of Aachen, once the ancient seat of Charlemagne's empire and now firmly entrenched within Germany's Siegfried Line fortifications. The city was on the verge of capitulating until Hitler forbade surrender.

* Dramatic story of the American battle for Aachen, the first city on German soil to fall to the Allies in World War II.
* Chronicles the six weeks of hard combat for the city, culminating in eight days of fighting in the streets.
* Details the involvement of some of the U.S. Army's finest units, including the 1st Infantry Division ("Big Red One"), the 30th Infantry Division ("Roosevelt's SS"), and the 2nd Armored Division ("Hell on Wheels")

Genres: History, World War II, War, Military Fiction

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Robert W. Baumer, a graduate of the University of Illinois, is a former columnist for Armchair General.

Reviews

[Julian Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cool history on a smaller battle in WWII. A lot of these military histories tend to be heavy on military logistics and not on the actual story, but this one tells a cool story as well. Always nice to read about the smaller and less known battles of the war. With it being such a big conflict, there are probably tens of thousands of these waiting to be told. A good piece of history.

[Edgar Raines · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazingly detailed account of the 1944 battles that led to the capture of Aachen, the first German city to fall to the Allied armies during World War II. The author, Robert W. Baumer through a vast amount of research is able to personalize important but low-ranking figures, such as Captain Joseph T. Dawson, the commander of Company G, 16th Infantry, part of the 1st Infantry Division, for whom Dawson's Ridge was named, and Capt. Bobbie E. Brown, the commander of Company C, 18th Infantry, also part of the 1st Infantry Division, whose company captured and held Crucifix Hill during the battle.

It is easy, however, to become lost in a welter of tactical detail. Ideally, there would be a map for every action described in the text. This would have been prohibitively expensive, but even a few more would have helped. Baumer was not well served by his publisher, Stackpole Books, which did not include a list of maps following the table of contents. Once or twice the map seemed to have no relationship to what was being discussed in the surrounding text---another problem that can be laid at the publisher. The index is also very weak. It would have certainly helped if the author had included an order of battle so that it would be possible to trace to which parent unit subunits discussed in the text belonged. Readers would be well advised to create their own with pencil and paper as they read.

The author can be faulted---my most serious criticism of the book---for his failure to give the reader a higher level orientation to set the stage for the battle of Aachen. Baumer does in a page what he should do in a chapter: What was the perspective from SHAFE? From Headquarters, 12th Army Group; from U.S. First Army; from the Corps involved, XIX and VIII; from the headquarters of the various divisions involved? He needs to return to that perspective from time to time. What factors led General Hodges to demand a quick capture of Aachen. Instead he comes across as an off-stage scold. He may have been, but perhaps not from his perspective. It would be better if the author confronted this issue directly and analytically rather than leaving this as an inference for the reader to make.

The author would have made a good book better if he had fleshed out the perspective from the higher and intermediate commands. Even with this deficiency, I am so impressed by what the author accomplished that I heartily commend this book to anyone interested in the history of World War II.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinarily researched and detailed. I wish it had more maps though.

[Frans Werrij · Rating 3 out of 5]

Descriptions are rather operational in nature. This makes the book sometimes hard to read. On the other hand the locations are so familiar, sometimes within walking distance of my home that stopping reading is not an option.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Dad was part of the 113th artillery in the 30th Infantry Division. Despite his mentioning Aachen a few times to us, I never knew this battle was this intense and brutal. I am grateful to the author for such a detailed account of this part of WWII. Sounds like the artillery played a very important role here. I visited Aachen in December 2006 with my family as my wife and I were living in Antwerp, a relatively short drive to Aachen. It certainly has recovered from the war.