Westfalenwall
The Westfalenwall was a defensive position in the western Münsterland parallel to the Dutch border.
Starting position
When the Allies landed in Normandy in early June 1944, the military fate of the German Reich was practically sealed. It was only a matter of time before the Allied ground troops occupied the territory of the Reich. It was necessary to oppose the impending attack and to set up defensive positions.
Implementation of the fortification work
With the Führer decree of September 25, 1944 on the Volkssturm , plans for the " Ems - Rhine position", which had existed since the 1920s, were to be implemented as Westfalenwall in order to stop the advancing Allied combat units. NS Gauleiter Alfred Meyer had received the order to build positions along a line Bentheim - Gronau - Ahaus-Alstätte - Stadtlohn - Südlohn - Borken - Bocholt - Rees , equipped with anti-tank trenches and machine guns and grenade launchers. The Organization Todt , a paramilitary formation formed for special construction projects, was responsible for the implementation of the measures, supported by pioneer staff of the Wehrmacht . The overall management was in the hands of party officials . A head office was set up for the construction in Stadtlohn. It is estimated that between 25,000 and 60,000 people were deployed to build the militarily senseless enterprise, mostly prisoners of war and forced labor . Also Volkssturm and miners from the Ruhr were used. In February 1945 the Allies launched an offensive with the 21st Army Group under the leadership of Field Marshal Montgomery . The area of the lower left Lower Rhine was occupied. The German defenses withdrew to the area on the right bank of the Rhine. In preparation for the crossing of the Rhine near Wesel , the anti-aircraft and defensive positions were to be switched off by targeted bombing. The British aerial reconnaissance had discovered strong flak positions in the Bocholt-Borken-Stadtlohn area. Between March 11 and 23, 1945, there were devastating attacks by British and American bomber units. On March 21 and 22, more than 15,000 explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped in attacks on Ahaus, Anholt, Bocholt, Borken, Gronau, Reken, Stadtlohn, Südlohn and Vreden. The death toll in this area (today's Borken district) was 2,070. The ground troops occupied the area little by little without great resistance. The city of Gronau was last fully occupied on the afternoon of April 2, 1945.
rating
From a military point of view, the Westfalenwall was a completely worthless project of perseverance propaganda and only unnecessarily increased the suffering of the population. In addition to the huge number of bomb victims, the destruction in the cities was so severe that reconstruction took years.
literature
- Series "Westmünsterland, Sources and Studies, Volume 5": 1945 - end of the war and a new beginning in Westmünsterland (publisher: August Bierhaus), Landeskundliches Institut Westmünsterland, Vreden 1995, ISBN 3-927851-78-7
- Adolf Vogt: The "Westphalia Wall". Hitler's last bulwark or military indictment? In Das Westmünsterland in the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era. Series: Geschichte im Westmünsterland, 2nd ed. And publishing company, Society for historical regional studies of the western Münsterland, Vreden and Bredevoort 2010, pp. 147–162
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1945-end of the war and a new beginning in Westmünsterland, p. 19f