The Siegfried Line

13^th September 1944 – US troops reach the Siegfried line in western Germany.

Romania signs an armistice with the Russians.

 

14^th September 1944 – Maastricht, in the south of the Netherlands, becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated.

The Russian Baltic offensive begins with an attack on Riga, the capital of Latvia.

Russia begins limited support, with humanitarian and military air drops, for the Polish Home Army in Warsaw where the Poles have been fighting the German occupiers since the Warsaw Uprising of 1^st August.

 

15^th September – US First Army reaches the Siegfried line east of the German town of Aachen.

Nancy, across the Moselle river in eastern France, is liberated by the US Third Army.

The German battleship, Tirpitz, is severely damaged by an RAF bomb attack.

The battle of Peleliu in the Pacific Islands begins.  After two months the US Marines had secured the island and airfield from the Japanes but suffered 10,000 casualties.

 

Eric Brewer wrote home on13^th September 1944:

“I am pleased to hear that the blackout has been lifted and I expect it was very welcomed. What did it look like in the streets with the lights on? I expect a lot of young children were wondering what was happening…

……I still manage to go out for a walk to the local village and if you go in any of the cafes over here 10 to 1 they have got that record playing: ‘We’re going to hang out the washing on the Siegfreid line’.  They have had them since 1940 and they don’t seem to get tired of hearing it as, of every three records which go on, one is always that…

Your loving son

Eric XXXX

PS I’m still being treated well by the people out here, also being asked for tea or supper etc. In fact the people could not do anymore for us -a woman bought us out hot milk while we were on guard at two o’clock in the morning."

 

The Siegfried line was a defensive system of fortifications along the German western frontier.  Almost 400 miles long it ran from the border with the Netherlands to Switzerland.  The popular song ‘We’re going to hang out the washing on the Siegfried line' was first published in 1939.

 

On 14^th September Eric was “Still in same place, nothing doing today. Rained a lot but luckily we have some tents.”

(Extract from Eric Brewer’s letter and diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

From 14^th to 16^th September the 50th (Northumberland) Division underwent three days of re-organisation, near Beringen, to be ready for Operation Market Garden.