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Hindenburg Line

The soldier's life in the Hindenburg Trenches, postcard from a drawing by Kurzweg
Text:
Hindenburg-Graben
zum Friseur
Speise Fett
Bitte klingeln
Soldiers' Life in the Hindenburg trench
to the barber
cooking fat
please ring the bell

The soldier's life in the Hindenburg Trenches, postcard from a drawing by Kurzweg

Image text

Hindenburg-Graben

zum Friseur

Speise Fett

Bitte klingeln

Soldiers' Life in the Hindenburg trench

to the barber

cooking fat

please ring the bell

Other views: Larger

The Siegfried Zone was a deeply fortified defensive line on the Western Front to which the German forces retreated in Operation Alberich in early 1917. The Zone was commonly referred to as the Hindenburg Line.

The Germans began constructing their new defensive lines on February 9, 1917. The four new lines — Flanders, Wotan, Siegfried, and Hunding — formed the Siegfried Zone, or simply 'the Hindenburg Line'. On February 23, German troops made a preliminary withdrawal to the line. On March 15 and 16, 1917, they completed the retreat, leaving behind devastation. They booby-trapped the land they evacuated, felled orchards, spoiled wells, destroyed houses, and demolished steeples that might be used as observation points.

'Hindenburg Line', the name by which the Siegfried Zone was popularly known, came from German commander in chief Paul von Hindenburg.

Hindenburg Line is a fortification.