West wall : the battle for Hitler's Siegfried Line, September 1944 to March 1945 ([New ed.])

Adolf Hitler intended it to be the ultimate defender of his much vaunted 1,000-year Reich.

Constructed in the utmost secrecy and at enormous cost, and dismissed by many as a 'white elephant', the 'Great Wall of Germany' very nearly lived up to the Fuhrer's expectations, and is judged to have prolonged the war in Europe by six months. "The Battle for the Siegfried Line" was not only the most important of the 1944-45 campaign against Germany, it was to prove the key battle in the entire war in the west.

It raged for six long bloody months along a front of 350 miles, and cost over a quarter of a million British, American, Canadian and French casualties.

Today, more than sixty years after Hitler ordered its construction, the 'Great Wall of Germany' can reputedly still be seen from the stratosphere, crawling across the German countryside like some obscene, grey, primeval reptile.

The disdain with which the 'Tommy' was going to 'hang out his washing on the Siegfried line' was mingled with awe at the sheer difficulty and dangers of the campaign.

Charles Whiting's vivid account brings to life the principal personalities engaged in the struggle to break through the "West Wall".