Narrates the fall of Aachen in fall 1944, the first German city conquered by the Allies. Part of the Siegfried Line but otherwise lacking strategic importance – the border town of 165,000 was merely on the way to American objectives in the Ruhr – the ancient Carolingian capital nonetheless possessed cultural significance. Ample men and materiel were reallocated from the Eastern front. The defenders’ first commanding officer tried (and failed) to surrender the city; the second fought nearly to its destruction, having held out long enough for Germany to provision counterattack in the Ardennes – the famous Battle of the Bulge. Highly personified from general to private, less effectively mapped, the story moves briskly.