Hindenburg Line

The name in British and French literature for the German defensive line on the Western Front in 1917/18, known in German as Siegfried-Stellung.

After the close of the costly battles of 1916, the OHL (German Supreme Army Command) and the Army Group Kronprinz Rupprecht had decided to pull the front back to the Arras – Saint-Quentin – Vailly line. Their reasons had been strategic and operational: building on successes on the Eastern Front and in the unrestricted submarine war, the war in the West was to be waged defensively in 1917. Moving back to the new defensive line would …