Talk:Siegfried Line

Request to translate de:Westwall into this article

A request has been made to translate de:Westwall into this article. If you are able to do this please make a note on Wikipedia: Translation into English Ellsworth 15:55, 16 May 2004 (UTC)

There appears to be contradiction between the de:Westwall and Siegfried Line.

"Adolf Hitler ließ die Anlage, die eher von propagandistischem denn strategischen Wert war, zwischen 1938 und 1940 erbauen"

"The first was built in 1916-1917, during the First World War."

There is no mention in de:Westwall of what happened before 1938.

Aimaz 11:27, 30 June 2004 (UTC)

(from Wikipedia:Translation into English)

• Article: de:Westwall
• Corresponding English-language article: Siegfried Line
• Worth doing because: English version is a stub, German looks comprehensive
• Originally Requested by: Ellsworth 23:13, 15 May 2004 (UTC)
• Status: Claimed - am going to start work on this Saintswithin 18:53, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
• Other notes: Appears completed, I'm editing. -- Jmabel 18:54, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)

Westwall before 1938?

As I know was the beginning of building up the westwall known in english as siegfried line in the year 1938.

Confusing sentence

It is most likely that the name simply came into use from the end of 1938, without Nazi propaganda using the term to a great extent.

I'm not sure I follow this exactly. Would it be accurate to say "It is most likely that the name simply came into popular use toward the end of 1938; at that time it had not been heavily used in Nazi propaganda, although the Nazi regime later used the term." I'd like to substitute that, but I want to make sure it is factually accurate. -- Jmabel 18:57, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)

After consultation with German speaker about the "zunächst", have changed it.Saintswithin

Caption wrong?

The caption to one of the Dragon's Teeth photos says 5 "teeth" . There are definitely more than 5 in the photograph. Perhaps it is meant to say 5 foot teeth?

Each section has five teeth, as far as I understand it. Take a look at the article next to the photo where it describes how they're made. Saintswithin 15:17, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thank you.

This is a brilliant article. It is comprehensive, and wholly interesting. I appreciate the work that has gone into this. glasperlenspiel 20:17, Dec 1, 2004 (UTC)

I agree. Very comprehensive, and a fascinating read! One of the best WW2-related articles I've read! Devari 05:54, September 13, 2005 (UTC)

Huertgen/Vietnam comparison is nonsense !

Claims that more than 50,000 US soldiers died in Huertgen battle, are pure nonsense. See de:Allerseelenschlacht for a quite detailed examination. See also: Battle of Hurtgen Forest

WernerE (german.wiki) - 05.4.2005

I have no expertise in this, but the two articles you cite both suggest that the 10,000 you have substituted is much too low. Would someone who knows more about this than I please look into this? -- Jmabel | Talk 21:53, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

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• In the end, nobody knows the exact number of dead: 11,827 - or 13,569 - or 9,934 - but you won't argue, that it's a big difference if I claim
  • there were more than 50,000 or
  • there were some 10,000 dead.

Bear in mind that the term "casualties" does not mean "all dead" - a point often ignored in Germany, where I come from. It matters me that the www.volksbund.de (german war graves organization) claims more than 50,000 US dead for battle of Hurtgen (see info for graveyard "Vossenack"). It's dubious to spread such information against better knowledge.

Excuse my English, WernerE - 08.4.2005

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• Agreed. But your citations don't particularly bear out your claim. Not that the previous claim was well cited, either. I am asking someone to produce citations for a reasonable range of numbers. -- Jmabel | Talk 00:50, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

The article says ...With this organisation’s help, huge numbers of workers - up to half a million at a time - were found to work on the Siegfried Line... and ...Life on the building site and after work was monotonous and many people gave up and left....

It might be useful to clarify the wording "workers were found" with a note that many workers were 'recruited' in occupied territory. These workers didn't have the option to leave. My now 83-year old neighbor lived in a hole in the ground for almost 2 years with his father to escape this work.

Billy Joel

In the section The role of the Siegfried Line at the beginning of the war: "This phase of the history of the Siegfried Line is memorialized in the Billy Joel song Seigfried Line, a previously unreleased track from his 2005 boxed set My Lives." I'll presume that this is true, but is it really notable enough to belong in the article? If it is, is it really important enough, boxed set and all, to interrupt the general flow of the narrative rather than being somewhere at the bottom? It doesn't seem to me to throw any light at all on the topic for someone who turns here for research purposes. -- Jmabel | Talk 07:45, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I was totally engrossed in the article, until right in the middle of important, well-written narrative, it screeches off on tangent to mention a B-side Billy Joel track. I don't even see it as being important enough to belong in a footnote; if there are any Billy Joel fans reading the article, they will probably be doing so because they are already aware of the reference in the song, whereas everyone else reading the article will hardly get a distorted view of history because they weren't made aware that someone sang about it. Mixsynth 01:55, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

I also agree. The contemporary song "The Siegfried Line" by Jimmy Kennedy & Michael Carr might be worth referring to in the context of the phoney war but the Billy Joel song at most needs a one line mention. I was going to raise this here and see what the response was but in light of the above comments I'll 'be bold' and edit it.IanOfNorwich (talk) 07:52, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

And by the way... i would rather eat Belgian chocolates than Dutch chocolates... Billy Barbarian!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.200.220.100 (talk) 21:45, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Questionable link

The link to the mp3 extract of the song in English is a link to a modern commercial site of someone signing the song for a nostalgia audience. It is thus both not authentic, and commercial. This is surely a problem, but I wanted someone else's opinion before removing it. Johncmullen1960 (talk) 07:18, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Likely false friend

The translation Westwall(de) = western wall(en) seems a tad false-friendish to me. The Wall(de) is more related to "rampart" or "parapet", with a slight subtext of "mound". The latter in the sense of the ancient roman limes structure or mounds found around medieval castles. The Wall(de) has NO connotation to the brick structure one could paint a mural on. Having that in mind, the German term and its derivation seem very straight forward to me. No changes to the article, an English native speaker should please cross check that, I'm no language professional. 137.226.12.155 (talk) 08:08, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

seconding this, I think most english speakers looking for "West Wall" would be looking for the one in Israel. 82.181.175.18 (talk) 15:23, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

WTF? The Western Wall? Or the Wailing Wall?

Look, the term Westwall - even if it is a mistranslation of the German - is the only unambiguous English name of the [German fortification] system. (And frankly, using the term "Siegfried Line" here is just going to cause more confusion). 72.83.168.24 (talk) 02:51, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Dude, my father fought on it with the rest of the 109th Regiment of the 28th Infantry DIV and received his First Purple Heart there. He always called it the Siegfried Line." There's no need to apologize to Germany because it allowed Adolph Hitler to become "Fuhrer" and then the Germanic Peoples" enabled him until we had to destroy the whole of Germany to kill off the Nazis. When it comes to 20th Century Germany, it is what the Expeditionary and Allied Forces said it was. Using 'Siegfried Line" is just another way to keep reminding Germany how evil it was in the 20th Century and how many innocent people it killed . . . END OF STORY.— Preceding unsigned comment added by JCHeverly (talk • contribs) 20:13, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

User:JCHeverly 23:01, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

In the English edition of wikipedia you use the name under which a subject is known by the English speaking public, hence Siegfried Line. In the german wikipedia you may use Westwall, which translates as "western rampart". (german "Wall" like English "wall" derives from Latin "vallum" meaning rampart) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.115.75.230 (talk) 09:00, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

What a mess ...

I've spent a half hour or so cleaning up some of the more egregious statements of opinion, weasel wording and unreferenced statements tagged as far back as four and a half years ago, but this is still a badly underreferenced article which could use some TLC.  ῲ Ravenswing ῴ  12:30, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Western air defence zone

There were no concrete FlaK "towers" in the western air defence zone, only concrete foundations for heavy FlaK or maybe wooden towers for light FlaK, standing on concrete foundations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.204.139.123 (talk) 09:12, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Excellent German Website on the Siegfried Line/Westwall

http://westwall.elvamie.nl/index.php Check it out. In German, but Google Chrome translates well. Loaded w/ pics and maps. Not for nothin' . . . johncheverly 18:56, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Just call the Westwall the Westwall and make Siegfried Line a dab page.

Since it can either refer to the Siegfried line of WWI or the Westwall of WWII. 108.45.79.25 (talk) 00:31, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 15 June 2016

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. After relisting, there has been no support for this move. (closed by a page mover) (non-admin closure). Anarchyte (work | talk) 11:36, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

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Siegfried Line → Westwall – First, "Siegfried Line" is ambiguous, and the article has to begin with disambiguation; "Westwall" is unambiguous. Second, "Westwall" seems to be the more familiar name. Any frequency comparison would need to strip out WWI references and Wikipedia clones. 108.45.79.25 (talk) 00:39, 15 June 2016 (UTC)--Relisting. Eventhorizon51 ^(talk) 17:24, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

• Oppose per WP:UCN/WP:USEENGLISH, i.e. not Denglish. The first paragraph of the intro does a fine job explaining away any ambiguity. —  AjaxSmack  01:49, 15 June 2016 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

But Westwall is the normal American English term

Since Westwall is the normal American English term, how can WP:UCN/WP:USEENGLISH be a reason to oppose the proposed move? 108.45.79.25 (talk) 23:09, 14 July 2016 (UTC)

Internationalization of this article is required

American casualties should not be provided to the exclusion of allied casualties. This reads like an American story not a wikipedia article. I'll try and correct where I can but this is not my area of expertise. WayeMason (talk) 01:42, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

The Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung)

I've taken out all references to this. Possibly does deserve a "see also" or one-line reference of some sort (feel free to make such an addition) - but not the double-billing that it had before my edit. - Snori (talk) 11:18, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

Name section

The name section explains what the Germans called the line at various times, but Why did the British call it the "Siegfried Line"? This is a far mor pertinent question for an English language encyclopeadia. -- PBS (talk) 20:26, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Mostly due to the legendary dragon-slaying hero in Wagner - all those ramifications. Didn't help Nazi Germany in the end.50.111.33.214 (talk) 18:35, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

Dragons teeth relics from WW2!

I just watched a programme about dragons teeth and it was too expensive to remove them? I was just thinking that it would be appropriate for them to be used as memorial plac's that could be engraved in memory of all soldiers and people from both sides that died in the area that the dragons teeth lay? 💐🌹💐 88.105.251.10 (talk) 15:01, 6 December 2021 (UTC)