The hump line path

To protect the western border of the Reich, the German government had the West Wall built between 1938 and 1940. It was intended to be a counterpart to the Maginot Line on the French side. However, it was not nearly as well developed as its French counterpart. The main rampart stretched along the right bank of the Saar from Saarbrücken via Konz near Trier along the Sauer to the north

In the area at the border triangle, this line of fortifications branched off for twelve kilometres. It was intended to prevent penetration into the Saar-Moselle triangle at a distance of four to six kilometres from the French border. This section between Orscholz and Perl-Nennig later became known as the "Orscholz-Riegel". The Siegfried Line consisted of anti-tank ditches, concreted anti-tank obstacles, Spanish horsemen, barbed wire barriers, minefields, trenches and bunkers. There were 29 concrete shelters in Orscholz alone, including an unfinished B-works.

At the outbreak of war, the "Höckerlinie" had already been completed, but there were delays with the bunker facilities. After the French campaign, this partially unfinished defence system was only maintained but not further expanded and not sufficiently equipped with weapons. This became painfully apparent when the Wehrmacht marched back from France in 1944, when a new defence position was built here. A first American attack on the fortress line near Orscholz on 21 November 1944 was repulsed shortly before the anti-tank barrier on Tünsdorfer Straße. The next enemy operation took place in this section. On 20 January 1945, in wintry temperatures and heavy snow, American infantry units coming from the opposite forest crossed the anti-tank ditch on the road to Oberleuken in the early hours of the morning and moved along this road to the outskirts of Orscholz. Other units were caught in a minefield at the Höcker line at the brickworks (Weieranlage) and were repelled by machine gun fire and artillery. The troop that had advanced to the edge of the village was wiped out and became a German prisoner of war. Orscholz was captured by the Americans from the north on 20 February 1945.

Source: Saarschleifenland Tourismus GmbH