The Battle of Aachen: An Urban Warfare Historian’s Review
With Jayson Geroux
Part of our Battle of Aachen series
And our Battles for Netherlands, Belgium and Germany series
Also part of our 80th Anniversary Series
The multi-storey apartments and other buildings in the formidable city of Aachen provided the defending Germans with superb cover and concealment, requiring the Big Red One and other attacking units to treat each one as a fortified bunker. The streets and boulevards canalised the attacking infantry, tank destroyers and tanks, turning them into killing zones. Fields of fire for the Allied armored commanders was restricted, as was their ability to maneuver. Yet our Urban Warfare expert Jayson Geroux is impressed by the initiatives and techniques shown by the Americans to overcome the defences.
Major Jayson Geroux graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, with a B.A. Degree (Honours) in History in 1993, specializing in 20th century military history. He received his M.A. Degree in Military History from the Brigadier Milton F. Gregg, V.C. Centre for the Study of War and Society, the Military History department of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, N.B. in 2020, where his thesis focused on the Canadian urban operations battle of Ortona, Italy during the Second World War (1939-1945).
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36 Comments
Deeply impressive 360 degree presentation. Insights from the grand strategy down to platoon level, including what the opposition was thinking/doing, wow! Hard to replicate this detail for other actions, but certainly a high benchmark for future presentations to aim for. Full marks and huge respect from me guys.
Wow. Awesome presentation. So much detail. Well done WW2TV.
Thanks for this. Truly one for the hall of fame.
WW2TV has had so many epic shows over its four plus year history that I’ve lost count of how many I considered *best*….but this one was definitely in the “Damn good!!!😀👍👍” category.
This presentation is one of the best on WWII i.ve every seen. Everything is excellent.
I'm sorry I missed this live… But I'll add some more raving as to the excellence of the presentation. The good Major is at the head of his craft here.
This is a bit late as I had to watch this again from the beginning, but here it goes: The Major has hit it out of the park as far as presentations go. As a retired former Platoon Sergeant I am very impressed. He seems the type of forward thinking leader that people will follow willingly. The mastery of urban warfare is not something many leaders will tackle, but his understanding of it through much study, and some first hand practice, helped to inform this presentation and brought the fighting in Aachen to life.
This was brilliant, thank you.
Epic details with excellent presentation 10/10
Brilliant! Geroux gets his merit badge as urban warfare expert. Supply, support, tactics, command and control perfectly integrated .
Brilliant presentation! Primo work. Bravo!
Can any math people come up with an equation that expresses how the lifespan of these reichs shrank from the 1st to the 3rd?
What a great presentation by Jayson ! As a local 20km to the North of Aachen I knew most of it already. Nevertheless brilliant ! The level of detail alone settles it within the top 10 of the channel.
I actually lived one block away from the Rothe Erde Railway station for a couple of years. Every old building in this part of the city still has some bullet marks. New buildings (built after WW2) had to match the old facades, so bullet holes are often a way of telling the age.
From a local history book (of which I forgot title and author) I took it that the OSS Rangers were hand-picked for not only being fluent in German (a skill lost to so many Brits and Americans 🙂) but matching the local dialect. These boy's parents or grandparents came from the region and made it to America only one or two generations before and they learned their German in dialect. I was born here and I don't have it ! Let me put it like that: In Rhineland (and Bavaria & Saxony), German used to be the first foreign language to be learnt at school.
Alarmeinheit (alarm unit) in German diction at that point was no quick reaction force; it usually meant the cooks and clerks and whatever soldier you find strolling around.
Can't wait to have Jayson back !
Thank you so much Woody and Jayson. This epic was so detailed, so enthralling that I'm amazed. So much info to get my head around. Thanks again to both of you
Fantastic presentation
Very good, tactics, operations and strategy interspersed with personal stories.
Battle of Brisbane was Urban warfare
The best channel just keeps getting better – a freaking brilliant presentation. Jayson needs to return.
Brilliant presentation. Thank you.
Simply brilliant. Too short if anything!
Another banger bro. Always top quality. Thanks.
This was a damn good presentation. Certainly familiar with Aachann but this painted a very good picture of what actually went down. All to often Aachann is put on a high pedestal and IMO is depicted much different from what was presented. Very informative, thank you both learned a lot
Talk about bringing your A game, WOW! VERY informative, well researched and great presentation, down to the content on the use of the M12 One of the best battle break downs on the channel, enjoyed watching it!
Brilliant presentation.
Another good show. While I’ve seen video and pictures of weasels, this is the first I’ve heard about their use in a meaningful way.
Great presentation. The maps and 3D graphics were superb. They really made the battle understandable to someone who isn't familiar with Achen. Jayson achieved his objective.
I had to check Scalemates for a model of an M-12 Gun Motor Carriage.
Well that was some show…the preparation and delivery were outstanding……it was rapid fire for two hours!!!
Amazing presentation and discussion. Thank you gentlemen.
Wow just Wow!
Where do you keep finding these jewels? What a masterclass, outstanding.
Awesome presentation! Great topic presented well with great visual aids (maps, org charts / orders of battle, videos, etc) . Very comprehensive, clear, and well organized. I learned a tremendous amount and felt completely engaged while watching. Thanks to both of you! Great channel…
Absolutely brilliant series on Aachen Woody!! Congrats on gathering together a series of experts who can present such a diverse range of knowledgeable historical viewpoints on the the city itself and the battle for the city. Absolutely amazing and I have taken away so much from the parts of the series I have watched so far. Your channel really does go from strength to strength and deserves many more subscribers than it has👍👍👍👍
1:05:10 Haha xD Gold!
p.s. Thanks alot for a great lesson on the urban battle of Aachen!
My uncle, 2nd LT William Implom 2nd Armored Div. 41st armored infantry was 18 Km north of Aachen in Oldtweiler . he was KIA on Oct. 7th 44.
Fabulous episode, even if the difference in focus and perspective with Dr Blood is necessarily jarring, but comprehensive. Absorbing stuff.