On 12th September American forces reached the German frontier and pierced it south of Aachen. Four days later Hitler issued an Order demanding fanatical determination from every able bodied man in the combat zone. There can no longer be any large scale operations on our part. All we can do is to hold our positions or die. Officers of all ranks are responsible for kindling this fanaticism in the troops and in the general population, increasing it constantly, and using it as a weapon against the trespassers on German soil. Next day General Montgomery attempted to seize the bridges over the Meuse River, the Waal River, and the Rhine River at Grave, Nijmegen, and Arnhem, by a bold airborne operation, which would have opened the way into northern Germany. The situation which Hitler had envisaged when he issued his two Decrees of 13th July, 1944 (No. 57) had now arisen, and on 19th and 20th September Hitler signed two new Decrees replacing them. These two new Decrees, No. 66 (a) and (b), were issued on 22nd September, accompanied by a circular letter from Dr Lammers, the Head Of The Reich Chancery, dated 22nd September, which is here presented before them. They were distributed -- one hundred copies as before -- on 26th September.