It was called the Battle of the Bulge – named for the massive, bulging line of more than 400,000 men and 4,000 pieces of artillery that moved on the Allied Army. The group began moving again at dusk at 16:00 and was able to return to its original route at around 18:00. At the same time, they felt that maintaining a purely defensive posture (as had been the case since Normandy) would only delay defeat, not avert it. The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. Battle Of The Bulge summary: The Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944–January 16, 1945), also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the largest battle fought on the Western Front in Europe during World War II; it is also the largest battle ever fought by the United States Army. Although the offensive was effectively broken by 27 December, when the trapped units of 2nd Panzer Division made two break-out attempts with only partial success, the battle continued for another month before the front line was effectively restored to its position prior to the attack. Intercepted German communications indicating a substantial German offensive preparation were not acted upon by the Allies. Many of these pictures never ran in LIFE magazine, or anywhere else. [65][66]In 2001, a group of people began working on a tribute to the eleven black American soldiers to remember their sacrifices. As he withdrew from Cheneux, American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division engaged the Germans in fierce house-to-house fighting. The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroyfour Allied armies and force th… [42] The major crackdown in the Wehrmacht after the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler resulted in much tighter security and fewer leaks. It was the largest and bloodiest battle that American soldiers would ever fight. Model and Manteuffel, technical experts from the eastern front, told Hitler that a limited offensive with the goal of surrounding and crushing the American 1st Army would be the best goal their offensive could hope to achieve. The lead role in the attack was given to 6th Panzer Army, commanded by SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich. This led to a hastily assembled force including rear-echelon troops, military police and Army Air Force personnel. So great were the feelings against me on the part of the American generals that whatever I said was bound to be wrong. [citation needed], Despite a lull along the front after the Scheldt battles, the German situation remained dire. British XXX Corps was significantly reinforced for this effort. American progress in the south was also restricted to about a kilometre or a little over half a mile per day. Headquarters now freed up the 9th Panzer Division for Fifth Panzer Army, which was deployed at Marche. Conditions inside the perimeter were tough—most of the medical supplies and medical personnel had been captured. Between 63,222 and 98,000 of these men were killed, missing, wounded in action, or captured. A few survived, and news of the killings of prisoners of war spread through Allied lines. German POWs carrying body of American soldier killed in Battle of Bulge through snowy Ardennes field, 1 among more than … Nonetheless, they pushed hard toward the German homeland, liberating Paris and much of France along the way. The 110th's situation was by far the worst, as it was responsible for an 18-kilometer (11 mi) front while its 2nd Battalion was withheld as the divisional reserve. [12] Allied estimates on German casualties range from 81,000 to 103,000. [k], Both 2nd Panzer and Panzer-Lehr division moved forward from Bastogne after 21 December, leaving only Panzer-Lehr division's 901st Regiment to assist the 26th Volksgrenadier-Division in attempting to capture the crossroads. As exemplified by the Third Army’s performance, nowhere during the war was the American mastery of logistics more dramatically displayed than in the Battle of the Bulge. Major-General Freddie de Guingand, Chief of Staff of Montgomery's 21st Army Group, rose to the occasion, and personally smoothed over the disagreements on 30 December.[115]:489–90. Although it retained most of its armor, there were not enough infantry units because of the defensive needs in the East. It took many months to rebuild its cargo-handling capability. Rundstedt later testified that while he recognized the merit of Hitler's operational plan, he saw from the very first that "all, absolutely all conditions for the possible success of such an offensive were lacking."[35]:24. Planning for the "Watch on the Rhine" offensive emphasized secrecy and the commitment of overwhelming force. To those two panzer armies the Germans gave the bulk of the tanks that they could scrape together. After their invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the Allies moved across northern France into Belgium during the summer but lost momentum in the autumn. Von der Heydte was given only eight days to prepare prior to the assault. [119]:198 The announcement resulted in headlines in British newspapers and Stars and Stripes, which for the first time mentioned British contributions to the fighting. In October, the First Canadian Army fought the Battle of the Scheldt, opening the port of Antwerp to shipping. In foreground a platoon leader indicates the target to a rifleman by actually firing on the target. "[130]:92 A preliminary Army report restricted to the First and Third U.S. The battle was militarily defined by the Allies as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, which included the German drive and the American effort to contain and later defeat it. At 16:50 on 26 December, the lead element, Company D, 37th Tank Battalion of the 4th Armored Division, reached Bastogne, ending the siege. The High Command of the Allied forces had planned to resume the offensive by early January 1945, after the wet season rains and severe frosts, but those plans had to be postponed until 29 January 1945 in connection with the unexpected changes in the front. Hargimont was captured the same day, but Marche-en-Famenne was strongly defended by the American 84th Division. Patton's Third Army in the south, centered around Bastogne, would attack north, Montgomery's forces in the north would strike south, and the two forces planned to meet at Houffalize. Sixth Panzer Army commander Sepp Dietrich ordered Hermann Priess, commanding officer of the I SS Panzer Corps, to increase its efforts to back Peiper's battle group, but Prieß was unable to break through. They recorded the quadrupling of German fighter forces and a term used in an intercepted Luftwaffe message—Jägeraufmarsch (literally "Hunter Deployment")—implied preparation for an offensive operation. The Germans also referred to it as Ardennenoffensive ("Ardennes Offensive") and Rundstedt-Offensive, both names being generally used nowadays in modern Germany. On 2 January, the Tiger IIs of German Heavy Tank Battalion 506 supported an attack by the 12th SS Hitlerjugend division against U.S. positions near Wardin and knocked out 15 Sherman tanks. Food was scarce, and by 22 December artillery ammunition was restricted to 10 rounds per gun per day. Directed by Steven Luke. In early February, the Allies launched an attack all along the Western front: in the north under Montgomery they fought Operation Veritable (also known as the Battle of the Reichswald); east of Aachen they fought the second phase of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest; in the center, under Hodges; and in the south, under Patton. The only deep-water port the Allies had captured was Cherbourg on the northern shore of the Cotentin peninsula and west of the original invasion beaches,[24] but the Germans had thoroughly wrecked and mined the harbor before it could be taken. [162] The citation covered troops in the Ardennes sector where the main battle took place, as well as units further south in the Alsace sector, including those in the northern Alsace who filled in the vacuum created by the U.S. Third Army racing north, engaged in the concurrent Operation Nordwind diversion in central and southern Alsace launched to weaken Allied response in the Ardennes, and provided reinforcements to units fighting in the Ardennes. Even Dietrich believed the Ardennes was a poor area for armored warfare and that the inexperienced and badly equipped Volksgrenadier soldiers would clog the roads the tanks needed for their rapid advance. Neither Army Commander had seen Bradley or any senior member of his staff since the battle began, and they had no directive on which to work. To Peiper's south, the advance of Kampfgruppe Hansen had stalled. The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, was a major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II, and took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. After a fierce tank battle the next day, the Germans finally entered the town when U.S. engineers failed to blow the bridge. When they reached it at 11:30 on 18 December, retreating U.S. engineers blew it up. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. ", Then Montgomery described the course of the battle for a half-hour. On the evening of 24 December, General Hasso von Manteuffel recommended to Hitler's Military Adjutant a halt to all offensive operations and a withdrawal back to the Westwall (literally Western Rampart). Between January 8 and January 16 the Allied armies concentrated their strength and were attempting to pinch off the great German wedge driven into their front, but the Germans carried out a skillful withdrawal that took them out of the potential trap. [63], Peiper advanced north-west towards Büllingen, keeping to the plan to move west, unaware that if he had turned north he had an opportunity to flank and trap the entire 2nd and 99th Divisions. Due to the use of landline communications within Germany, motorized runners carrying orders, and draconian threats from Hitler, the timing and mass of the attack was not detected by Ultra codebreakers and achieved complete surprise. To the disbelief of the other generals present, Patton replied that he could attack with two divisions within 48 hours. [142], Churchill was elated at Stalin's offer of help,[143] thanking Stalin for the thrilling news. Too small and too weak to counter the Allies, they abandoned plans to take the crossroads and instead converted the mission to reconnaissance. The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy four Allied armies and force the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers' favor. Although advancing only in a narrow corridor, 2nd Panzer Division was still making rapid headway, leading to jubilation in Berlin. [34][89], The tightened security nonetheless made things very hard for the German infiltrators, and a number of them were captured. The Germans could field a total of 55 understrength divisions. Though some of his staff were concerned at how the press conference would affect Montgomery's image, it was cleared by CIGS Alan Brooke, who was possibly the only person from whom Montgomery would accept advice. [27]:407, To protect the river crossings on the Meuse at Givet, Dinant and Namur, Montgomery ordered those few units available to hold the bridges on 19 December. At Montgomery's orders, St. Vith was evacuated on 21 December; U.S. troops fell back to entrenched positions in the area, presenting an imposing obstacle to a successful German advance. The forest was crawling with enemy soldiers. [151] E. J. N. Rose, head Air Adviser in Hut 3, read the paper at the time and described it in 1998 as "an extremely good report" that "showed the failure of intelligence at SHAEF and at the Air Ministry". [110] But following the Allied Normandy invasion, the SS armored units had suffered significant leadership casualties. The 109th and 110th Regiments of the 28th Division fared worse, as they were spread so thinly that their positions were easily bypassed. Among them were Volksgrenadier ("People's Grenadier") units formed from a mix of battle-hardened veterans and recruits formerly regarded as too young, too old or too frail to fight. In loyalty to their commander, 150 men from von der Heydte's own unit, the 6th Parachute Regiment, went against orders and joined him. The attack was led by one of the best equipped German divisions on the western front, the 1st SS Panzer Division (LSSAH). Thus McAuliffe wrote on the paper, which was typed up and delivered to the Germans, the line he made famous and a morale booster to his troops: "NUTS! Eleven black American soldiers were tortured after surrendering and then shot by men of the 1st SS Panzer Division belonging to Schnellgruppe Knittel. The Allies chose to defend the Ardennes with as few troops as possible due to the favorable terrain (a densely wooded highland with deep river valleys and a rather thin road network) and limited Allied operational objectives in the area. For the offensive to be successful, four criteria were deemed critical: the attack had to be a complete surprise; the weather conditions had to be poor to neutralize Allied air superiority and the damage it could inflict on the German offensive and its supply lines;[41] the progress had to be rapid—the Meuse River, halfway to Antwerp, had to be reached by day 4; and Allied fuel supplies would have to be captured intact along the way because the combined Wehrmacht forces were short on fuel. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. In a personal conversation on 13 December between Walter Model and Friedrich von der Heydte, who was put in charge of Operation Stösser, von der Heydte gave Operation Stösser less than a 10% chance of succeeding. [citation needed], Before the offensive the Allies were virtually blind to German troop movement. The Seventh Army, under General Erich Brandenberger, was assigned to the southernmost sector, near the Luxembourgish city of Echternach, with the task of protecting the flank. "C" also stresses the role played by poor Allied security: "The Germans have this time prevented us from knowing enough about them; but we have not prevented them knowing far too much about us". The Battle of the Bulge, so named because of the westward bulging shape of the battleground on a map, lasted from mid-December 1944 to the end of January 1945. The temperature during that January was extremely low, which required weapons to be maintained and truck engines run every half-hour to prevent their oil from congealing. This had the short-term goal of opening the urgently needed port of Antwerp and the long-term goal of capturing the Ruhr area, the biggest industrial area of Germany. I should therefore have said nothing." [64] Instead, intent on driving west, Peiper turned south to detour around Hünningen, choosing a route designated Rollbahn D as he had been given latitude to choose the best route west.[50]. The 12th SS Panzer Division, reinforced by additional infantry (Panzergrenadier and Volksgrenadier) divisions, took the key road junction at Losheimergraben just north of Lanzerath and attacked the twin villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt. All of this meant that the attack, when it came, completely surprised the Allied forces. Model, commander of German Army Group B (Heeresgruppe B), and von Rundstedt, overall commander of the German Army Command in the West (OB West), were put in charge of carrying out the operation. This frustration of the German advance was largely due to the way in which outflanked U.S. detachments held Bastogne and several other important bottlenecks in the Ardennes as well as to the speed with which British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, who had taken charge of the situation on the northern flank, swung his reserves southward to forestall the Germans at the crossings of the Meuse. Only the 5th Parachute Division of Brandenberger's command was able to thrust forward 19 km (12 mi) on the inner flank to partially fulfill its assigned role. [116] Consequently, at 10:30 a.m. on 20 December, Eisenhower transferred the command of the U.S. First and Ninth Armies temporarily from Bradley to Montgomery. [69][70] Peiper detoured north towards the villages of La Gleize and Cheneux. The General Staff estimated they only had enough fuel to cover one third to one half of the ground to Antwerp in heavy combat conditions. Armies were separated by about 40 km (25 mi). This battle, which last from December 16 1944 to January 25 1945, was on of the bloodiest in US military history. "[106], Infantrymen fire at German troops in the advance to relieve the surrounded paratroopers in Bastogne[m], Americans of the 101st Engineers near Wiltz, Luxembourg, January 1945, U.S. 6th Armored Division tanks moving near Wardin, Belgium, January 1945, The plan and timing for the Ardennes attack sprang from the mind of Adolf Hitler. Remarkably, the U.S. Third Army intelligence chief, Colonel Oscar Koch, the U.S. First Army intelligence chief and the SHAEF intelligence officer Brigadier General Kenneth Strong all correctly predicted the German offensive capability and intention to strike the U.S. VIII Corps area. The converse was equally damaging; daytime movement of German forces was rapidly noticed, and interdiction of supplies combined with the bombing of the Romanian oil fields starved Germany of oil and gasoline. The German High Command estimated that they lost between 81,834 and 98,024 men in the Bulge between 16 December 1944 and 28 January 1945; the accepted figure was 81,834, of which 12,652 were killed, 38,600 were wounded, and 30,582 were missing. It was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. He later moved to Spain and South America. On the same day, German Army Group G (Heeresgruppe G) and Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein) launched a major offensive against the thinly-stretched, 110 kilometers (70 mi) line of the Seventh U.S. Army. [citation needed]. The battle for Elsenborn Ridge was a decisive component of the Battle of the Bulge, deflecting the strongest armored units of the German advance. ULTRA); and improvements in German security. 1 talking about this. For those who are interested in the Battle of the Bulge we are trying to start a useful and educative website that provides all your needs. The Battle of the Bulge marked the last German offense on the Western Front. In early February, the … It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region in Belgium and Luxembourg towards the end of the war in Europe. Most were shot where they stood, though some managed to flee. Unknown to the other officers present, before he left Patton had ordered his staff to prepare three contingency plans for a northward turn in at least corps strength. By 15 January Seventh Army's VI Corps was fighting on three sides in Alsace. [159], Five copies of a report by "C" (Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service), Indications of the German Offensive of December 1944, derived from ULTRA material, submitted to DMI, were issued on 28 December 1944. Hundreds of planes attacked Allied airfields, destroying or severely damaging some 465 aircraft. Copy No. Adolf Hitler personally selected for the counter-offensive on the northern shoulder of the western front the best troops available and officers he trusted. The 6th Panzer Army was given priority for supply and equipment and was assigned the shortest route to the ultimate objective of the offensive, Antwerp. Montgomery's contribution to restoring the situation was that he turned a series of isolated actions into a coherent battle fought according to a clear and definite plan. [113]:113 Other than making futile objections to Hitler in private, Dietrich generally stayed out of planning the offensive. The two field marshals combined their plans to present a joint "small solution" to Hitler. At 12:30 on 17 December, Kampfgruppe Peiper was near the hamlet of Baugnez, on the height halfway between the town of Malmedy and Ligneuville, when they encountered elements of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, U.S. 7th Armored Division. [34], Operation Währung was carried out by a small number of German agents who infiltrated Allied lines in American uniforms. "[127], Bradley and Patton both threatened to resign unless Montgomery's command was changed. Eisenhower, after saying he was not that optimistic, asked Patton how long it would take to turn his Third Army, located in northeastern France, north to counterattack. Peiper turned north and halted his forces in the woods between La Gleize and Stoumont. The Fifth Panzer Army, led by Hasso, Freiherr (baron) von Manteuffel, was to break through the U.S. front in the Ardennes, swerve westward, and then wheel northward across the Meuse, past Namur to Antwerp. [87], For Operation Greif ("Griffin"), Otto Skorzeny successfully infiltrated a small part of his battalion of English-speaking Germans disguised in American uniforms behind the Allied lines. [e][f] When they offered their alternative plans, Hitler would not listen. Bedell Smith sent Strong to warn Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, the commander of the 12th Army Group, of the danger. Peiper's unit was delayed and his vehicles denied critically needed fuel. The OKW decided by mid-September, at Hitler's insistence, that the offensive would be mounted in the Ardennes, as was done in 1940. The catastrophic losses on the German side prevented Germany from resisting the advance of Allied forces following the Normandy Invasion. Peiper and Knittel both faced the prospect of being cut off. The perpetrators were never punished for this crime. He entrusted them with carrying out his decisive counterattack. As a result, parts of the 2nd Panzer Division were cut off. Montgomery wrote about the situation he found on 20 December: The First Army was fighting desperately. Chester Wilmot[126] explained that his dispatch to the BBC about it was intercepted by the German wireless, re-written to give it an anti-American bias, and then broadcast by Arnhem Radio, which was then in Goebbels' hands. In fact, because of the Germans' efforts, the Allies were led to believe that a new defensive army was being formed around Düsseldorf in the northern Rhineland, possibly to defend against British attack. Apart from an abortive thrust to Arnhem, Netherlands, the efforts of the Allied armies in western Europe during September and October 1944 amounted to little more than a process of nibbling. SS-Oberführer Mohnke ordered Schnellgruppe Knittel, which had been designated to follow Hansen, to instead move forward to support Peiper. Battle of the Bulge, also called Battle of the Ardennes, (December 16, 1944–January 16, 1945), the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II —an unsuccessful attempt to push the Allies back from German home territory. [96], On 23 December the weather conditions started improving, allowing the Allied air forces to attack. Poor traffic control led to massive traffic jams and fuel shortages in forward units. [85] The official U.S. Army history states: "At least seven thousand [men] were lost here and the figure probably is closer to eight or nine thousand. It brought home to the German troops their incapacity to turn the scales and thereby undermined such hopes as they had retained. [26] German forces remained in control of several major ports on the English Channel coast into the autumn, while Dunkirk remained under siege until the end of the war in May 1945. The amount lost in arms and equipment, of course, was very substantial. By the time Eisenhower asked him how long it would take, the movement was already underway. [36] Hitler originally set the offensive for late November, before the anticipated start of the Russian winter offensive. I positioned British troops as reserves behind the First and Ninth Armies until such time as American reserves could be created. [18] Total casualties included at least 9,000 wounded. Winston Churchill, addressing the House of Commons following the Battle of the Bulge said, "This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory. The Americans shelled Kampfgruppe Peiper on 22 December, and although the Germans had run out of food and had virtually no fuel, they continued to fight. In France, orders had been relayed within the German army using radio messages enciphered by the Enigma machine, and these could be picked up and decrypted by Allied code-breakers headquartered at Bletchley Park, to give the intelligence known as Ultra. Bradley's response was succinct: "Let them come. [44] Strong had informed Bedell Smith in December of his suspicions. Battle of the Bulge 1. Kampfgruppe Hansen was still struggling against bad road conditions and stiff American resistance on the southern route. The Allies continued to push on in the battle. In the west supply problems began significantly to impede Allied operations, even though the opening of the port of Antwerp in late November improved the situation somewhat. [34] Even General George Patton was alarmed and, on 17 December, described the situation to General Dwight Eisenhower as "Krauts ... speaking perfect English ... raising hell, cutting wires, turning road signs around, spooking whole divisions, and shoving a bulge into our defenses. Top Secret Ultra. A trucking system nicknamed the Red Ball Express brought supplies to front-line troops, but used up five times as much fuel to reach the front line near the Belgian border. Check out the song lyrics of Panzer Song from the movie Battle of the Bulge. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [31], Hitler felt that his mobile reserves allowed him to mount one major offensive. An awkward feature from an offensive point of view, however, was the fact that the high ground was intersected with deep valleys where the through roads became bottlenecks where a tank advance was liable to be blocked. [24], Field Marshal Montgomery's Operation Market Garden achieved only some of its objectives, while its territorial gains left the Allied supply situation stretched further than before. The plan originally called for just under 45 divisions, including a dozen panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions forming the armored spearhead and various infantry units to form a defensive line as the battle unfolded. The Germans suffered heavy losses at an airfield named Y-29, losing 40 of their own planes while damaging only four American planes. [92] Skorzeny and his men were fully aware of their likely fate, and most wore their German uniforms underneath their American ones in case of capture. The Schnee Eifel battle, therefore, represents the most serious reverse suffered by American arms during the operations of 1944–45 in the European theater. The plan organized by Hitlerinvolved the Sixth Panzer Army, headed by Sepp Dietrich, breaking through enemy lines while the other divisions occupied the Allies, thus leading the attack and capture of Antwerp. By 24 December the German advance was effectively stalled short of the Meuse. While having the effect of keeping the Allied aircraft grounded, the weather also proved troublesome for the Germans because poor road conditions hampered their advance. Assessing his own situation, he determined that his Kampfgruppe did not have sufficient fuel to cross the bridge west of Stoumont and continue his advance. [145]:127 This was an important step toward a desegregated United States military. The extremely swift operation ended only when the advancing Soviet Red Army forces outran their supplies. I embarked on these measures: I put British troops under command of the Ninth Army to fight alongside American soldiers, and made that Army take over some of the First Army Front. It was hoped that Soviet leader Stalin would delay the start of the operation once the German assault in the Ardennes had begun and wait for the outcome before continuing. Written by Anthony Hughes
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