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Battle of the Bulge - World War II:
A History From Beginning to End
(World War 2 Battles)
Hourly History.
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"“The amateurs discuss tactics. The professionals discuss logistics.”
"—Napoleon Bonaparte"
"“I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable—and so was Bastogne, and so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any danger spot is tenable if men—brave men—will make it so.”
"—John F. Kennedy"
"“[On the Battle of the Bulge] I maintained my contention that it is better to attack with a small force at once, and attain surprise, than it is to wait and lose it.”
"—General George S. Patton"
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"“The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units . . . There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note. If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne . . . All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the wellknown American humanity.”
"—German Call to Surrender"
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"It was 11:30 am on December 22, 1944 when four German soldiers wearing shiny black boots and long overcoats approached the members of F Company from the 101st Airborne Division, which had been sent to hold the northern and southern lines on both sides of the Ardennes Forest across Belgium and France.
"The Germans were carrying white flags and informed Private First Class Leo Palma that they wanted to see his commanding officer. Overhearing the exchange, Staff Sergeant Carl Dickinson called the Germans over and was told that they had a written message for the American commander in Bastogne. Dickenson found a member of his platoon, the medic, who spoke German and agreed to translate if translation was needed. But the Germans had brought along a soldier who understood English.
"The Germans had also brought their own blindfolds and donned them. Dickinson and the medic, Ernest Premetz, took the two German officers, Major Wagner of the 47th Panzer Corps, carrying a briefcase, and Lieutenant Hellmuth Henke of the Panzer Lehr Operations Section, to the F Company Command Post, a large foxhole in a wooded area, arriving there by a circuitous route. The two German enlisted men were left behind in the care of soldiers.
"F Company Commander Captain James Adams was notified of the arrival of the Germans, but he then learned that one of the officers had already presented the written message. The message did a bit of traveling up the official channels until it reached Major Alvin Jones, who was told to bring it to division headquarters. While the Germans were kept outside, Acting Chief of Staff Lieutenant Colonel Ned Moore approached Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, who was in his sleeping quarters next to the command center. McAuliffe was awakened to learn from Moore that the Germans had sent officers to take the Americans surrender.
"“Nuts!” McAuliffe replied as he climbed out of his sleeping bag. Moore relayed the brigadier general’s response to the rest of the Division staff. Jones soon arrived with the typewritten sheets of paper from the Germans; one typed in German, one in English. Because the German copy had diacritical marks entered by hand, the Americans realized that the messages had been typed on an English typewriter.
"The message warned the Americans that the forces around Bastogne were encircled by German armored units, with more units crossing the river. The Germans informed the Americans that their only hope of saving their surrounding forces from annihilation was total surrender. If they rejected the German offer, the order to begin firing would be given. They had two hours to decide.
"McAuliffe was furious. Looking at the paper, he said, “Us surrender, aw nuts!” and threw the surrender order to the floor in a fit of temper. McAuliffe dismissed Major Jones and then went to give his congratulations to a unit that had taken out a German roadblock on the western perimeter earlier in the morning. Jones returned to F Company’s Command Post and, after speaking with the German officers, returned to his own regimental headquarters.
"The Germans, who were expected to return to their own lines two hours after the message had been delivered, were waiting for a formal reply. McAuliffe summoned Colonel Joseph Harper to Headquarters. As he waited outside the closed door to McAuliffe’s quarters, the brigadier general inside pondered what response he should send. Division Operations Officer Lieutenant Colonel Harry Kinard replied, “What you said initially would be hard to beat.”
"McAuliffe didn’t remember what he had said, but when the staff reminded him that his first response to the order to surrender had been “Nuts,” McAuliffe agreed that the succinct message suited the occasion and wrote the message on a piece of paper with orders to have it typed up. Dated December 22, 1944, and addressed to the German commander, “NUTS!” was the formal reply from the American commander.
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"Driving down to the F Company Command Post, Harper gave German Lieutenant Hellmuth Henker the typed response. Henke asked if “NUTS” was an affirmative or negative response; if affirmative, they were authorized to continue with negotiations. Harper told him that the reply was decidedly not affirmative. He warned the Germans, “If you continue this foolish attack, your losses will be tremendous.”
"The German officers, blindfolded, were driven back to the place where they had arrived. When the blindfolds were removed, the Germans asked the translator Premetz what the reply meant. Translating for Harper, Premetz told the Germans, “Du kannst zum Teufel gehen” or “go to hell” which was not an exact translation of Harper’s message to tell the Germans to “take a flying shit.” Harper said, “If you continue to attack, we will kill every goddamn German that tries to break into this city.”
"Henke answered that the Germans would kill many Americans. Harper replied, “On your way, bud, and good luck to you.” As the Germans departed and saluted, Harper decided to break the language barrier. “If you don’t know what I am talking about, simply go back to your commanding officer and tell him to just plain, ‘Go to Hell.’” The German officer was furious and threw away his blindfold.
"The German officers drove back to their regimental headquarters in Lutrebois and reported in. When they were heading back to Panzer Lehr Headquarters, they gave General von Manteuffel the reply from the Americans. The general said it was time to strike with the artillery, but General von Luttwitz told him that the heavy artillery had been moved to forward positions past Bastogne. Bastogne, von Luttwitz reminded, was not their objective. The 26th Volksgrenadier Division would handle it; the Panzer Lehr Division was to go to Rochefort.
"The battle got underway, and the Allies were able to stand firm until help came. General George S. Patton would award General McAuliffe the Distinguished Service Cross, and his division would receive the first Division Army Distinguished Unit Citation because of their role in defending Bastogne."
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"Given command of the 3rd U.S. Army, he was on his way to Normandy the following year. His command, however, was for a made-up army that was supposed to be getting ready in the event that southeastern England was invaded; this ruse was to confuse German intelligence as a decoy away from the invasion which would take place in Normandy. But fiction turned to reality soon enough when the 1st Army broke the German line, and Patton’s 3rd Army was able to take advantage of the breach and head to northern France in pursuit of the Germans.
"Again, his advice for winning was simple: “Keep on advancing . . . whether we go over, under, or through the enemy.” But the resounding success enjoyed by Patton was a far cry from what the U.S. forces were enduring in December 1944, when the American defenses were penetrated by German troops, cutting off the access roads to Bastogne. On December 19, senior Allied commanders met in Verdun; by then, Bastogne had been under German control for several days. It seemed likely that Bastogne would soon be surrounded by Germans, and the only open corridor would be closed completely as the front shifted. Because of the bitter winter weather, Allied aircraft could not come to the aid of the Americans.
"General Eisenhower, although a realist, could not allow for the possibility of defeat. The Allies, he knew, would have a better chance of defeating the Germans when they were on the offensive. He ordered his commanders to show only cheerful faces. That was no problem for Old Blood and Guts. “Hell, let’s have the guts to let the bastards go all the way to Paris. Then, we’ll really cut ‘em off and chew ‘em up.” Eisenhower wasn’t quite as exuberant as Patton, but he wanted to know how long it would take Patton to turn his 3rd Army north in a counterattack.
"The other generals were dubious when Patton said that he could attack with two divisions within 48 hours. What the others didn’t know was that Patton, before leaving for the meeting, had instructed his staff to devise three contingency plans for coming to the aid of Bastogne. By the time he was sitting with Eisenhower, an action plan was already underway.
"The odds were not in Patton’s favor. He intended to rotate three divisions in a counterthrust motion at a 90-degree angle to the north. The roads were in terrible condition. The soldiers were exhausted. The weather was miserable. Feeling thwarted, Patton turned to God. He instructed the army chaplain to write a prayer; Patton had the prayer printed on the Christmas cards that he gave to his soldiers."
"By December 23, the weather was improving as if it had no choice but to give way to the irascible Patton. Allied aircraft took advantage of the improvement to bring supplies to the people and soldiers trapped in Bastogne. On December 26, Patton’s 4th Armored Division broke the siege by cutting through the German lines to the south of Bastogne and joining the American forces. With an opening now available, ambulances were able to take the wounded troops to field hospitals for treatment.
"There was no stopping Patton. Over the course of a ten-day march, Patton’s army crossed the Rhine and headed straight into Germany, capturing 10,000 square miles of territory.
"Perhaps a larger-than-life icon like Patton would have found peace not to his liking. He had admitted in a letter to his wife that when he was not attacking, “I get bilious.” Patton was in Mannheim, Germany in December 1945 when he was involved in a car accident that left him with a broken neck. He died on December 21, 1945."
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"Patton’s forces had been able to break the siege of Bastogne on December 26. Perhaps no one was more relieved than General McAuliffe when Bastogne was liberated. When the American rescue forces appeared, Captain William Dwight presented himself to McAuliffe, saluted, and asked the general how he was. McAuliffe answered, “Gee, I am mighty glad to see you!”
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"Eisenhower wanted General Montgomery to go on the counter-offensive on January 1, with the aim of meeting up with Patton’s advancing 3rd Army and cutting off most of the attacking Germans, trapping them in a pocket. It was snowing. Montgomery would not risk his unprepared infantry troops for an area of no strategic importance during a snowstorm and didn’t attack until January 3. By that time, a number of Germans had managed to fall back successfully. However, in doing so, they lost most of their heavy equipment.
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"The Allies named it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The Germans code name was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein or Operation Watch on the Rhine. But the name that stuck, the Battle of the Bulge, came from the newspaper reporters, referring to the salient or bulge, 50 miles wide and 70 miles deep, that the German offensive created in the American lines. The battle, which lasted from December 16, 1944 until January 16, 1945, was the German effort to divide the forces of the United States and Great Britain in France and the Low Countries—thwarting the American hopes of making the port of Antwerp operative to keep their supply lines flowing steadily.
"The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle fought in Europe on the Western Front during World War II. It was a record-breaker for the Americans as well, as the largest battle which the United States Army ever fought in its history. That it ended up being fought at all was due, in great part, to a deadly miscalculation on the part of the Allies, who were convinced that the densely forested Ardennes region would not be attacked by the Germans.
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"Who could blame the Allies for their optimism? After extensive planning, the Normandy invasion had gone well for the Allies. But as the Americans advanced rapidly, they encountered a problem they had not planned for—they were moving too fast and too far ahead of their supply lines. And the Germans weren’t conquered yet.
"The Normandy invasion, while a dire turn of events for the Germans, had a silver lining in a dark cloud. It allowed them to send soldiers to other places where they were needed in order to stave off German defeat. They began their attack with 410,000 men, 2,600 pieces of artillery, 1,600 anti-tank guns, 1,400 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns, and more than 1,000 combat aircraft. Within several weeks, reinforcements would increase their fighting strength to 450,000 soldiers and 1,500 tanks and assault weapons.
"The Americans did not believe that the Germans would choose the Ardennes forest for an attack because of the rough terrain and the hard-to-access roads. American commanders refused to believe reports that the Germans had been active near the Ardennes and disregarded the information from German prisoners who claimed that a major offensive was being planned.
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"Poorly defended, the town of Bastogne became the site of a bloody encounter between the Germans, many of whom had seen battle on the Eastern Front, and the Americans who, except for the 101st Airborne Division which had been sent to defend the area, were inexperienced in combat, many serving as clerks and cooks. The Germans were poised to capitalize on the Allies’ dilemma. They needed to push the front lines of the Allies from the north of France to northwestern Belgium. Their goal was to prevent the Allies from being able to use the port of Antwerp, all while dividing the Allied lines. If the Germans could surround four Allied armies, and if the Western Allies agreed to enter negotiations for peace, the Germans would be free to focus on the Eastern front. Hoping to surprise the Allies, the Germans moved their troops and equipment under darkness and utilized a minimum of radio communication.
"After the battle, German numbers showed that between 63,222 and 125,000 of their soldiers were either wounded in action, missing, or killed. The Americans suffered 89,000 casualties, with more than 8,000 killed. For the Americans, who suffered their second-largest surrender of World War II when more than 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry Division gave themselves up to the Germans at Schnee Eifel, the battle would prove to be a grim milestone. Many of the soldiers, untried in battle, were overwhelmed by the brutality of the fighting and chose to desert. The first American to be executed for desertion since the Civil War, Eddie Slovik, was evidence that General Eisenhower felt that he had to stem the flow of desertions by making an example of Private Slovik.
"The battle has become famous for some of the dramatic events that took place: General McAuliffe’s terse response, “Nuts!” when the Germans called upon him to surrender; General Patton’s bold tactic to swivel his 3rd Army around and come to the rescue of Bastogne; the horrific massacre of American soldiers at Malmedy. But the stolid endurance of the soldiers in the north who, despite the ferocious German attacks, endured the freezing temperatures and the rain, the lack of food and supplies, and stood their ground, impressed the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who later said, “This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.”"
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"“The amateurs discuss tactics. The professionals discuss logistics.”
"—Napoleon Bonaparte"
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"The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 was a hard-fought success that created unexpected difficulties that the triumphant Allies had not predicted. On August 15, the Allied forces were landing in southern France at a pace which, while welcome to the French, presented the accelerating forces with logistical problems. The Germans had offered comparatively little resistance to the Allied advance into France, but after Paris was liberated late in August 1944, the Allies took a break to re-organize. This pause gave the Germans time to strengthen their lines, a task they had not previously been able to accomplish while positioned west of Paris.
"Expecting the Germans to use the French rivers to make their defensive stands, the American forces advanced to the Siegfried Line late in September, earlier than they had anticipated. American General Omar Bradley had four more divisions than had originally been under his command, and all his troops had advanced 150 miles farther than the position they had initially targeted. Supply lines were stretched beyond the point where they could be effective, and supplies were rapidly diminishing. The pace of the advance could not be sustained without sufficient military equipment and provisions.
"As a result of the rapid advance and the less-than-expected fighting from the Germans, the Allies were running out of fuel. The Allies were using the Pluto pipeline to pump fuel from Great Britain to Normandy, but the fronts were too far away from the pipelines, and the soldiers were advancing faster than the pipeline could be extended. A storm in the English Channel had destroyed the other Mulberry harbors except for Mulberry A off Omaha Beach. Small harbors such as Isigny, Port-en-Bessin, and Courcelles were used to bring war material over, but the major ports—Calais, Boulogne, Le Havre, and Dunkirk—had either been destroyed in the bombing or were still under German control.
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"Because the railways had been destroyed by the Allies, trucks were used to transport the fuel; the newly-arrived 26th, 95th, and 104th infantry divisions saw their trucks taken from them so that they could be used to bring supplies to the front lines. In order to free trucks for transporting supplies, divisions of the 12th Army Group left all of its heavy artillery and half of the medium artillery behind them, west of the Seine River. The British had 1,500 trucks with engine failure that could not be used to transport supplies, but the British were able to lend four truck companies to the American advance.
"A truck convoy known as the Red Ball Express went into operation on August 25, 1944. At the height of its 86 days of operation, it operated more than 5,000 vehicles which carried over 12,000 tons of supplies a day. The Red Ball Express, which had been developed during a 36-hour meeting to address the urgency of the supply problem, was primarily staffed by African-American soldiers. It remained in operation until the port at Antwerp was opened and ready for cargo and the French railroad lines had been repaired.
"The 6th Army Group was more fortunate; as it advanced from southern France, it received adequate supplies from Toulon and Marseille because the ports had been captured intact and the railway system locally had not suffered as much damage.
"The Allied High Command understood that in order to supply their forces, they needed deep-water ports. Eisenhower’s planning had focused on Cherbourg, Le Havre, and finally Antwerp so that he would be able to send his final 50-division offensive into Germany. Otherwise, the American army could not sustain itself in Central Europe. Antwerp, however, would not be of use to the Allies until the Scheldt estuary could be cleared of the German troops that were there. The Allies had captured Cherbourg, but because the Germans had mined the harbor, it would be months before the port was able to handle the cargo.
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"By mid-September 1944, the Western Allied armies consisted of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery’s Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group in the north, the Franco-American 6th Army Group in the south under the command of Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, and Lieutenant General Omar Bradley’s United States 12th Army Group in the center, all under the leadership of Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Both Montgomery and Bradley were willing to be in charge of direct assaults into Germany. But Eisenhower preferred a plan which enabled the Allies to win territory from the defeated Germans in all sectors so that the Allies could support each other and minimize the problems of supplying the forces that were advancing the greatest distance.
"The Germans still had control of several major ports along the coast of the English Channel. Because the supply lines reached back to Normandy, logistics were a significant problem and would continue to be until Antwerp was back in operation. The port itself had been captured in early September and was almost intact, but the failure of Montgomery’s 21st Army Group to clear the Scheldt estuary of its mines and German troops, which controlled access to Antwerp, prevented the Allies from utilizing it. Montgomery’s delay in clearing the Scheldt estuary gave the German 15th Army the time it needed to strengthen its position on the estuary, which resulted in a months-long delay before Antwerp could be used by the Allies.
"The Allies had been very successful in their efforts to destroy the French railway system after the invasion so that German movement would be crippled, but that success inevitably affected Allied troop moment as well. Restoring the use of the tracks and bridges took time. By early October, the Allies were focusing on improving their supply lines. Major offensives were suspended. In mid-November, all six Allied armies launched a general offensive on the Western Front, but the results failed to match the heavy losses.
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"Some of the problem in providing adequate supplies to the advancing troops was blamed upon bureaucracy. Communications Zone, the American supply organization, had 11,000 people on its staff and may have failed in efforts to expedite delivery; that was how the other American generals viewed the problem. Because COMZ answered to Washington, D.C. and not to Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander didn’t feel that he could use his authority to hasten the supply solutions that General John C.H. Lee, commander of COMZ, was employing. As a result, there were unofficial solutions as some units diverted supplies that were intended for other units.
"The tension over who got the supplies led to in-fighting among the commanders. Who was to get priority access to the supplies? Was it Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery commanding the 21st Army Group composed of British and Canadian troops, or Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, who was in charge of the U.S. 12th Army Group?
"The German effort was feeling the effects of the combined forces of the 21st Army Group. By eliminating the sites that were launching attacks against southern England and then liberating the ports along the northern French coast, Montgomery felt that the supply situation could be alleviated. The plan was firmly opposed by Bradley, no fan of Montgomery, who felt it was time for the Americans to take charge. Under Montgomery’s plan, General George S. Patton’s 3rd Army would have to halt its advance, even though it had traveled the farthest from the Normandy beachhead. At the same time, Eisenhower was hearing from the Washington, D.C. military brass, who wanted a major airborne operation before the war ended. Although both Montgomery and Bradley argued for priority for supply delivery so that their individual armies could advance and pressure the Germans, Eisenhower decided to place the 1st Allied Airborne Army under the 21st Army Group’s command.
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"Operation Market-Garden, which used thousands of aircraft and armored vehicles along with hundreds of thousands of troops to solve the beleaguered supply situation, moved forward. Unfortunately, the effort was a costly failure as the Allies had to abandon their positions once the Germans gained control. It would take the Allies four more months after this horrendous blunder, which was captured in film under the title A Bridge Too Far, before the Allies were able to cross the Rhine River and take control of the Ruhr, the center of Germany’s industrial might. Operation Market Garden was the only major Allied defeat in the Northwest Europe campaign.
"General Bradley, who had opposed the plan from the start, did not neglect Patton during the operation and continued to support his colleague so that his forces would be able to advance to Germany. Patton would play a crucial role in the Battle of the Bulge, showing the enterprise and daring which would ultimately give the Allies victory. But at the onset, victory looked as if it would be won by the Germans.
"The Germans during this time were strengthening their forces with reserves pulled from other sources, including those that had been able to withdraw from France, as well as a new force made up of men from ages 16-60, the home guard or Volkssturm, ordered by Adolf Hitler to defend the homeland. The troops were poorly trained and inexperienced, but for the Germans, it was an infusion of manpower after losses. At the same time, the Germans were gaining strength—the German 15th Army had escaped across the Scheldt estuary, and the British 21st Army Group’s advance was halted by Germany’s Army Group B, which had done a magnificent job of reorganizing.
"The Germans could see that the Allied army extended from southern France to the Netherlands in the north. A successful counteroffensive against such a feeble line of troops could, the Germans felt, force the Allied advance to grind to a halt all along the Western Front."
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"“I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable—and so was Bastogne, and so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any danger spot is tenable if men—brave men—will make it so.”
"—John F. Kennedy"
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"Momentum was with the Allies after the invasion of Normandy as they crossed northern France into Belgium over the summer months. But their rapid progress led to logistical issues as supply lines were stretched thin and supplies were depleted. Also, the troops, fighting their way across Europe, were fatigued. The capture and finally the opening of the port of Antwerp late in November had failed to alleviate the supply problems that the Allies faced.
"Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force General Eisenhower decided that their best option was to hold the Ardennes area, occupied by the 1st Army, with minimal troops. His reasoning was based on the fact that the Ardennes had deep river valleys, was thickly wooded, and had minimal access because of its skimpy network of roads. For that reason, the Allies had limited objectives in that area. Adding to their decision was the intelligence they had received that the German troops were resting across the German border.
"In fact, the Germans were not resting. By this time, the Germans had an advantage in troop numbers, which made it appear that victory was inevitable. However, the youth of the newest recruits revealed the status of Germany’s military readiness this late in the war. The Germans had to stop the Allies here if they had any hopes of maintaining their supremacy, but they were no longer the mighty, invincible force that they had been in 1939. Nonetheless, the Allies did not realize that a struggle was waiting for them.
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"In December, Eisenhower had 48 divisions placed along the 600-mile front that ran from the North Sea to Switzerland. The 28th Infantry Division was assigned to protect Bastogne because of its strategic importance; there were not a lot of ways to access Bastogne, but all the roads met there. The Allied command was confident that, because of the unyielding landscape, a large-scale attack would not be mounted in this area. Although the Allies expected to be attacked, they did not believe the Ardennes to be the target. Nature was a formidable defense, they felt. And that winter saw the Ardennes experiencing the worst weather in several decades, as snow covered the town and the temperatures stayed below zero degrees Fahrenheit for days. Because of the few troops who were billeted in the area, the area was called the “Ghost Front.” In order to help the soldiers who were defending their town, the citizens of Bastogne gave bedding and clothes to ward off the cold.
"Although there were 65 Allied divisions in northeastern Europe, their shortage of supplies and fuel had ground their offensive to a halt. The British and Americans, expecting to wait out the duration of the winter, hoped to build up their supply of fuel so that, when spring came, they could push into Germany."
Shouldn't that be northwestern?
"The weakest spot in the Allied line was the 100 miles from southern Belgium to Luxembourg, where only 60,000 men were in place. General Omar Bradley knew it was what he called a calculated risk: three of the divisions had not seen battle and another three were drained from the nonstop fighting. That was not a ratio for victory but, again, the Americans thought that the remoteness of the Ardennes region would preserve it from attack; therefore, the reasoning went, it didn’t need more troops to defend it. But to the Germans, the dense forests of the region offered an inviting location where forces could build up in strength behind the concealment offered by the trees. Remote though the area was, both sides sought control of Bastogne. The Germans needed to have a route to expand their operations. True, there were risks—the high ground was crossed by deep valleys whose roads would turn into bottlenecks as tanks would seek to advance. But the opportunity was irresistible.
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"Adolf Hitler felt that he could mount a successful major offensive against the Allied forces, which he viewed as inferior to the caliber of soldier his army was fighting on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Red Army. If, Hitler reasoned, he was able to divide the Allied forces, the British and Americans would abandon their alliance with the Soviet Union and consider separate peace terms. By winning on the Western Front, the Germans would have time to manufacture newly designed u-boats, more powerful tanks, and jet aircraft, and send them to the Eastern Front to ultimately defeat the Soviets. The perspective was not a realistic one, as Allied aircraft had proven to be extremely effective and capable of disrupting the German offensives. But the Fuhrer was not one to tolerate disapproval of his battle plans, and his generals could not challenge him.
"Recalling his success with the Battle of France in 1940, Hitler saw that a blitzkrieg attack could once again cripple the Allied fighting ability. Hitler felt that an attack, perhaps as early as late November, would capitalize on the poor weather which would nullify the Allied air advantage. Split the two armies along the American and British lines, capture the port of Antwerp, restart the German victory momentum, and, Hitler felt, he would be able to return his efforts to the Eastern front before starting the Russian winter offensive. Victory for the Third Reich was not out of reach.
"Hitler was also aware of another situation hampering the Allied forces which he believed could turn to his advantage. Eisenhower was dealing with tensions among his commanders as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Lieutenant General Omar Bradley were at odds over which army should have priority in receiving supplies. Hitler hoped he could exploit this disunity. If the attack were to succeed in capturing Antwerp, four Allied armies, without supplies, would be trapped behind the German lines.
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"His commanders were not entirely convinced that his plan would work. German Field Marshals Walter Model and Gerd von Rundstedt thought that because Germany was suffering from limited resources, trying to capture Antwerp would be folly. They did not think that just keeping a defensive strategy would work either; that, they believed, would delay but not prevent defeat. They suggested a less ambitious proposal that did not include crossing the Meuse River, but Hitler refused to heed their advice. In von Rundstedt’s words, voiced after the end of the war, “all, absolutely all conditions for the possible success of such an offensive were lacking.” The two field marshals, despite their reservations, were put in charge of following through with Hitler’s plan. Before launching the attack, Field Marshal Model was blunt, as Model confided to subordinates that Hitler’s plan “hasn’t got a damned leg to stand on.” Moreover, he estimated that the Germans had only ten percent chance of success.
"The Allies were clustered in small groups, in large villages, in forces not of sufficient dimension to sustain an even battle line. Following heavy rains, only one road remained usable as a crossing point. If Bastogne was lost to the Germans, the Nazi advance would continue. In order to prevent this from happening, Eisenhower sent in the cream of the crop, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. The 101st would have to be reinforced by soldiers coming in from other battlefields.
"On December 15, 1944, German soldiers and equipment began to cross the river, forming near the American garrisons. They were hours away from the beginning of the Siege of Bastogne."
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"The German battle plan was to deploy the 5th Panzer Army on the left, breaking through and turning to the northwest to cross the Meuse River. The German 7th Army was to cover the 5th Panzer Army’s left flank. The 6th Panzer Army was to be positioned on the right and shift north, aiming for Antwerp. The intention was to separate the British and the Canadians from their supplies at the northern section of the front and overwhelm them. The German left was to hold off the Americans to the south.
"In addition to the 101st Airborne Division, Bastogne was defended by Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division and the 969th Artillery Battalion, a unit comprised entirely of African-American soldiers. The U.S. military would not officially desegregate for several more years after World War II ended, but the need for troops at the Battle of the Bulge led the military to call upon African-American troops to help. The 333rd and the 969th Field Artillery Battalions, both made up of African-American soldiers, would assist the 101st Airborne defending Bastogne, enduring heavy casualties in their effort.
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"At 5:30 am on December 16, 1944, upon an 80-mile stretch of wooded forest, the German offensive began. It consisted of 250,000 soldiers, 1,000 tanks and assault guns, 1,900 artillery pieces, and 2,000 aircraft providing support. The 14 German infantry divisions and 5 panzer divisions were hurled against 80,000 American troops, many inexperienced, with only 400 artillery guns and 250 pieces of armor for their defense.
"Thick fog overhead had kept the Americans from noticing the movement of the Germans, and because of the hilly terrain, the Americans believed themselves safe from attack. Instead, they would soon be in retreat. Mortars, rockets, and heavy artillery shelling drove the Americans, many of them cooks and clerks, from their beds. After an hour, the firing ceased and giant searchlights were trained on the Americans, blinding them with the strategically placed lights. The German infantry, wearing winter camouflage, came out of the mist, following by Tiger and Panther tanks. Confusion reigned among the Americans. Although many of the troops picked up their weapons to fight back, others were overwhelmed by the onslaught of enemy troops and ran away.
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"At the Supreme Allied Headquarters command, the military leaders did not believe that the battle was at Bastogne. They thought that this was a feint on the part of the Germans before a main attack somewhere else along the lines. Because of the cloudy skies, the Allied scout planes were prevented from getting a clear picture of the extent of the attack, and the reports they received from the ground were inconclusive.
"No one could tell exactly where the Germans were, and the fighting consisted of a series of smaller actions by isolated units. So chaotic was the battlefield that there were instances where U.S. troops were entirely surrounded by the Germans while, only a few miles away, the Americans were defeating German companies. The 106th Golden Lions, an inexperienced unit that had just arrived, was directed to the heavily wooded area of Schnee Eifel. The unit’s commander, Major General Alan Jones, feared that the flanks of his 422nd and 423rd regiments were vulnerable and contacted Lieutenant General Troy Middleton, requesting to withdraw. The telephone connection was poor, and Jones believed, wrongly, that his commanding officer had ordered the troops to stay where they were.
................................................................................................
"With inadequate ammunition and cut off from support, the regiments were quickly surrounded by Germans and had no option but to surrender. General Jones lamented that he had lost a division faster than any other U.S. Army commander, and the loss of 6,500 soldiers would gain the dubious distinction of being one of the largest mass surrenders in American military history during World War II.
"The momentum belonged to the Germans. The battle would go on for three weeks, and the Germans seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of tactics and effective tricks. Hitler had charged an Austrian SS commando named Otto Skorzeny to create an army made of up false Americans. By capturing American military uniforms and vehicles, they were able to use English-speaking Germans to impersonate American soldiers, infiltrate the lines, and sabotage communications. Once behind the lines, the Germans were able to switch road signs, cut communication lines, and build an atmosphere of distrust that led the Americans to fear spies from every direction, although actually only 44 Germans were part of this unit.
"In order to thwart the tactic, the Americans had to develop ways to determine whether other soldiers were friend or foe. The Americans would interrogate soldiers at the checkpoints to challenge them with questions about iconic American points of interest including baseball and pop culture. General Omar Bradley himself was viewed with suspicion, especially when the guard thought that Bradley was wrong when he said Springfield was the capital of Illinois; the soldier believed it was Chicago. Only after being able to answer questions about World War II pin-up girl Betty Grable and football did the sentry let him pass.
................................................................................................
"The Germans employed other methods, more vicious ones, to accomplish their goals. In command of the leading battle formation of the 1st Panzer Division was an SS colonel, Jochen Peiper, age 29, who had been personally chosen by Adolf Hitler as the point person on the Sixth Panzer Army’s mission to capture Antwerp. Peiper, a loyal Nazi, was known for his brilliance in battle as well as for the ruthlessness he had displayed against Italian and Russian civilians. But the American resistance had put Peiper 12 hours behind schedule. The success of the German mission required that they reach the bridges on the Meuse before Allied aircraft could take advantage of clearing skies and retaliate against the tanks and troops. If the Allies were able to block the roads, the Germans faced defeat.
"On December 17, 115 Americans were taken prisoner by SS forces led by Jochen Peiper. Unlike the inexperienced Americans who had seen minimal frontline battle, the SS soldiers came from the Eastern Front, where it was common practice to execute prisoners rather than take them captive.
"When an SS officer raised his pistol and fired into a group of prisoners, terrified Americans began to run. A German machine gun started firing, and the prisoners, screaming, fell to the ground, covering the field in blood and dying soldiers. The SS officers walked through the bodies with their pistols; anyone who seemed to still be alive was shot after the bodies were kicked in the head or the testicles to elicit a response. A witness watched as an SS officer permitted an American medic to bandage a wounded soldier. When he finished, the SS officer shot both men dead.
"Realizing that their only chance of survival was to escape after the machine-gunning stopped, approximately 60 Americans who were still alive rose from the field and ran toward the woods nearby. The Germans fired into the woods but did not pursue them, allowing the Americans to escape into the darkness.
"It would be a month before the 84 bodies of the men who were killed could be recovered because the fighting was so intense in that area. Autopsies revealed that 41 of the men were shot in the head at close range; 9 of the men still had their hands raised in surrender above their heads; the heads of 10 others had been bashed in by rifle butts.
"Upon learning of the massacre, the Americans in the Ardennes were enraged by the slaughter. Although they were inexperienced troops with little battle testing, they were galvanized by the brutality and were determined to fight the enemy. For many, this was a morale boost. For others, it was a call for retribution. When the 328th Infantry was sent out to attack the Germans four days after the massacre, their orders read, “No SS troops or paratroopers will be taken prisoner but will be shot on sight.”"
................................................................................................
" ... The weather continued to batter the troops, and while both sides were affected by it, Field Marshal von Rundstedt later observed that “Weather was a weapon the German army used with success.” With blizzards and freezing rain to deal with, the soldiers were faced with visibility that was nearly zero. As tanks froze to the ground during the night, they had to be chiseled out of the ice in the morning. Wounded soldiers froze to death and many of those who survived suffered from frostbite and trench foot.
"By December 21, Bastogne was surrounded by Germans. Most of the Allied medical personnel had been captured, along with the medical supplies. By the following day, the soldiers were limited to ten rounds of artillery ammunition per gun per day. The Ardennes, which had not been viewed as needing to be defended, was about to be lost to the Germans."
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"“The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units . . . There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note. If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne . . . All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the wellknown American humanity.”
"—German Call to Surrender"
................................................................................................
"It was 11:30 am on December 22, 1944 when four German soldiers wearing shiny black boots and long overcoats approached the members of F Company from the 101st Airborne Division, which had been sent to hold the northern and southern lines on both sides of the Ardennes Forest across Belgium and France.
"The Germans were carrying white flags and informed Private First Class Leo Palma that they wanted to see his commanding officer. Overhearing the exchange, Staff Sergeant Carl Dickinson called the Germans over and was told that they had a written message for the American commander in Bastogne. Dickenson found a member of his platoon, the medic, who spoke German and agreed to translate if translation was needed. But the Germans had brought along a soldier who understood English.
"The Germans had also brought their own blindfolds and donned them. Dickinson and the medic, Ernest Premetz, took the two German officers, Major Wagner of the 47th Panzer Corps, carrying a briefcase, and Lieutenant Hellmuth Henke of the Panzer Lehr Operations Section, to the F Company Command Post, a large foxhole in a wooded area, arriving there by a circuitous route. The two German enlisted men were left behind in the care of soldiers.
"F Company Commander Captain James Adams was notified of the arrival of the Germans, but he then learned that one of the officers had already presented the written message. The message did a bit of traveling up the official channels until it reached Major Alvin Jones, who was told to bring it to division headquarters. While the Germans were kept outside, Acting Chief of Staff Lieutenant Colonel Ned Moore approached Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, who was in his sleeping quarters next to the command center. McAuliffe was awakened to learn from Moore that the Germans had sent officers to take the Americans surrender.
"“Nuts!” McAuliffe replied as he climbed out of his sleeping bag. Moore relayed the brigadier general’s response to the rest of the Division staff. Jones soon arrived with the typewritten sheets of paper from the Germans; one typed in German, one in English. Because the German copy had diacritical marks entered by hand, the Americans realized that the messages had been typed on an English typewriter.
"The message warned the Americans that the forces around Bastogne were encircled by German armored units, with more units crossing the river. The Germans informed the Americans that their only hope of saving their surrounding forces from annihilation was total surrender. If they rejected the German offer, the order to begin firing would be given. They had two hours to decide.
"McAuliffe was furious. Looking at the paper, he said, “Us surrender, aw nuts!” and threw the surrender order to the floor in a fit of temper. McAuliffe dismissed Major Jones and then went to give his congratulations to a unit that had taken out a German roadblock on the western perimeter earlier in the morning. Jones returned to F Company’s Command Post and, after speaking with the German officers, returned to his own regimental headquarters.
"The Germans, who were expected to return to their own lines two hours after the message had been delivered, were waiting for a formal reply. McAuliffe summoned Colonel Joseph Harper to Headquarters. As he waited outside the closed door to McAuliffe’s quarters, the brigadier general inside pondered what response he should send. Division Operations Officer Lieutenant Colonel Harry Kinard replied, “What you said initially would be hard to beat.”
"McAuliffe didn’t remember what he had said, but when the staff reminded him that his first response to the order to surrender had been “Nuts,” McAuliffe agreed that the succinct message suited the occasion and wrote the message on a piece of paper with orders to have it typed up. Dated December 22, 1944, and addressed to the German commander, “NUTS!” was the formal reply from the American commander.
"Harper had not seen the original surrender demand that the Germans had presented. McAuliffe asked him what he thought the response should be. As Harper pondered the answer, wondering what the proper response was, the clerk came in with the typed response. McAuliffe showed it to Harper, who immediately burst into laughter. Harper was charged with the mission of personally delivering the reply to the waiting German officers, with the warning by McAuliffe that he was not to go into the German lines.
................................................................................................
"Driving down to the F Company Command Post, Harper gave German Lieutenant Hellmuth Henker the typed response. Henke asked if “NUTS” was an affirmative or negative response; if affirmative, they were authorized to continue with negotiations. Harper told him that the reply was decidedly not affirmative. He warned the Germans, “If you continue this foolish attack, your losses will be tremendous.”
"The German officers, blindfolded, were driven back to the place where they had arrived. When the blindfolds were removed, the Germans asked the translator Premetz what the reply meant. Translating for Harper, Premetz told the Germans, “Du kannst zum Teufel gehen” or “go to hell” which was not an exact translation of Harper’s message to tell the Germans to “take a flying shit.” Harper said, “If you continue to attack, we will kill every goddamn German that tries to break into this city.”
"Henke answered that the Germans would kill many Americans. Harper replied, “On your way, bud, and good luck to you.” As the Germans departed and saluted, Harper decided to break the language barrier. “If you don’t know what I am talking about, simply go back to your commanding officer and tell him to just plain, ‘Go to Hell.’” The German officer was furious and threw away his blindfold.
"The German officers drove back to their regimental headquarters in Lutrebois and reported in. When they were heading back to Panzer Lehr Headquarters, they gave General von Manteuffel the reply from the Americans. The general said it was time to strike with the artillery, but General von Luttwitz told him that the heavy artillery had been moved to forward positions past Bastogne. Bastogne, von Luttwitz reminded, was not their objective. The 26th Volksgrenadier Division would handle it; the Panzer Lehr Division was to go to Rochefort.
"The battle got underway, and the Allies were able to stand firm until help came. General George S. Patton would award General McAuliffe the Distinguished Service Cross, and his division would receive the first Division Army Distinguished Unit Citation because of their role in defending Bastogne."
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"“[On the Battle of the Bulge] I maintained my contention that it is better to attack with a small force at once, and attain surprise, than it is to wait and lose it.”
"—General George S. Patton"
................................................................................................
"Wars produce legends, and no legend looms larger over World War II than that of George S. Patton. Referring to a seventeenth-century marshal of France, Henri Turenne de la Tour d’Auvergne, who said that God is always on the side of the big battalions, a Belgian war correspondent named Patton the “Turenne” of the armored divisions. That nickname was well deserved, particularly after Patton’s exploits in the Battle of the Bulge, although there was another nickname, “Old Blood and Guts,” that was probably a much more accurate description of the volatile military icon.
"Blunt, controversial, profane, and fearless, George S. Patton was born in 1885 to a family with an ancestral tradition of military service. He was a student at the Virginia Military Institute before attending West Point, from which he graduated in 1910. His military prowess extended to the athletic field as well; he competed in the pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, placing fifth overall. Ironically, considering that he would become a supporter of new military tactics, he fared well in the fencing competition but did poorly in the shooting.
"Patton would prove himself a master of modern warfare tactics and equipment. Whether or not his bad temper and foul mouth were the result of an accident to his skull when he was in his twenties is not known, but whatever the cause, it did not diminish his zeal for battle. He led cavalry patrols against Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1915, and by the following year, he was an aide to General John Pershing, who was the commander of the American Expeditionary Force to Mexico. At the Battle of Columbus, he shot the Mexican leader Julio Cardenas—an exploit that, along with his other attributes, impressed Pershing, who promoted him to captain.
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"A bright, aggressive young officer with an eye for the newest trends in warfare, Patton was the first officer assigned to the tank corps of the American Expeditionary Force. Patton studied the tactics used at the Battle of Cambrai and organized an American tank school in France, teaching Americans to pilot this new weapon of war. He fought at St. Mihiel in September 1918, was wounded at Meuse-Argonne, and earned the Distinguished Service Medal for his leadership in tank warfare.
"After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Patton was put in command of the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions. Late in 1942, he was sent to North Africa. Patton had a succinct explanation of how to be victorious in battle: “We shall attack and attack until we are exhausted, and then we shall attack again.” His skill turned the American forces around and, after a run of losses, the first victory came in March 1943 at the Battle of El Guettar.
................................................................................................
"Given command of the 3rd U.S. Army, he was on his way to Normandy the following year. His command, however, was for a made-up army that was supposed to be getting ready in the event that southeastern England was invaded; this ruse was to confuse German intelligence as a decoy away from the invasion which would take place in Normandy. But fiction turned to reality soon enough when the 1st Army broke the German line, and Patton’s 3rd Army was able to take advantage of the breach and head to northern France in pursuit of the Germans.
"Again, his advice for winning was simple: “Keep on advancing . . . whether we go over, under, or through the enemy.” But the resounding success enjoyed by Patton was a far cry from what the U.S. forces were enduring in December 1944, when the American defenses were penetrated by German troops, cutting off the access roads to Bastogne. On December 19, senior Allied commanders met in Verdun; by then, Bastogne had been under German control for several days. It seemed likely that Bastogne would soon be surrounded by Germans, and the only open corridor would be closed completely as the front shifted. Because of the bitter winter weather, Allied aircraft could not come to the aid of the Americans.
"General Eisenhower, although a realist, could not allow for the possibility of defeat. The Allies, he knew, would have a better chance of defeating the Germans when they were on the offensive. He ordered his commanders to show only cheerful faces. That was no problem for Old Blood and Guts. “Hell, let’s have the guts to let the bastards go all the way to Paris. Then, we’ll really cut ‘em off and chew ‘em up.” Eisenhower wasn’t quite as exuberant as Patton, but he wanted to know how long it would take Patton to turn his 3rd Army north in a counterattack.
"The other generals were dubious when Patton said that he could attack with two divisions within 48 hours. What the others didn’t know was that Patton, before leaving for the meeting, had instructed his staff to devise three contingency plans for coming to the aid of Bastogne. By the time he was sitting with Eisenhower, an action plan was already underway.
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"The odds were not in Patton’s favor. He intended to rotate three divisions in a counterthrust motion at a 90-degree angle to the north. The roads were in terrible condition. The soldiers were exhausted. The weather was miserable. Feeling thwarted, Patton turned to God. He instructed the army chaplain to write a prayer; Patton had the prayer printed on the Christmas cards that he gave to his soldiers.
"“Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.”
"On the back of the card was Patton’s Christmas message to his soldiers. “To each officer and soldier in the United States Third Army, I wish a Merry Christmas. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We march in our might to complete victory. May God’s blessings rest upon each of you on this Christmas Day.”
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"By December 23, the weather was improving as if it had no choice but to give way to the irascible Patton. Allied aircraft took advantage of the improvement to bring supplies to the people and soldiers trapped in Bastogne. On December 26, Patton’s 4th Armored Division broke the siege by cutting through the German lines to the south of Bastogne and joining the American forces. With an opening now available, ambulances were able to take the wounded troops to field hospitals for treatment.
"There was no stopping Patton. Over the course of a ten-day march, Patton’s army crossed the Rhine and headed straight into Germany, capturing 10,000 square miles of territory.
"Perhaps a larger-than-life icon like Patton would have found peace not to his liking. He had admitted in a letter to his wife that when he was not attacking, “I get bilious.” Patton was in Mannheim, Germany in December 1945 when he was involved in a car accident that left him with a broken neck. He died on December 21, 1945."
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"Driving ever deeper into the Ardennes in order to secure the bridgeheads west of the Meuse, the Allied line had begun to resemble an enormous swelling shape, or bulge, which would provide the battle with its name.
"December 23 saw the weather begin to clear, which allowed the Allies to drop ammunition and other supplies, including food, medicine, and blankets, to the besieged troops. From the air, the Allies bombed the German supply lines as P-47 Thunderbolts attacked the Germans who were traveling on the roads. Brought in by military glider, a team of volunteer surgeons turned a tool room into an operating center. Somehow, the Americans were managing to hold onto the perimeter, and the Germans, lacking enough soldiers, decided to attack individual sites on the west side of the perimeter instead of assaulting simultaneously on all sides. Initially, the tanks were able to break the American line, but as the tide turned, the Germans were beaten and their tanks destroyed.
"The Americans struggled to hold their ground. On Christmas Eve Day, the Germans had penetrated 65 miles into the Allied lines. General Montgomery brought his reserves south in order to stop the Germans on the River Meuse while General Bradley, who was in charge of the forces south of the German wedge, sent troops under the command of General Patton to relieve Bastogne. As the weather cleared, 5,000 Allied aircraft sent bombs to strafe the German supply lines. A German advance was stopped before reaching the Meuse, and the bridges at Dinant, Givet, and Namur, which had been held by the British, were about to be taken over by the Americans. Because they had advanced faster than their supply lines, the Germans faced the dire situation of critical shortages of fuel and ammunition. The German officers realized the crisis, and General Hasso von Manteuffel recommended a withdrawal back to the western rampart and a halt to all offensive operations. Hitler rejected the request.
"On Christmas Eve, the U.S. 2nd Armored Division had tried to cut off the 2nd Panzer Division’s spearheads at the Meuse; at the same time, the 4th Cavalry Group occupied the 9th Panzer Division at Marche. When some of the 2nd Panzer Division were cut off, the Panzer-Lehr Division could not relieve them because the Allies were able to hold the perimeter. Those units tried to break free twice but were only partly successful, and lost much of their equipment in the effort to the Allies. Realizing that the Allies were getting stronger, not weaker, the Germans could see that there was no possibility of continuing any offensive action toward the Meuse.
"Patton’s forces had been able to break the siege of Bastogne on December 26. Perhaps no one was more relieved than General McAuliffe when Bastogne was liberated. When the American rescue forces appeared, Captain William Dwight presented himself to McAuliffe, saluted, and asked the general how he was. McAuliffe answered, “Gee, I am mighty glad to see you!”
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"The cold weather that had characterized December in the Ardennes continued. Because of the frigid temperatures in January, the trucks had to run their engines every half hour in order to keep the oil from congealing. But the New Year brought a decidedly more promising start for the Allies, although the Germans began 1945 aggressively by launching two new operations. Operation Baseplate got underway at 9:15 am on January 1 as the Luftwaffe attacked Allied airfields in the Low Countries, damaging or destroying nearly 500 aircraft. But the Luftwaffe paid for their efforts, losing 277 planes; of those losses, 172 were because the Allies had established an unusually high number of flak guns to protect against the German V-1 flying bomb and missile attacks. Friendly fire from German flak guns that had not been alerted to the air attack also contributed to German losses. At one airfield, the Germans lost forty of their planes but damaged only four American planes. The Germans could ill afford such losses, and these ones rendered the Luftwaffe ineffective for the remaining months of the war.
"The second attack, launched by German Army Group G and Army Group Upper Rhine, was sent against the 70-mile line of the 7th U.S. Army. Stretched thin because Eisenhower had ordered the 7th Army to reinforce the Americans forces at the Ardennes, the loss of troops, supplies, and equipment weakened the unit. Operation North Wind, which deliberately set to attack the thinly-stretched line, would be the last major German offensive on the Western Front.
"Eisenhower wanted General Montgomery to go on the counter-offensive on January 1, with the aim of meeting up with Patton’s advancing 3rd Army and cutting off most of the attacking Germans, trapping them in a pocket. It was snowing. Montgomery would not risk his unprepared infantry troops for an area of no strategic importance during a snowstorm and didn’t attack until January 3. By that time, a number of Germans had managed to fall back successfully. However, in doing so, they lost most of their heavy equipment.
................................................................................................
"When the offensive got underway, the 1st and 3rd U.S. Armies were separated by approximately 25 miles. On January 2, German tanks were able to knock out 15 of the American Sherman tanks; most of the German forces were able to withdraw successfully and escape. Once again, however, they were not able to take their equipment with them; this time, it was due to the lack of fuel. On January 7, 1945, Hitler agreed to withdraw all forces from the Ardennes, including the SS-Panzer divisions, thus ending all offensive operations.
"In order to avoid having the forces that they had driven into the Allied front cut off, the Germans had no choice but to withdraw over the course of January 8 through 16, 1945. It had caused much damage, but it had drained the Germans of their strength, preventing them from a sustained resistance.
"The German 1st, 3rd, and 7th Armies had 17,000 soldiers sent to the hospital because of the cold weather. January 25 brought an end to the last major German offensive of World War II."
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"Bastogne, which was central to the events in the Battle of the Bulge, also benefitted from the fact that in early December of 1944, many war correspondents were enjoying some rest in the area. That gave them a front-row seat to the stunning events taking place as the Germans used speed and surprise to surround the poorly defended town. And yet, if not for the dogged fighting by soldiers in the north, in places such as Eisenborn, Monschau-Hofen, and Saint-Vith, the results might not have been so spectacular. Those soldiers would not surrender to the cold, the rain, and the lack of supplies—and ultimately, they did not give way to the Germans.
"The Battle of the Bulge also reminds us that, although the Allies fought on the same side against a mutual enemy, they were not always in accord. The Americans came to detest the arrogant General Montgomery, especially when, during a press conference, he seemed to neglect the American effort in the victory and ascribed the triumph to British efforts. For every British soldier in the Ardennes, there were at least 30 and perhaps 40 American fighting men. The Americans had already begun to counterattack by the time that Montgomery was in command of the 1st and 9th U.S. Armies; his failure to credit the American forces for their contribution required Winston Churchill to make the point, in a speech before Parliament, that the victory of the Battle of the Bulge was an American one.
"The situation had deteriorated so badly that both General Bradley and General Patton threatened to resign if changes were not made in Montgomery’s command. Only intervention from the chiefs of staff for Eisenhower and Montgomery prevented Eisenhower from firing Montgomery. ... "
................................................................................................
"Wars are a lethal enterprise and this was as true for the Battle of the Bulge as for any other of the conflicts that took place during World War II. The U.S. Department of Defense recorded 89,000 casualties—47,000 wounded, 23,000 missing, and 19,000 killed—however, an official report from the Department of the Army records casualties of more than 105,000. For the Americans, the Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest in U.S. history. The British suffered 1,400 casualties which included 200 deaths, numbers which explain the reason for the ire that the American military leaders felt against Montgomery.
"Both sides lost equipment at a devastating rate; in 30 days, the American 3rd Armored Division lost 163 tanks. The Germans lost tanks, too, more than 500 of them. But the results of the combat revealed that the Allies had managed to meet the vaunted German panzer on equal terms, sometimes surpassing them.
"The Germans lost the Battle of the Bulge, but their offensive inflicted significant losses on the Allies and delayed the invasion of Germany by several weeks. In January, Prime Minister Churchill asked Russia’s Premier Stalin to ramp up the pressure on the Eastern Front. The Soviets responded by launching the Vistula-Oder Offensive on January 12 instead of the original January 20 target date, in part because weather, the deciding factor in so many of the events of World War II, predicted a coming thaw. This would have made it harder for the Soviet tanks to have the hard ground they needed for their offensive.
................................................................................................
"At the beginning of February 1945, the lines were approximately where they had been in December the year before and the bulge that gave the battle its name was gone. February saw the Allies launch an attack along the Western Front. Losing men they could not replace, the Luftwaffe ruined, the Germans were out of resources for battle. Although the German offensive that led to the Battle of the Bulge was a desperate effort, the Allies had to fight fiercely to maintain their position. Hitler still believed that his mighty Wehrmacht could win the war, but that view was not shared by many.
"By April, the Soviet Red Army had reached Berlin, and Adolf Hitler took his own life rather than face capture by the Allies. Germany surrendered unconditionally in May, and V-E Day, Victory in Europe, was celebrated on May 8, 1945.
"Wars are fought by the military, but they often have social ramifications which last after the fighting is done. Until World War II, African-Americans who served in the military were used in maintenance or service positions or else they fought in segregated units. But at the Battle of the Bulge, for the first time, African-American troops were integrated. Full integration would not come until 1948, but this milestone was an important one in the still-nascent civil rights movement of America. More than 2,000 African-American men volunteered to serve on the front lines as General Eisenhower needed soldiers to replace those who had been killed. Of that number, 708 of them paid the ultimate price for their patriotism to a country which did not yet award them equality."
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Table of Contents
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Introduction
After the Normandy Invasion
The Siege of Bastogne
The German Infiltration
Nuts!
Old Blood and Guts
The Last Major German Offensive
Conclusion
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REVIEW
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Introduction
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"The Allies named it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The Germans code name was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein or Operation Watch on the Rhine. But the name that stuck, the Battle of the Bulge, came from the newspaper reporters, referring to the salient or bulge, 50 miles wide and 70 miles deep, that the German offensive created in the American lines. The battle, which lasted from December 16, 1944 until January 16, 1945, was the German effort to divide the forces of the United States and Great Britain in France and the Low Countries—thwarting the American hopes of making the port of Antwerp operative to keep their supply lines flowing steadily.
"The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle fought in Europe on the Western Front during World War II. It was a record-breaker for the Americans as well, as the largest battle which the United States Army ever fought in its history. That it ended up being fought at all was due, in great part, to a deadly miscalculation on the part of the Allies, who were convinced that the densely forested Ardennes region would not be attacked by the Germans.
................................................................................................
"Who could blame the Allies for their optimism? After extensive planning, the Normandy invasion had gone well for the Allies. But as the Americans advanced rapidly, they encountered a problem they had not planned for—they were moving too fast and too far ahead of their supply lines. And the Germans weren’t conquered yet.
"The Normandy invasion, while a dire turn of events for the Germans, had a silver lining in a dark cloud. It allowed them to send soldiers to other places where they were needed in order to stave off German defeat. They began their attack with 410,000 men, 2,600 pieces of artillery, 1,600 anti-tank guns, 1,400 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns, and more than 1,000 combat aircraft. Within several weeks, reinforcements would increase their fighting strength to 450,000 soldiers and 1,500 tanks and assault weapons.
"The Americans did not believe that the Germans would choose the Ardennes forest for an attack because of the rough terrain and the hard-to-access roads. American commanders refused to believe reports that the Germans had been active near the Ardennes and disregarded the information from German prisoners who claimed that a major offensive was being planned.
................................................................................................
"Poorly defended, the town of Bastogne became the site of a bloody encounter between the Germans, many of whom had seen battle on the Eastern Front, and the Americans who, except for the 101st Airborne Division which had been sent to defend the area, were inexperienced in combat, many serving as clerks and cooks. The Germans were poised to capitalize on the Allies’ dilemma. They needed to push the front lines of the Allies from the north of France to northwestern Belgium. Their goal was to prevent the Allies from being able to use the port of Antwerp, all while dividing the Allied lines. If the Germans could surround four Allied armies, and if the Western Allies agreed to enter negotiations for peace, the Germans would be free to focus on the Eastern front. Hoping to surprise the Allies, the Germans moved their troops and equipment under darkness and utilized a minimum of radio communication.
"After the battle, German numbers showed that between 63,222 and 125,000 of their soldiers were either wounded in action, missing, or killed. The Americans suffered 89,000 casualties, with more than 8,000 killed. For the Americans, who suffered their second-largest surrender of World War II when more than 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry Division gave themselves up to the Germans at Schnee Eifel, the battle would prove to be a grim milestone. Many of the soldiers, untried in battle, were overwhelmed by the brutality of the fighting and chose to desert. The first American to be executed for desertion since the Civil War, Eddie Slovik, was evidence that General Eisenhower felt that he had to stem the flow of desertions by making an example of Private Slovik.
"The battle has become famous for some of the dramatic events that took place: General McAuliffe’s terse response, “Nuts!” when the Germans called upon him to surrender; General Patton’s bold tactic to swivel his 3rd Army around and come to the rescue of Bastogne; the horrific massacre of American soldiers at Malmedy. But the stolid endurance of the soldiers in the north who, despite the ferocious German attacks, endured the freezing temperatures and the rain, the lack of food and supplies, and stood their ground, impressed the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who later said, “This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.”"
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September 30, 2022 - September 30, 2022.
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Chapter 1. After the Normandy Invasion
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"“The amateurs discuss tactics. The professionals discuss logistics.”
"—Napoleon Bonaparte"
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"The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 was a hard-fought success that created unexpected difficulties that the triumphant Allies had not predicted. On August 15, the Allied forces were landing in southern France at a pace which, while welcome to the French, presented the accelerating forces with logistical problems. The Germans had offered comparatively little resistance to the Allied advance into France, but after Paris was liberated late in August 1944, the Allies took a break to re-organize. This pause gave the Germans time to strengthen their lines, a task they had not previously been able to accomplish while positioned west of Paris.
"Expecting the Germans to use the French rivers to make their defensive stands, the American forces advanced to the Siegfried Line late in September, earlier than they had anticipated. American General Omar Bradley had four more divisions than had originally been under his command, and all his troops had advanced 150 miles farther than the position they had initially targeted. Supply lines were stretched beyond the point where they could be effective, and supplies were rapidly diminishing. The pace of the advance could not be sustained without sufficient military equipment and provisions.
"As a result of the rapid advance and the less-than-expected fighting from the Germans, the Allies were running out of fuel. The Allies were using the Pluto pipeline to pump fuel from Great Britain to Normandy, but the fronts were too far away from the pipelines, and the soldiers were advancing faster than the pipeline could be extended. A storm in the English Channel had destroyed the other Mulberry harbors except for Mulberry A off Omaha Beach. Small harbors such as Isigny, Port-en-Bessin, and Courcelles were used to bring war material over, but the major ports—Calais, Boulogne, Le Havre, and Dunkirk—had either been destroyed in the bombing or were still under German control.
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"Because the railways had been destroyed by the Allies, trucks were used to transport the fuel; the newly-arrived 26th, 95th, and 104th infantry divisions saw their trucks taken from them so that they could be used to bring supplies to the front lines. In order to free trucks for transporting supplies, divisions of the 12th Army Group left all of its heavy artillery and half of the medium artillery behind them, west of the Seine River. The British had 1,500 trucks with engine failure that could not be used to transport supplies, but the British were able to lend four truck companies to the American advance.
"A truck convoy known as the Red Ball Express went into operation on August 25, 1944. At the height of its 86 days of operation, it operated more than 5,000 vehicles which carried over 12,000 tons of supplies a day. The Red Ball Express, which had been developed during a 36-hour meeting to address the urgency of the supply problem, was primarily staffed by African-American soldiers. It remained in operation until the port at Antwerp was opened and ready for cargo and the French railroad lines had been repaired.
"The 6th Army Group was more fortunate; as it advanced from southern France, it received adequate supplies from Toulon and Marseille because the ports had been captured intact and the railway system locally had not suffered as much damage.
"The Allied High Command understood that in order to supply their forces, they needed deep-water ports. Eisenhower’s planning had focused on Cherbourg, Le Havre, and finally Antwerp so that he would be able to send his final 50-division offensive into Germany. Otherwise, the American army could not sustain itself in Central Europe. Antwerp, however, would not be of use to the Allies until the Scheldt estuary could be cleared of the German troops that were there. The Allies had captured Cherbourg, but because the Germans had mined the harbor, it would be months before the port was able to handle the cargo.
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"By mid-September 1944, the Western Allied armies consisted of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery’s Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group in the north, the Franco-American 6th Army Group in the south under the command of Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, and Lieutenant General Omar Bradley’s United States 12th Army Group in the center, all under the leadership of Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Both Montgomery and Bradley were willing to be in charge of direct assaults into Germany. But Eisenhower preferred a plan which enabled the Allies to win territory from the defeated Germans in all sectors so that the Allies could support each other and minimize the problems of supplying the forces that were advancing the greatest distance.
"The Germans still had control of several major ports along the coast of the English Channel. Because the supply lines reached back to Normandy, logistics were a significant problem and would continue to be until Antwerp was back in operation. The port itself had been captured in early September and was almost intact, but the failure of Montgomery’s 21st Army Group to clear the Scheldt estuary of its mines and German troops, which controlled access to Antwerp, prevented the Allies from utilizing it. Montgomery’s delay in clearing the Scheldt estuary gave the German 15th Army the time it needed to strengthen its position on the estuary, which resulted in a months-long delay before Antwerp could be used by the Allies.
"The Allies had been very successful in their efforts to destroy the French railway system after the invasion so that German movement would be crippled, but that success inevitably affected Allied troop moment as well. Restoring the use of the tracks and bridges took time. By early October, the Allies were focusing on improving their supply lines. Major offensives were suspended. In mid-November, all six Allied armies launched a general offensive on the Western Front, but the results failed to match the heavy losses.
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"Some of the problem in providing adequate supplies to the advancing troops was blamed upon bureaucracy. Communications Zone, the American supply organization, had 11,000 people on its staff and may have failed in efforts to expedite delivery; that was how the other American generals viewed the problem. Because COMZ answered to Washington, D.C. and not to Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander didn’t feel that he could use his authority to hasten the supply solutions that General John C.H. Lee, commander of COMZ, was employing. As a result, there were unofficial solutions as some units diverted supplies that were intended for other units.
"The tension over who got the supplies led to in-fighting among the commanders. Who was to get priority access to the supplies? Was it Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery commanding the 21st Army Group composed of British and Canadian troops, or Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, who was in charge of the U.S. 12th Army Group?
"The German effort was feeling the effects of the combined forces of the 21st Army Group. By eliminating the sites that were launching attacks against southern England and then liberating the ports along the northern French coast, Montgomery felt that the supply situation could be alleviated. The plan was firmly opposed by Bradley, no fan of Montgomery, who felt it was time for the Americans to take charge. Under Montgomery’s plan, General George S. Patton’s 3rd Army would have to halt its advance, even though it had traveled the farthest from the Normandy beachhead. At the same time, Eisenhower was hearing from the Washington, D.C. military brass, who wanted a major airborne operation before the war ended. Although both Montgomery and Bradley argued for priority for supply delivery so that their individual armies could advance and pressure the Germans, Eisenhower decided to place the 1st Allied Airborne Army under the 21st Army Group’s command.
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"Operation Market-Garden, which used thousands of aircraft and armored vehicles along with hundreds of thousands of troops to solve the beleaguered supply situation, moved forward. Unfortunately, the effort was a costly failure as the Allies had to abandon their positions once the Germans gained control. It would take the Allies four more months after this horrendous blunder, which was captured in film under the title A Bridge Too Far, before the Allies were able to cross the Rhine River and take control of the Ruhr, the center of Germany’s industrial might. Operation Market Garden was the only major Allied defeat in the Northwest Europe campaign.
"General Bradley, who had opposed the plan from the start, did not neglect Patton during the operation and continued to support his colleague so that his forces would be able to advance to Germany. Patton would play a crucial role in the Battle of the Bulge, showing the enterprise and daring which would ultimately give the Allies victory. But at the onset, victory looked as if it would be won by the Germans.
"The Germans during this time were strengthening their forces with reserves pulled from other sources, including those that had been able to withdraw from France, as well as a new force made up of men from ages 16-60, the home guard or Volkssturm, ordered by Adolf Hitler to defend the homeland. The troops were poorly trained and inexperienced, but for the Germans, it was an infusion of manpower after losses. At the same time, the Germans were gaining strength—the German 15th Army had escaped across the Scheldt estuary, and the British 21st Army Group’s advance was halted by Germany’s Army Group B, which had done a magnificent job of reorganizing.
"The Germans could see that the Allied army extended from southern France to the Netherlands in the north. A successful counteroffensive against such a feeble line of troops could, the Germans felt, force the Allied advance to grind to a halt all along the Western Front."
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September 30, 2022 - September 30, 2022.
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Chapter 2. The Siege of Bastogne
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"“I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable—and so was Bastogne, and so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any danger spot is tenable if men—brave men—will make it so.”
"—John F. Kennedy"
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"Momentum was with the Allies after the invasion of Normandy as they crossed northern France into Belgium over the summer months. But their rapid progress led to logistical issues as supply lines were stretched thin and supplies were depleted. Also, the troops, fighting their way across Europe, were fatigued. The capture and finally the opening of the port of Antwerp late in November had failed to alleviate the supply problems that the Allies faced.
"Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force General Eisenhower decided that their best option was to hold the Ardennes area, occupied by the 1st Army, with minimal troops. His reasoning was based on the fact that the Ardennes had deep river valleys, was thickly wooded, and had minimal access because of its skimpy network of roads. For that reason, the Allies had limited objectives in that area. Adding to their decision was the intelligence they had received that the German troops were resting across the German border.
"In fact, the Germans were not resting. By this time, the Germans had an advantage in troop numbers, which made it appear that victory was inevitable. However, the youth of the newest recruits revealed the status of Germany’s military readiness this late in the war. The Germans had to stop the Allies here if they had any hopes of maintaining their supremacy, but they were no longer the mighty, invincible force that they had been in 1939. Nonetheless, the Allies did not realize that a struggle was waiting for them.
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"In December, Eisenhower had 48 divisions placed along the 600-mile front that ran from the North Sea to Switzerland. The 28th Infantry Division was assigned to protect Bastogne because of its strategic importance; there were not a lot of ways to access Bastogne, but all the roads met there. The Allied command was confident that, because of the unyielding landscape, a large-scale attack would not be mounted in this area. Although the Allies expected to be attacked, they did not believe the Ardennes to be the target. Nature was a formidable defense, they felt. And that winter saw the Ardennes experiencing the worst weather in several decades, as snow covered the town and the temperatures stayed below zero degrees Fahrenheit for days. Because of the few troops who were billeted in the area, the area was called the “Ghost Front.” In order to help the soldiers who were defending their town, the citizens of Bastogne gave bedding and clothes to ward off the cold.
"Although there were 65 Allied divisions in northeastern Europe, their shortage of supplies and fuel had ground their offensive to a halt. The British and Americans, expecting to wait out the duration of the winter, hoped to build up their supply of fuel so that, when spring came, they could push into Germany."
Shouldn't that be northwestern?
"The weakest spot in the Allied line was the 100 miles from southern Belgium to Luxembourg, where only 60,000 men were in place. General Omar Bradley knew it was what he called a calculated risk: three of the divisions had not seen battle and another three were drained from the nonstop fighting. That was not a ratio for victory but, again, the Americans thought that the remoteness of the Ardennes region would preserve it from attack; therefore, the reasoning went, it didn’t need more troops to defend it. But to the Germans, the dense forests of the region offered an inviting location where forces could build up in strength behind the concealment offered by the trees. Remote though the area was, both sides sought control of Bastogne. The Germans needed to have a route to expand their operations. True, there were risks—the high ground was crossed by deep valleys whose roads would turn into bottlenecks as tanks would seek to advance. But the opportunity was irresistible.
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"Adolf Hitler felt that he could mount a successful major offensive against the Allied forces, which he viewed as inferior to the caliber of soldier his army was fighting on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Red Army. If, Hitler reasoned, he was able to divide the Allied forces, the British and Americans would abandon their alliance with the Soviet Union and consider separate peace terms. By winning on the Western Front, the Germans would have time to manufacture newly designed u-boats, more powerful tanks, and jet aircraft, and send them to the Eastern Front to ultimately defeat the Soviets. The perspective was not a realistic one, as Allied aircraft had proven to be extremely effective and capable of disrupting the German offensives. But the Fuhrer was not one to tolerate disapproval of his battle plans, and his generals could not challenge him.
"Recalling his success with the Battle of France in 1940, Hitler saw that a blitzkrieg attack could once again cripple the Allied fighting ability. Hitler felt that an attack, perhaps as early as late November, would capitalize on the poor weather which would nullify the Allied air advantage. Split the two armies along the American and British lines, capture the port of Antwerp, restart the German victory momentum, and, Hitler felt, he would be able to return his efforts to the Eastern front before starting the Russian winter offensive. Victory for the Third Reich was not out of reach.
"Hitler was also aware of another situation hampering the Allied forces which he believed could turn to his advantage. Eisenhower was dealing with tensions among his commanders as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Lieutenant General Omar Bradley were at odds over which army should have priority in receiving supplies. Hitler hoped he could exploit this disunity. If the attack were to succeed in capturing Antwerp, four Allied armies, without supplies, would be trapped behind the German lines.
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"His commanders were not entirely convinced that his plan would work. German Field Marshals Walter Model and Gerd von Rundstedt thought that because Germany was suffering from limited resources, trying to capture Antwerp would be folly. They did not think that just keeping a defensive strategy would work either; that, they believed, would delay but not prevent defeat. They suggested a less ambitious proposal that did not include crossing the Meuse River, but Hitler refused to heed their advice. In von Rundstedt’s words, voiced after the end of the war, “all, absolutely all conditions for the possible success of such an offensive were lacking.” The two field marshals, despite their reservations, were put in charge of following through with Hitler’s plan. Before launching the attack, Field Marshal Model was blunt, as Model confided to subordinates that Hitler’s plan “hasn’t got a damned leg to stand on.” Moreover, he estimated that the Germans had only ten percent chance of success.
"The Allies were clustered in small groups, in large villages, in forces not of sufficient dimension to sustain an even battle line. Following heavy rains, only one road remained usable as a crossing point. If Bastogne was lost to the Germans, the Nazi advance would continue. In order to prevent this from happening, Eisenhower sent in the cream of the crop, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. The 101st would have to be reinforced by soldiers coming in from other battlefields.
"On December 15, 1944, German soldiers and equipment began to cross the river, forming near the American garrisons. They were hours away from the beginning of the Siege of Bastogne."
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September 30, 2022 - September 30, 2022.
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Chapter 3. The German Infiltration
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"The German battle plan was to deploy the 5th Panzer Army on the left, breaking through and turning to the northwest to cross the Meuse River. The German 7th Army was to cover the 5th Panzer Army’s left flank. The 6th Panzer Army was to be positioned on the right and shift north, aiming for Antwerp. The intention was to separate the British and the Canadians from their supplies at the northern section of the front and overwhelm them. The German left was to hold off the Americans to the south.
"In addition to the 101st Airborne Division, Bastogne was defended by Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division and the 969th Artillery Battalion, a unit comprised entirely of African-American soldiers. The U.S. military would not officially desegregate for several more years after World War II ended, but the need for troops at the Battle of the Bulge led the military to call upon African-American troops to help. The 333rd and the 969th Field Artillery Battalions, both made up of African-American soldiers, would assist the 101st Airborne defending Bastogne, enduring heavy casualties in their effort.
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"At 5:30 am on December 16, 1944, upon an 80-mile stretch of wooded forest, the German offensive began. It consisted of 250,000 soldiers, 1,000 tanks and assault guns, 1,900 artillery pieces, and 2,000 aircraft providing support. The 14 German infantry divisions and 5 panzer divisions were hurled against 80,000 American troops, many inexperienced, with only 400 artillery guns and 250 pieces of armor for their defense.
"Thick fog overhead had kept the Americans from noticing the movement of the Germans, and because of the hilly terrain, the Americans believed themselves safe from attack. Instead, they would soon be in retreat. Mortars, rockets, and heavy artillery shelling drove the Americans, many of them cooks and clerks, from their beds. After an hour, the firing ceased and giant searchlights were trained on the Americans, blinding them with the strategically placed lights. The German infantry, wearing winter camouflage, came out of the mist, following by Tiger and Panther tanks. Confusion reigned among the Americans. Although many of the troops picked up their weapons to fight back, others were overwhelmed by the onslaught of enemy troops and ran away.
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"At the Supreme Allied Headquarters command, the military leaders did not believe that the battle was at Bastogne. They thought that this was a feint on the part of the Germans before a main attack somewhere else along the lines. Because of the cloudy skies, the Allied scout planes were prevented from getting a clear picture of the extent of the attack, and the reports they received from the ground were inconclusive.
"No one could tell exactly where the Germans were, and the fighting consisted of a series of smaller actions by isolated units. So chaotic was the battlefield that there were instances where U.S. troops were entirely surrounded by the Germans while, only a few miles away, the Americans were defeating German companies. The 106th Golden Lions, an inexperienced unit that had just arrived, was directed to the heavily wooded area of Schnee Eifel. The unit’s commander, Major General Alan Jones, feared that the flanks of his 422nd and 423rd regiments were vulnerable and contacted Lieutenant General Troy Middleton, requesting to withdraw. The telephone connection was poor, and Jones believed, wrongly, that his commanding officer had ordered the troops to stay where they were.
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"With inadequate ammunition and cut off from support, the regiments were quickly surrounded by Germans and had no option but to surrender. General Jones lamented that he had lost a division faster than any other U.S. Army commander, and the loss of 6,500 soldiers would gain the dubious distinction of being one of the largest mass surrenders in American military history during World War II.
"The momentum belonged to the Germans. The battle would go on for three weeks, and the Germans seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of tactics and effective tricks. Hitler had charged an Austrian SS commando named Otto Skorzeny to create an army made of up false Americans. By capturing American military uniforms and vehicles, they were able to use English-speaking Germans to impersonate American soldiers, infiltrate the lines, and sabotage communications. Once behind the lines, the Germans were able to switch road signs, cut communication lines, and build an atmosphere of distrust that led the Americans to fear spies from every direction, although actually only 44 Germans were part of this unit.
"In order to thwart the tactic, the Americans had to develop ways to determine whether other soldiers were friend or foe. The Americans would interrogate soldiers at the checkpoints to challenge them with questions about iconic American points of interest including baseball and pop culture. General Omar Bradley himself was viewed with suspicion, especially when the guard thought that Bradley was wrong when he said Springfield was the capital of Illinois; the soldier believed it was Chicago. Only after being able to answer questions about World War II pin-up girl Betty Grable and football did the sentry let him pass.
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"The Germans employed other methods, more vicious ones, to accomplish their goals. In command of the leading battle formation of the 1st Panzer Division was an SS colonel, Jochen Peiper, age 29, who had been personally chosen by Adolf Hitler as the point person on the Sixth Panzer Army’s mission to capture Antwerp. Peiper, a loyal Nazi, was known for his brilliance in battle as well as for the ruthlessness he had displayed against Italian and Russian civilians. But the American resistance had put Peiper 12 hours behind schedule. The success of the German mission required that they reach the bridges on the Meuse before Allied aircraft could take advantage of clearing skies and retaliate against the tanks and troops. If the Allies were able to block the roads, the Germans faced defeat.
"On December 17, 115 Americans were taken prisoner by SS forces led by Jochen Peiper. Unlike the inexperienced Americans who had seen minimal frontline battle, the SS soldiers came from the Eastern Front, where it was common practice to execute prisoners rather than take them captive.
"When an SS officer raised his pistol and fired into a group of prisoners, terrified Americans began to run. A German machine gun started firing, and the prisoners, screaming, fell to the ground, covering the field in blood and dying soldiers. The SS officers walked through the bodies with their pistols; anyone who seemed to still be alive was shot after the bodies were kicked in the head or the testicles to elicit a response. A witness watched as an SS officer permitted an American medic to bandage a wounded soldier. When he finished, the SS officer shot both men dead.
"Realizing that their only chance of survival was to escape after the machine-gunning stopped, approximately 60 Americans who were still alive rose from the field and ran toward the woods nearby. The Germans fired into the woods but did not pursue them, allowing the Americans to escape into the darkness.
"It would be a month before the 84 bodies of the men who were killed could be recovered because the fighting was so intense in that area. Autopsies revealed that 41 of the men were shot in the head at close range; 9 of the men still had their hands raised in surrender above their heads; the heads of 10 others had been bashed in by rifle butts.
"Upon learning of the massacre, the Americans in the Ardennes were enraged by the slaughter. Although they were inexperienced troops with little battle testing, they were galvanized by the brutality and were determined to fight the enemy. For many, this was a morale boost. For others, it was a call for retribution. When the 328th Infantry was sent out to attack the Germans four days after the massacre, their orders read, “No SS troops or paratroopers will be taken prisoner but will be shot on sight.”"
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" ... The weather continued to batter the troops, and while both sides were affected by it, Field Marshal von Rundstedt later observed that “Weather was a weapon the German army used with success.” With blizzards and freezing rain to deal with, the soldiers were faced with visibility that was nearly zero. As tanks froze to the ground during the night, they had to be chiseled out of the ice in the morning. Wounded soldiers froze to death and many of those who survived suffered from frostbite and trench foot.
"By December 21, Bastogne was surrounded by Germans. Most of the Allied medical personnel had been captured, along with the medical supplies. By the following day, the soldiers were limited to ten rounds of artillery ammunition per gun per day. The Ardennes, which had not been viewed as needing to be defended, was about to be lost to the Germans."
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September 30, 2022 - September 30, 2022.
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Chapter 4. Nuts!
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"“The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units . . . There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note. If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne . . . All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the wellknown American humanity.”
"—German Call to Surrender"
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"It was 11:30 am on December 22, 1944 when four German soldiers wearing shiny black boots and long overcoats approached the members of F Company from the 101st Airborne Division, which had been sent to hold the northern and southern lines on both sides of the Ardennes Forest across Belgium and France.
"The Germans were carrying white flags and informed Private First Class Leo Palma that they wanted to see his commanding officer. Overhearing the exchange, Staff Sergeant Carl Dickinson called the Germans over and was told that they had a written message for the American commander in Bastogne. Dickenson found a member of his platoon, the medic, who spoke German and agreed to translate if translation was needed. But the Germans had brought along a soldier who understood English.
"The Germans had also brought their own blindfolds and donned them. Dickinson and the medic, Ernest Premetz, took the two German officers, Major Wagner of the 47th Panzer Corps, carrying a briefcase, and Lieutenant Hellmuth Henke of the Panzer Lehr Operations Section, to the F Company Command Post, a large foxhole in a wooded area, arriving there by a circuitous route. The two German enlisted men were left behind in the care of soldiers.
"F Company Commander Captain James Adams was notified of the arrival of the Germans, but he then learned that one of the officers had already presented the written message. The message did a bit of traveling up the official channels until it reached Major Alvin Jones, who was told to bring it to division headquarters. While the Germans were kept outside, Acting Chief of Staff Lieutenant Colonel Ned Moore approached Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, who was in his sleeping quarters next to the command center. McAuliffe was awakened to learn from Moore that the Germans had sent officers to take the Americans surrender.
"“Nuts!” McAuliffe replied as he climbed out of his sleeping bag. Moore relayed the brigadier general’s response to the rest of the Division staff. Jones soon arrived with the typewritten sheets of paper from the Germans; one typed in German, one in English. Because the German copy had diacritical marks entered by hand, the Americans realized that the messages had been typed on an English typewriter.
"The message warned the Americans that the forces around Bastogne were encircled by German armored units, with more units crossing the river. The Germans informed the Americans that their only hope of saving their surrounding forces from annihilation was total surrender. If they rejected the German offer, the order to begin firing would be given. They had two hours to decide.
"McAuliffe was furious. Looking at the paper, he said, “Us surrender, aw nuts!” and threw the surrender order to the floor in a fit of temper. McAuliffe dismissed Major Jones and then went to give his congratulations to a unit that had taken out a German roadblock on the western perimeter earlier in the morning. Jones returned to F Company’s Command Post and, after speaking with the German officers, returned to his own regimental headquarters.
"The Germans, who were expected to return to their own lines two hours after the message had been delivered, were waiting for a formal reply. McAuliffe summoned Colonel Joseph Harper to Headquarters. As he waited outside the closed door to McAuliffe’s quarters, the brigadier general inside pondered what response he should send. Division Operations Officer Lieutenant Colonel Harry Kinard replied, “What you said initially would be hard to beat.”
"McAuliffe didn’t remember what he had said, but when the staff reminded him that his first response to the order to surrender had been “Nuts,” McAuliffe agreed that the succinct message suited the occasion and wrote the message on a piece of paper with orders to have it typed up. Dated December 22, 1944, and addressed to the German commander, “NUTS!” was the formal reply from the American commander.
"Harper had not seen the original surrender demand that the Germans had presented. McAuliffe asked him what he thought the response should be. As Harper pondered the answer, wondering what the proper response was, the clerk came in with the typed response. McAuliffe showed it to Harper, who immediately burst into laughter. Harper was charged with the mission of personally delivering the reply to the waiting German officers, with the warning by McAuliffe that he was not to go into the German lines.
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"Driving down to the F Company Command Post, Harper gave German Lieutenant Hellmuth Henker the typed response. Henke asked if “NUTS” was an affirmative or negative response; if affirmative, they were authorized to continue with negotiations. Harper told him that the reply was decidedly not affirmative. He warned the Germans, “If you continue this foolish attack, your losses will be tremendous.”
"The German officers, blindfolded, were driven back to the place where they had arrived. When the blindfolds were removed, the Germans asked the translator Premetz what the reply meant. Translating for Harper, Premetz told the Germans, “Du kannst zum Teufel gehen” or “go to hell” which was not an exact translation of Harper’s message to tell the Germans to “take a flying shit.” Harper said, “If you continue to attack, we will kill every goddamn German that tries to break into this city.”
"Henke answered that the Germans would kill many Americans. Harper replied, “On your way, bud, and good luck to you.” As the Germans departed and saluted, Harper decided to break the language barrier. “If you don’t know what I am talking about, simply go back to your commanding officer and tell him to just plain, ‘Go to Hell.’” The German officer was furious and threw away his blindfold.
"The German officers drove back to their regimental headquarters in Lutrebois and reported in. When they were heading back to Panzer Lehr Headquarters, they gave General von Manteuffel the reply from the Americans. The general said it was time to strike with the artillery, but General von Luttwitz told him that the heavy artillery had been moved to forward positions past Bastogne. Bastogne, von Luttwitz reminded, was not their objective. The 26th Volksgrenadier Division would handle it; the Panzer Lehr Division was to go to Rochefort.
"The battle got underway, and the Allies were able to stand firm until help came. General George S. Patton would award General McAuliffe the Distinguished Service Cross, and his division would receive the first Division Army Distinguished Unit Citation because of their role in defending Bastogne."
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September 30, 2022 - September 30, 2022.
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Chapter 5. Old Blood and Guts
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"“[On the Battle of the Bulge] I maintained my contention that it is better to attack with a small force at once, and attain surprise, than it is to wait and lose it.”
"—General George S. Patton"
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"Wars produce legends, and no legend looms larger over World War II than that of George S. Patton. Referring to a seventeenth-century marshal of France, Henri Turenne de la Tour d’Auvergne, who said that God is always on the side of the big battalions, a Belgian war correspondent named Patton the “Turenne” of the armored divisions. That nickname was well deserved, particularly after Patton’s exploits in the Battle of the Bulge, although there was another nickname, “Old Blood and Guts,” that was probably a much more accurate description of the volatile military icon.
"Blunt, controversial, profane, and fearless, George S. Patton was born in 1885 to a family with an ancestral tradition of military service. He was a student at the Virginia Military Institute before attending West Point, from which he graduated in 1910. His military prowess extended to the athletic field as well; he competed in the pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, placing fifth overall. Ironically, considering that he would become a supporter of new military tactics, he fared well in the fencing competition but did poorly in the shooting.
"Patton would prove himself a master of modern warfare tactics and equipment. Whether or not his bad temper and foul mouth were the result of an accident to his skull when he was in his twenties is not known, but whatever the cause, it did not diminish his zeal for battle. He led cavalry patrols against Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1915, and by the following year, he was an aide to General John Pershing, who was the commander of the American Expeditionary Force to Mexico. At the Battle of Columbus, he shot the Mexican leader Julio Cardenas—an exploit that, along with his other attributes, impressed Pershing, who promoted him to captain.
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"A bright, aggressive young officer with an eye for the newest trends in warfare, Patton was the first officer assigned to the tank corps of the American Expeditionary Force. Patton studied the tactics used at the Battle of Cambrai and organized an American tank school in France, teaching Americans to pilot this new weapon of war. He fought at St. Mihiel in September 1918, was wounded at Meuse-Argonne, and earned the Distinguished Service Medal for his leadership in tank warfare.
"After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Patton was put in command of the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions. Late in 1942, he was sent to North Africa. Patton had a succinct explanation of how to be victorious in battle: “We shall attack and attack until we are exhausted, and then we shall attack again.” His skill turned the American forces around and, after a run of losses, the first victory came in March 1943 at the Battle of El Guettar.
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"Given command of the 3rd U.S. Army, he was on his way to Normandy the following year. His command, however, was for a made-up army that was supposed to be getting ready in the event that southeastern England was invaded; this ruse was to confuse German intelligence as a decoy away from the invasion which would take place in Normandy. But fiction turned to reality soon enough when the 1st Army broke the German line, and Patton’s 3rd Army was able to take advantage of the breach and head to northern France in pursuit of the Germans.
"Again, his advice for winning was simple: “Keep on advancing . . . whether we go over, under, or through the enemy.” But the resounding success enjoyed by Patton was a far cry from what the U.S. forces were enduring in December 1944, when the American defenses were penetrated by German troops, cutting off the access roads to Bastogne. On December 19, senior Allied commanders met in Verdun; by then, Bastogne had been under German control for several days. It seemed likely that Bastogne would soon be surrounded by Germans, and the only open corridor would be closed completely as the front shifted. Because of the bitter winter weather, Allied aircraft could not come to the aid of the Americans.
"General Eisenhower, although a realist, could not allow for the possibility of defeat. The Allies, he knew, would have a better chance of defeating the Germans when they were on the offensive. He ordered his commanders to show only cheerful faces. That was no problem for Old Blood and Guts. “Hell, let’s have the guts to let the bastards go all the way to Paris. Then, we’ll really cut ‘em off and chew ‘em up.” Eisenhower wasn’t quite as exuberant as Patton, but he wanted to know how long it would take Patton to turn his 3rd Army north in a counterattack.
"The other generals were dubious when Patton said that he could attack with two divisions within 48 hours. What the others didn’t know was that Patton, before leaving for the meeting, had instructed his staff to devise three contingency plans for coming to the aid of Bastogne. By the time he was sitting with Eisenhower, an action plan was already underway.
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"The odds were not in Patton’s favor. He intended to rotate three divisions in a counterthrust motion at a 90-degree angle to the north. The roads were in terrible condition. The soldiers were exhausted. The weather was miserable. Feeling thwarted, Patton turned to God. He instructed the army chaplain to write a prayer; Patton had the prayer printed on the Christmas cards that he gave to his soldiers.
"“Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.”
"On the back of the card was Patton’s Christmas message to his soldiers. “To each officer and soldier in the United States Third Army, I wish a Merry Christmas. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We march in our might to complete victory. May God’s blessings rest upon each of you on this Christmas Day.”
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"By December 23, the weather was improving as if it had no choice but to give way to the irascible Patton. Allied aircraft took advantage of the improvement to bring supplies to the people and soldiers trapped in Bastogne. On December 26, Patton’s 4th Armored Division broke the siege by cutting through the German lines to the south of Bastogne and joining the American forces. With an opening now available, ambulances were able to take the wounded troops to field hospitals for treatment.
"There was no stopping Patton. Over the course of a ten-day march, Patton’s army crossed the Rhine and headed straight into Germany, capturing 10,000 square miles of territory.
"Perhaps a larger-than-life icon like Patton would have found peace not to his liking. He had admitted in a letter to his wife that when he was not attacking, “I get bilious.” Patton was in Mannheim, Germany in December 1945 when he was involved in a car accident that left him with a broken neck. He died on December 21, 1945."
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September 30, 2022 - October 01, 2022.
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Chapter 6. The Last Major German Offensive
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"Driving ever deeper into the Ardennes in order to secure the bridgeheads west of the Meuse, the Allied line had begun to resemble an enormous swelling shape, or bulge, which would provide the battle with its name.
"December 23 saw the weather begin to clear, which allowed the Allies to drop ammunition and other supplies, including food, medicine, and blankets, to the besieged troops. From the air, the Allies bombed the German supply lines as P-47 Thunderbolts attacked the Germans who were traveling on the roads. Brought in by military glider, a team of volunteer surgeons turned a tool room into an operating center. Somehow, the Americans were managing to hold onto the perimeter, and the Germans, lacking enough soldiers, decided to attack individual sites on the west side of the perimeter instead of assaulting simultaneously on all sides. Initially, the tanks were able to break the American line, but as the tide turned, the Germans were beaten and their tanks destroyed.
"The Americans struggled to hold their ground. On Christmas Eve Day, the Germans had penetrated 65 miles into the Allied lines. General Montgomery brought his reserves south in order to stop the Germans on the River Meuse while General Bradley, who was in charge of the forces south of the German wedge, sent troops under the command of General Patton to relieve Bastogne. As the weather cleared, 5,000 Allied aircraft sent bombs to strafe the German supply lines. A German advance was stopped before reaching the Meuse, and the bridges at Dinant, Givet, and Namur, which had been held by the British, were about to be taken over by the Americans. Because they had advanced faster than their supply lines, the Germans faced the dire situation of critical shortages of fuel and ammunition. The German officers realized the crisis, and General Hasso von Manteuffel recommended a withdrawal back to the western rampart and a halt to all offensive operations. Hitler rejected the request.
"On Christmas Eve, the U.S. 2nd Armored Division had tried to cut off the 2nd Panzer Division’s spearheads at the Meuse; at the same time, the 4th Cavalry Group occupied the 9th Panzer Division at Marche. When some of the 2nd Panzer Division were cut off, the Panzer-Lehr Division could not relieve them because the Allies were able to hold the perimeter. Those units tried to break free twice but were only partly successful, and lost much of their equipment in the effort to the Allies. Realizing that the Allies were getting stronger, not weaker, the Germans could see that there was no possibility of continuing any offensive action toward the Meuse.
"Patton’s forces had been able to break the siege of Bastogne on December 26. Perhaps no one was more relieved than General McAuliffe when Bastogne was liberated. When the American rescue forces appeared, Captain William Dwight presented himself to McAuliffe, saluted, and asked the general how he was. McAuliffe answered, “Gee, I am mighty glad to see you!”
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"The cold weather that had characterized December in the Ardennes continued. Because of the frigid temperatures in January, the trucks had to run their engines every half hour in order to keep the oil from congealing. But the New Year brought a decidedly more promising start for the Allies, although the Germans began 1945 aggressively by launching two new operations. Operation Baseplate got underway at 9:15 am on January 1 as the Luftwaffe attacked Allied airfields in the Low Countries, damaging or destroying nearly 500 aircraft. But the Luftwaffe paid for their efforts, losing 277 planes; of those losses, 172 were because the Allies had established an unusually high number of flak guns to protect against the German V-1 flying bomb and missile attacks. Friendly fire from German flak guns that had not been alerted to the air attack also contributed to German losses. At one airfield, the Germans lost forty of their planes but damaged only four American planes. The Germans could ill afford such losses, and these ones rendered the Luftwaffe ineffective for the remaining months of the war.
"The second attack, launched by German Army Group G and Army Group Upper Rhine, was sent against the 70-mile line of the 7th U.S. Army. Stretched thin because Eisenhower had ordered the 7th Army to reinforce the Americans forces at the Ardennes, the loss of troops, supplies, and equipment weakened the unit. Operation North Wind, which deliberately set to attack the thinly-stretched line, would be the last major German offensive on the Western Front.
"Eisenhower wanted General Montgomery to go on the counter-offensive on January 1, with the aim of meeting up with Patton’s advancing 3rd Army and cutting off most of the attacking Germans, trapping them in a pocket. It was snowing. Montgomery would not risk his unprepared infantry troops for an area of no strategic importance during a snowstorm and didn’t attack until January 3. By that time, a number of Germans had managed to fall back successfully. However, in doing so, they lost most of their heavy equipment.
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"When the offensive got underway, the 1st and 3rd U.S. Armies were separated by approximately 25 miles. On January 2, German tanks were able to knock out 15 of the American Sherman tanks; most of the German forces were able to withdraw successfully and escape. Once again, however, they were not able to take their equipment with them; this time, it was due to the lack of fuel. On January 7, 1945, Hitler agreed to withdraw all forces from the Ardennes, including the SS-Panzer divisions, thus ending all offensive operations.
"In order to avoid having the forces that they had driven into the Allied front cut off, the Germans had no choice but to withdraw over the course of January 8 through 16, 1945. It had caused much damage, but it had drained the Germans of their strength, preventing them from a sustained resistance.
"The German 1st, 3rd, and 7th Armies had 17,000 soldiers sent to the hospital because of the cold weather. January 25 brought an end to the last major German offensive of World War II."
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October 01, 2022 - October 01, 2022.
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Conclusion
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"Bastogne, which was central to the events in the Battle of the Bulge, also benefitted from the fact that in early December of 1944, many war correspondents were enjoying some rest in the area. That gave them a front-row seat to the stunning events taking place as the Germans used speed and surprise to surround the poorly defended town. And yet, if not for the dogged fighting by soldiers in the north, in places such as Eisenborn, Monschau-Hofen, and Saint-Vith, the results might not have been so spectacular. Those soldiers would not surrender to the cold, the rain, and the lack of supplies—and ultimately, they did not give way to the Germans.
"The Battle of the Bulge also reminds us that, although the Allies fought on the same side against a mutual enemy, they were not always in accord. The Americans came to detest the arrogant General Montgomery, especially when, during a press conference, he seemed to neglect the American effort in the victory and ascribed the triumph to British efforts. For every British soldier in the Ardennes, there were at least 30 and perhaps 40 American fighting men. The Americans had already begun to counterattack by the time that Montgomery was in command of the 1st and 9th U.S. Armies; his failure to credit the American forces for their contribution required Winston Churchill to make the point, in a speech before Parliament, that the victory of the Battle of the Bulge was an American one.
"The situation had deteriorated so badly that both General Bradley and General Patton threatened to resign if changes were not made in Montgomery’s command. Only intervention from the chiefs of staff for Eisenhower and Montgomery prevented Eisenhower from firing Montgomery. ... "
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"Wars are a lethal enterprise and this was as true for the Battle of the Bulge as for any other of the conflicts that took place during World War II. The U.S. Department of Defense recorded 89,000 casualties—47,000 wounded, 23,000 missing, and 19,000 killed—however, an official report from the Department of the Army records casualties of more than 105,000. For the Americans, the Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest in U.S. history. The British suffered 1,400 casualties which included 200 deaths, numbers which explain the reason for the ire that the American military leaders felt against Montgomery.
"Both sides lost equipment at a devastating rate; in 30 days, the American 3rd Armored Division lost 163 tanks. The Germans lost tanks, too, more than 500 of them. But the results of the combat revealed that the Allies had managed to meet the vaunted German panzer on equal terms, sometimes surpassing them.
"The Germans lost the Battle of the Bulge, but their offensive inflicted significant losses on the Allies and delayed the invasion of Germany by several weeks. In January, Prime Minister Churchill asked Russia’s Premier Stalin to ramp up the pressure on the Eastern Front. The Soviets responded by launching the Vistula-Oder Offensive on January 12 instead of the original January 20 target date, in part because weather, the deciding factor in so many of the events of World War II, predicted a coming thaw. This would have made it harder for the Soviet tanks to have the hard ground they needed for their offensive.
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"At the beginning of February 1945, the lines were approximately where they had been in December the year before and the bulge that gave the battle its name was gone. February saw the Allies launch an attack along the Western Front. Losing men they could not replace, the Luftwaffe ruined, the Germans were out of resources for battle. Although the German offensive that led to the Battle of the Bulge was a desperate effort, the Allies had to fight fiercely to maintain their position. Hitler still believed that his mighty Wehrmacht could win the war, but that view was not shared by many.
"By April, the Soviet Red Army had reached Berlin, and Adolf Hitler took his own life rather than face capture by the Allies. Germany surrendered unconditionally in May, and V-E Day, Victory in Europe, was celebrated on May 8, 1945.
"Wars are fought by the military, but they often have social ramifications which last after the fighting is done. Until World War II, African-Americans who served in the military were used in maintenance or service positions or else they fought in segregated units. But at the Battle of the Bulge, for the first time, African-American troops were integrated. Full integration would not come until 1948, but this milestone was an important one in the still-nascent civil rights movement of America. More than 2,000 African-American men volunteered to serve on the front lines as General Eisenhower needed soldiers to replace those who had been killed. Of that number, 708 of them paid the ultimate price for their patriotism to a country which did not yet award them equality."
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October 01, 2022 - October 01, 2022.
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Battle of the Bulge - World War II:
A History From Beginning to End
(World War 2 Battles)
Hourly History
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September 30, 2022 - September 30, 2022.
Purchased September 30, 2022.
ASIN:- B07JGB88VY
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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5017692260
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