The Battle of the Ardennes
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Historical Introduction
The Allied landing in Normandy on 6 June, 1944 was a psychological defeat for the German Army. With a minimum loss of human life, within a couple of days the Allies had successfully achieved a massive landing of about 150,000 men. Within a month after the landing, almost a million Allied soldiers were fighting in Normandy. Then began the lightning breakthrough, first across France and then across Belgium.
In the centre was the 1st US Army of General Hodges, on his right the 3rd US Army commanded by General Patton, and on his left the 2nd British Army headed by General Dempsey. Paris was liberated at the end of August; Tournai, Brussels and Antwerp were liberated by British troops in early September; Mons, Namur, Liège and the Ardennes by American divisions during the month of September. After a hasty retreat, the German units established their defences behind the Siegfried Line. The 1st Army of Hodges succeeded in capturing Aachen, while the 3rd Army of Patton prepared to invade the Saarland. Between the two fronts, considering that the difficult terrain and the wintry conditions would dissuade the German Army from launching an attack in the Ardennes, General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), decided to “play for time” and to take the calculated risk of weakening the sector. Consequently, the Ardennes was considered as a sector to which the American divisions would go to re-form.
Meanwhile, the American President Roosevelt was thinking about the Yalta Conference with Stalin that, in February ’45, would split Europe into two zones of influence. Moreover, differences of strategy existed between the American and British High Commands, Eisenhower wishing to invade Germany from the whole length of the front line, and Montgomery demanding a lightning breakthrough to Berlin from the Netherlands.
The German High Command took advantage of this respite to draw up plans for a large-scale offensive. These were to strike through the Ardennes, cross the River Meuse, re-take the city of Antwerp and its port infrastructure in order to prevent the transport of troop reinforcements and fresh supplies of fuel, ammunition and food for the Allied armies, to isolate the British Army from the American Army, to force one or both to capitulate and thus obtain the signature of a separate peace on the western front. The German Army could then be transferred to the eastern front to halt the progression of the Russian Army.
However, the success of the offensive would depend on several factors: low and long-lasting cloud cover to prevent the intervention of Allied aircraft, a rapid initial breakthrough with the capture of Allied fuel dumps, the control of important crossroads, and subsequently the widening of the breach.
According to the plans determined by the German High Command, the “main effort” of the offensive was to be ensured by the 6th Panzer Army of Sepp Dietrich that would have to cross the Elsenborn ridges and cross the River Meuse between Huy and Liège. The 5th Panzer Army commanded by General Baron Hasso Von Manteuffel was given the tasks of capturing important crossroads at Saint Vith and Bastogne, crossing the River Meuse between Dinant and Andenne, and advancing towards Antwerp via Brussels.
The northern flank of the offensive would be covered by the 15th Army of von Zangen. On the southern flank the 7th Army of General Brandenberger would have to face any possible counter-attack by General Patton and his 3rd US Army.
In order to create confusion, specially trained groups were to create mistrust and suspicion among the American troops. These groups were the commandos of Colonel Otto Skorzeny, dressed in American uniforms and using captured GI equipment, who were to seize the bridges of Huy and Amay in order to ensure the crossing of the German armoured columns.
To oppose any American reinforcements coming from the north and moving towards the combat zone, it was foreseen that Colonel Von der Heydte and his 800 parachutists would drop onto the Haute-Fagnes (peat bogs in the Ardennes hills) and control the crossroads at Baraque Michel.
By night, observing radio silence, by road and rail, over days and even weeks, the German High Command brought in and deployed from Monschau to Echternach around 250,000 men and 600 tanks and assault guns, as well as 1,900 guns.
After several successive postponements, it was finally on 16 December 1944, at 0530 in the morning, in the cold and fog, over a front of 125 km (78 miles), that the German offensive began, code-named ‘Wacht am Rhein’ (Rhine Guard) and which was later called the ‘Battle of the Ardennes’ or the ‘Battle of the Bulge’.
A heavy artillery barrage pounded the American forward positions, followed by the infantry onslaught and the breakthrough by the armoured columns.
So began the rush towards the River Meuse by the 6th Armoured Army of Dietrich, formed in particular by the 1st Panzer SS ‘Leibstandarte Adolph Hitler’, the 12th Panzer SS ‘Hitler Jugend’, the 2nd Panzer SS ‘Das Reich’, and the 9th Panzer SS ‘Hohenstaufen’, as well as the Volksgrenadier Division. At the same time, the 5th Armoured Army, commanded by General Hasso-Eccard von Manteuffel, moved towards the River Meuse with its Panzer Lehr Division, the 2nd and 116th Panzer Division, supported by Volksgrenadier Division.
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It was a total surprise for the Americans of the 2nd and 99th Infantry of General Gerow’s V Corps and the 106th, 28th and 4th Infantries, as well as units of the 9th Armoured of General Middleton’s VIII Corps, around 80,000 men. The units were shattered and defences penetrated at several points, but resistance was organised.
With regard to the British troops based in the Netherlands, they were in training for their forthcoming campaigns on German soil, while already thinking about the approaching Christmas.