It is the Summer of 1944 and despite the fact that the Allies have managed to get a strong
foothold in Western Europe, Germany is still resisting, and World War II is far from over.
In the hopes of inflicting heavy casualties on the allied troops and changing the flow
of the war, Hitler’s army would concentrate its forces for a decisive counterattack. This
would be later known as the Battle of the Bulge or the Ardennes Counteroffensive. If
you are interested in the history of this era, don’t forget to check out our second
channel – The Cold War – the link is in the top right corner.
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coins and a protective shield! Allied landings in France in the Summer of
1944 put the German armies under even more difficult conditions. From the East, the Soviet
army was rapidly advancing towards Germany, and expelling the German armies from Eastern
Europe. In the Balkans, Greek and Yugoslavian resistance was very successful, and the Nazi
armies were expelled from Greece by late October 1944. Yugoslavian resistance retook the capital,
Belgrade, in October, and by the beginning of the Winter of 1944 liberated Serbia, Montenegro,
and Macedonia, along with the majority of the Dalmatian coast.
In Italy, by the end of 1944 the Allied Forces advanced as far north as Florence. Most of
France and Belgium, and part of the Netherlands, were liberated by September 1944. At the time
when Germany was at the brink of collapse, Hitler came up with an operation to defeat
the Allies in France, force them to sign a separate peace agreement with Germany, and
make a last-ditch attempt to focus all its defenses against the Soviet Union instead
of fighting on a number of fronts. Despite the allied victories, they had a number
of problems during their confrontation with the Germans. First, the Allied troops were
exhausted from non-stop fighting since the landing. Second, the Allied forces experienced
significant problems with supplies. At the time the Allied forces needed numerous deep-water
ports to meet their supply needs, but only had Cherbourg and Antwerp, which were thoroughly
damaged and inoperational for a while. The Germans aimed to wait for bad weather,
which would negate the Allied dominance in air support, and strike through the dense
Ardennes forest between the lines of the Ninth and First armies. Then they would force the
Meuse River in two days, take Antwerp, encircle the 21st Army group, and force the Allied
armies to surrender. The Allies had their thinnest lines in the Ardennes forest, since
it was deemed to be the naturally most protected part of the frontline.
At the beginning of the battle the Germans had a numerical advantage against the allies,
with more than 400k men vs. 230k men, 557 tanks vs. 483, along with a strong advantage
in anti-tank weaponry. Throughout the Ardennes Offensive, the Nazi advantage would evaporate
in all parameters. The 12th, 21st and 6th Army Groups were involved in this battle on
the Allied side, and stood against Army Group B (the 5th and 6th Panzer Armies and the 7th
Army) commanded by Field Marshal Model. On December 16th, following a massive artillery
barrage, 18 German divisions started to attack throughout the frontline, with an aim to secure
the key road junctions as soon as possible, and allow 5 Panzer divisions to rapidly advance
towards River Meuse. A snowstorm negated the American air support, and caught them completely
unprepared for a German attack. In the beginning of the battle only 6 American
divisions and one more army unit opposed them on a 60-mile-long frontline. In the center
the 18th Volksgrenadieren division attacked the inexperienced 106th American division
around St.Vith, and managed to encircle two of its regiments. Up North, a single platoon
of the US 99th division, consisting of 22 men, was able to hold off repeated attacks
by around 500 German infantrymen. They effectively halted the advance of the 1st SS Panzer Division
for a day, while killing 92 German soldiers, before having to surrender.
This was followed by the advance of Kampfgruppe Peiper, the spearhead of the Sixth Panzer
Army. They defeated a small American unit and 150 captured men, 84 of whom were massacred
in Malmedi. This news spread quickly among the American soldiers and strengthened their
resolve to fight. Kampfgruppe Peiper was stopped at La Gleize by the 82nd Airborne Division
and was pushed back, which was the first successful Allied counter-offensive of the Ardennes campaign.
In the South, the German troops were ordered to force the River Our and capture the key
road juncture at Bastogne. The spearhead Panzer divisions of the 5th Army, 2nd Panzer division
and Panzer Lehr division attacked the US 28th division, and forced it to withdraw westwards
following fierce resistance. It was of utmost importance for the Allies to halt the German
advance and stop them from capturing Bastogne. With the defeat of the 106th division around
St Vith too, the center of the Allied front was in grave danger.
The Allied commander, Eisenhower ordered elements of the 9th and 10th armored divisions, and
the 101st Airborne division, to hold Bastogne. Across the Ardennes 60,000 troops were moved
to different positions to halt the German advance, reaching them on the 18-19th of December.
The German troops ordered to take Bastogne were sure that they would arrive in Bastogne
first, thus decided to clear out Longvilly village to the Northeast of Bastogne.
On the morning of the 20th, the Germans started attacking American positions at Bastogne defended
by the 101st Airborne Division, the all African American 969th Artillery Battalion, and Combat
Command B of the 10th Armored Division. By the 21st of December, Bastogne was surrounded
by the Germans. Both 2nd Panzer and the Panzer-Lehr division moved forward from Bastogne after
December 21st, and were joined by the 116th Panzer division, which had reached the River
Our at Hotton on December 21st, leaving only the Panzer-Lehr division's 901st Regiment
to assist the 26th Volksgrenadier-Division in attempting to capture the crossroads.
The US 3rd armored and 84th divisions confronted the 116th Panzer division and halted its progress.
By December 23rd, the Panzer-Lehr division was at the outskirts of Rochefort, while the
2nd Panzer division advanced to Celles, 5 miles from the River Meuse crossing at Dinant.
Over the following days these two divisions prepared to advance despite lack of infantry
support, but at last there was a clear sky, which allowed the Allied air force to demonstrate
its air domination over the Luftwaffe. Their fierce bombardment of the supply lines,
particularly fuel transportation, forced the 116th Panzer division to go on an offensive,
and the 2nd Panzer division stalled in Celles. The Panzer-Lehr’s success in capturing Rochefort
did not do much to change the overall outcome. By Christmas Day it was clear that the 5th
Panzer Army’s advance through the Central front of the Ardennes would be unsuccessful.
Hitler ordered on Christmas Eve for the troops encircling Bastogne to make final attempt
to take the city. They made their main assault the next day. The assault, despite initial
success by its tanks in penetrating the American line, was defeated, and all the tanks were
destroyed. On the following day, the spearhead of Gen. Patton's 3rd Army’s 4th Armored
Division, supplemented by the 26th (Yankee) Infantry Division, broke through and opened
a corridor to Bastogne. To the North Germans were halted at Noville with two American infantry
battalions holding the entire 2nd Panzer division for 2 days.
The town of St.Vith and the road junctures around it were also protected by the Americans,
with the 7th armored division stopping the German advance. Up North along the Eisenborn
Ridge, Hitler placed his most trusted and experienced units in the offensive. The 6th
Panzer Army included the elite of the Waffen-SS, including four Panzer divisions and five infantry
divisions in three corps. But the 10-day long resistance by the Americans did not allow
the elite German units to advance westwards towards the River Meuse.
It was becoming increasingly clear that the Germans’ last attempt to defeat the Allied
forces in the Western Europe was destined to fail. Nevertheless, on the 1st of January
1945, the Luftwaffe launched on attack on the Allied airbases in Benelux and managed
to damage 465 Allied airplanes, making them inoperational, but lost 277 of its own planes
in the process, which ultimately left the Luftwaffe ineffective for the rest of the
war. On the same day, German Army Group G and Army
Group Upper Rhine launched a major offensive against the thinly-stretched, 110 kilometers
line of the Seventh U.S. Army, which was able to halt the German attack. By January 25th
the Germans ceased their offensive. All German units were back at their pre-Ardennes campaign
positions on January 25th. This campaign was one of the bloodiest confrontations
of the Western Front of the Second World War, and led to 89k casualties for the Allies,
and between 67k and 84k casualties for the Germans, who also lost approximately 600 tanks
in this offensive. With the German panzer forces and Luftwaffe being annihilated as
a force, Germany’s ability to offer systematic resistance to the Allies was diminished. Their
lack of the resources needed to replenish their manpower and armoured forces, meant
that Germany was on the brink of occupation by the Americans and British from the West,
and the Soviets from the East.
We are planning to cover more modern conflicts both on Kings and Generals and our second
channel The Cold War – the link to which you can find in the description or in the
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