The Ardennes, 1944-1945: Hitler's Winter OffensiveA comprehensive, photo-filled account of the six-week-long Battle of the Bulge, when panzers slipped through the forest and took the Allies by surprise. In December 1944, just as World War II appeared to be winding down, Hitler shocked the world with a powerful German counteroffensive that cracked the center of the American front. The attack came through the Ardennes, the hilly and forested area in eastern Belgium and Luxembourg that the Allies had considered a “quiet” sector. Instead, for the second time in the war, the Germans used it as a stealthy avenue of approach for their panzers. Much of US First Army was overrun, and thousands of prisoners were taken as the Germans forged a fifty-mile “bulge” into the Allied front. But in one small town, Bastogne, American paratroopers, together with remnants of tank units, offered dogged resistance. Meanwhile, the rest of Eisenhower’s “broad front” strategy came to a halt as Patton, from the south, and Hodges, from the north, converged on the enemy incursion. Yet it would take an epic, six-week-long winter battle, the bloodiest in the history of the US Army, before the Germans were finally pushed back. Christer Bergström has interviewed veterans, gone through huge amounts of archive material, and performed on-the-spot research in the area. The result is a large amount of previously unpublished material and new findings, including reevaluations of tank and personnel casualties and the most accurate picture yet of what really transpired from the perspectives of both sides. With nearly four hundred photos, numerous maps, and thirty-two superb color profiles of combat vehicles and aircraft, it provides perhaps the most comprehensive look at the battle yet published. |
Contents
| 10 | |
| 14 | |
| 15 | |
| 19 | |
| 31 | |
| 47 | |
Panzer March Towards the Meuse | 73 |
Secure the flank | 157 |
Nuts | 263 |
New Blows against the Allies | 325 |
Renewed German Attacks | 339 |
The Bloody Final Battle | 379 |
Final Conclusions and Results | 415 |
Acknowledgments | 429 |
Appendices | 430 |
Chapter Notes | 469 |
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Common terms and phrases
11th Armored 16 December 23 December 28th Infantry Division 3rd Armored Division 7th Armored Division Action Report advance Air Force Airborne Division aircraft anti-tank guns Archives and Records Ardennes Battle Ardennes Offensive Armeekorps Army’s assault attack aviation Bastogne bombers bombs captured Colonel Company Corps east Eisenhower enemy Fallschirmjäger-Regiment Field Artillery Battalion Fighter Group fighter-bombers fighting fire flank forest Führer Begleit Brigade German German soldiers German tanks Grenadier Grenadier-Regiment headquarters heavy Heeresgruppe Hitler Houffalize Ibid Infantry Division Infantry Division’s January Kampfgruppe Lieutenant losses Luftwaffe machine guns Major Manteuffel Meuse military Montgomery NARA National Archives northeast Oberst operations Panther Panther tanks Panzer IVs Panzer Lehr Panzer-Division Panzerarmee paratroopers Patton Peiper platoon positions reconnaissance Records Administration River road Sankt Vith Sherman side southwest SS-Kampfgruppe SS-Panzer-Division Tank Battalion Tank Destroyer Battalion tank destroyers Task Force troops U.S. Army units vehicles VIII Corps village Volksgrenadier Volksgrenadier-Division Western Front