Battle of the Bulge
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| The Battle of the Bulge | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | World War II | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 16, 1944 – January 15, 1945 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | The Ardennes | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | American victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Ardennes Offensive, popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge, was the last major German offensive on the Western Front in World War II. It was intended that the German army would split the Allied line in half, capture Antwerp, sweep north and encircle and destroy four Allied armies, thus forcing them to negotiate for peace.
Although unsuccessful, it nevertheless tied down huge Allied resources and a slow response to the resulting gap in their lines erased months from their timetable. An alternative analysis is that the offensive allowed the Allies to destroy the cream of the German army outside the defenses of the West Wall and in poor supply state, greatly easing the assault on Germany afterward. In numerical terms, it is the largest battle the United States Army has ever fought.
Background
The breakout from Normandy in August 1944 saw the Allies dash across France at unprecedented speeds. However, few usable port facilities were captured. The Germans made sure to wreck any ports thoroughly before they fell to the Allies. Realizing this, the Allies attempted to take the great port of Antwerp by surprise (thus allowing the port to be captured intact). In part, Operation Market Garden was intended to secure the Dutch ports, as well as bypass the Siegfried Line; although it was largely successful, Operation Market Garden failed at the final hurdle, the bridge over the Rhine in Arnhem.
By the time the Allies reached the German border, the supply situation was quite grim. The Allied trucking system across France, the so-called Red Ball Express, was simply inadequate. Eventually, the Canadian First Army did get enough supplies to move forward, clear the Westerschelde and open Antwerp to shipping. This stabilized the situation, with the battle lines approximately at the 1939 German border, and the terrible supply problems the Allies were experiencing started to ease.
At about this time, Operation Bagration—a massive Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front—burnt itself out in eastern Poland and the war paused.
A massive German counter-attack in the West had been in planning since July. It was decided that the German army would strike through the Ardennes, as they had four years earlier in the Battle of France. They would split the Allied lines, drive northwest to the Meuse river and capture the supply city of Antwerp, and encircle and destroy the 1st Canadian, 2nd British, 1st and 9th American armies. Hitler believed that the American morale could not sustain a decisive defeat. The Western Allies, Hitler thought, would be forced to sue for peace, and then Germany could concentrate all its resources on defeating the Soviets in the East.
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Timing was critical. The Allies had had air supremacy over the Western skies since March, 1944. For any offensive to succeed, weather had to be bad enough to ground the Allied air forces.
Prior to the offensive, the Allies were virtually blind to German troop movement. During the reconquest of France, French citizens had provided valuable intelligence about German disposition. Now that they had reached the German border, this source of intelligence dried up. In France, orders had been relayed within the German army using radio, and these could be picked up and decrypted by Ultra; in Germany, such orders were transmitted by telephone. All of this meant that the attack, when it came, was a complete surprise to the Allies.
Thirty newly rebuilt divisions, the last reserves of the German army, were selected for the offensive. These were Volksgrenadierdivisions, recruits formerly regarded too young or too old for battle. Training, equipment and supplies were inadequate. Many supplies were horse drawn. The German gas shortage was precarious—the operation would depend heavily on using captured gasoline.
Initial German assault
The attack began on December 16, 1944. Three German panzer armies attacked through the Ardennes, in what had been considered a quiet sector (from north to south, they were the 6th, 5th, and 7th Panzer Armies, respectively). In front of them was a mixture of green troops (such as the rookie U.S. 99th and 106th Divisions) and battle-hardened troops sent to that sector to recuperate (the U.S. 2nd Division).
The initial advance caught the Americans by total surprise. They had been told (by ill-informed intelligence services) that the Germans in this area were unable to launch a counter-attack. Most of the American troops fell back or surrendered. However, in most sectors, the Germans made a major tactical blunder by letting the first wave consist mostly of unsupported infantry. As a result, strong resistance at a few isolated spots in key areas greatly slowed the German advance—resistance that tank support would have destroyed quickly. As the Americans fell back, they blew up bridges and fuel dumps along the way, denying the Germans critically-need fuel, and slowing them further. Poor road conditions further hampered the German advance. It took 36 hours to advance from Eifel to Stavelot: it had taken 9 hours in 1940.
Hitler had predicted it would take Eisenhower two or three days to realize that the fighting in the Ardennes was a major offensive and not a local counter-attack. His prediction proved quite wrong: before the first day was finished, Eisenhower (ignoring the advice of his advisers) had ordered vast reinforcements to the area. The Red Ball Express stopped delivering supplies and started moving troops to the area. Within a week, 250,000 troops had been sent into the area. At the same time, the 101st Airborne Division (along with a combat team from the 10th Armored Division) was ordered move to and defend the town of Bastogne. (Citizen Soldiers, pg 201).
Meanwhile, the weather was having the desired effect: starting on December 16, terrible snowstorms kept the Allied| airpower grounded. The air forces would be grounded for a week, and could not fly again until December 23. The German attacks in the north fared very badly. Strong American resistance stalled the German advance quickly. In the south, they fair better. All along the lines, however, the inexperience of the German troops was evident. They tended to attack from the open, and marched without cover (making them prime targets for American ambush).
Malmédy massacre
- Main article: Malmédy massacre
On December 17, 1944, near the hamlet of Baugnez, on the height half-way between the town of Malmédy and Ligneuville, in Belgium, elements of Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper encountered the American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. After a brief battle, the Americans surrendered. They, and some other Americans captured earlier, were disarmed and sent to stand in a field near the crossroads. A tank pulled up, and a truck shortly thereafter. A single SS officer pulled out a pistol and shot a medical officer standing in the front row, and then shot the man standing next to the medical officer. Other soldiers joined in with machine guns. It is not known why this happened; there is no record of an order by an SS officer—however, such routine shootings of prisoners of war (POWs) were common on the Eastern Front. News of the killings raced through Allied lines. Afterwards, the order went out: SS and paratroopers were to be shot on sight.
Operation Greif
- Main article: Operation Greif
During the Battle, Otto Skorzeny, the German commando who rescued Benito Mussolini, led a battalion of 500 English-speaking German soldiers in Operation Greif.
These soldiers were dressed in American and British uniforms and wore dog-tags taken from corpses and POWs. Their job was to go behind American lines and change sign-posts, misdirect traffic, and otherwise cause disruption. The ploy worked, and rumors spread like wild-fire. Military policemen soon grilled soldiers on things that every American was expected to know, like who Mickey Mouse's girlfriend is, or what the capital of Illinois is (General Bradley was detained when he answered Springfield: the GI who was questioning him apparently thought the capitol of Illinois was Chicago).
Some of the disguised Germans were captured. During interrogation, they lied about their mission, saying that their mission was to go to Paris to either kill or capture General Eisenhower. Security around the general became airtight, and he was confined to his headquarters. Because these prisoners had been captured in enemy uniform, they were later executed by firing squad; this was the standard practice of every army at the time, and was expressly allowed under the Geneva Convention.
Bastogne
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On December 19, the senior Allied commanders met in a bunker in Verdun. Eisenhower, realizing that with the Germans out in the open and on offensive, the Allies could destroy them much more easily than if they were on the defensive. Eisenhower told the generals "The present situation is to be regarded as one of opportunity for us and not of disaster. There will be only cheerful faces at this table". George Patton, realizing what Eisenhower implied, responded "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 asked Patton how long it would take to turn his Third Army (then located far south in France) north to counter-attack. He said he could do it in 48 hours, to the disbelief of the other generals present. In fact, before he had gone to the meeting, Patton had ordered his staff to prepare to turn north; by the time Eisenhower asked him how long it would take, it was already part-way done. (Citizen Soldiers, pg 208)
By December 21, the German forces had completely surrounded Bastogne, defended by the 101st Airborne. Conditions inside the perimeter were tough—most of the medical supplies and personnel had been captured. However, despite determined German attacks, the perimeter held. When General Anthony McAuliffe was awakened by a German invitation to surrender, he gave a one-syllable reply that has been variously reported and was probably unprintable. However, there is no disagreement as to what he wrote on the paper delivered to the Germans: "NUTS!" That reply had to be explained both to the Germans and to non-American Allies.1
The German tactics during the siege of Bastogne were terrible. Rather than launching one simultaneous attack all around the perimeter, they would concentrate their attack on one spot, then another, then another. The Americans could move reinforcements to repel one attack, then shuffle them to repel the next attack, and so on. The Germans, despite having overwhelming numerical superiority, could not breach the American defenses.
The weather broke on December 23. The Allied air forces dropped in much needed supplies—medicine, food, blankets, ammunition, and artillery shells. A team of volunteer surgeons flew in by glider and began operating in a tool room. Elsewhere, the P-47s pinned down German tanks and immobilized the German army.
American Counter-attack
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By December 24 the German advance was effectively stalled short of the Meuse River, they had outrun their supply lines, and shortages of fuel and ammunition were becoming critical. Patton's Third Army was now battling to relieve Bastogne. At 16:50 on December 26, the lead element of the Fourth Armored Division reach Bastogne, and the siege was over.
- "Charles Boggess drove the first vehicle from the 4th Armored into the lines of the 101st Airborne. He was followed by Capt. William Dwight. 'How are you, General?' Dwight asked General McAuliffe, who had driven out to the perimeter to greet them. 'Gee, I'm mighty glad to see you', McAuliffe replied'. (Citizen Soldiers, pg 248)
On January 1, in an attempt to keep the offensive, the Germans launched two offensives. The Luftwaffe launched a major campaign against Allied airfields. Thousands of planes attacked enemy airfields, destroyed about 180 aircraft and damaged another 100; however, the Luftwaffe lost 277 planes. The operation left the Luftwaffe "weaker than ever and incapable of again mounting any major attack". (A World At Arms, pg 769, Gerhard Weinberg). On that same day, Operation Northwind, an attack into Alsace, began. The fighting ranged over 150 kilometers from Saarbrucken in the north to the Rhine in the South. After twenty grueling days of fighting, the Americans fell back (having taken some 11,609 casualties while inflicting 23,000)
While the German offensive in the Bulge had ground to a halt, they still controlled a dangerous salient in the Allied lines, from which their panzers could wreak havoc. The American counter-attack was slated to begin on January 1. Patton's Third Army in the south (centered around Bastogne) would attack north, while Montgomery's forces in the North would strike South. The two forces would meet up at Houffalize.
Many of the men slated to attack were incredulous—they could not believe that after two weeks of heavy fighting, they were being asked to spearhead another major offensive. Not only was exhaustion a factor, but the temperature during January 1945 was the coldest on record: trucks had to be run every half hour, or the oil in them would freeze; weapons would freeze, and so men took to urinating on them to warm them up. Men typically wore multiple overcoats and slept with two to four blankets. The offensive went forward despite these protests.
Against vehement protests from General Omar Bradley, Eisenhower had put American troops in the north (the 1st and 9th American Armies) under the command of Bernard Montgomery. Eisenhower wanted Montgomery to go on the offensive on January 1. Had they quickly struck south, they would have met up with Patton's advancing Third Army and cut off most of the attacking Germans. Instead, as was his custom throughout the war, Montgomery delayed the attack as long as possible. He did not launch the attack until January 3.
American progress in the south was also slow—about a kilometer a day (at the start of the offensive, the two Armies were separated by about 40 kilometers). The Germans did their best to slow the Americans, while letting their army retreat in good order. Much of the German army escaped the battle intact, although the fuel situation had become so dire that much of the German armor had to be abandoned.
On January 7, 1945, Montgomery held a press conference, where he took credit for most of the victory (saying that the Americans fought well once they had good leadership—British leadership). He also said that he thought the counter-offensive was going very well (when in fact, it was going extremely slowly). Eisenhower later retracted his earlier order, and placed the American armies back under the command of Omar Bradley. Never again would American troops be put under British command.
The two American forces met up on January 15, 1945, and the Battle of the Bulge had ended.
Aftermath
Casualty estimates from the battle vary widely. American casualties are given variously as between (approximately) 70,000 to 81,000; German casualties are estimated at between 60,000 to 104,000.
The Allies pressed their advantage following the battle. By the beginning of February 1945, the lines were roughly where they had been in December 1944. In early February, the Allies launched an attack all along the Western front: in the north under Montgomery toward Aachen; in the center, under Courtney Hodges; and in the south, under Patton. The German lines, depleted following the Bulge, were unable to stem the tide. The Western allies soon broke through the Siegfried Line, crossed the Rhur river, and reached the flats of the German interior.
The German losses in the battle were critical in several respects: the last of the German reserves were now gone; the Luftwaffe had been broken; and the German army in the West was being pushed back. Worst of all, the Eastern Front was now ripe for the taking. On January 12, the Soviets launched a massive offensive in the East, which the German army was unable to halt. Germany was sent reeling on two fronts, and never recovered.
The battle in popular culture
The battle of the Bulge has been the setting of several movies and novels. A full length movie, Battle of the Bulge was made in 1965, starring Henry Fonda (IMDB entry).
Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers follows the fortunes of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, in 1944–1945; this including the Company's experiences in the Battle of the Bulge, particularly near Bastogne.
Reference
- The Last Offensive by Charles MacDonald (ISBN 1568520018)
- Riviera to the Rhine by Jeffrey J. Clarke and Robert Ross Smith (ISBN 0756764866)
- Company Commander by Charles MacDonald (ISBN 1580800386)
- Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose. (ISBN 0684848015)
External links
- The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge official US ARMY history by Hugh M. Cole
- http://hometown.aol.com/dadswar/bulge/index.htm
1. For the benefit of those not familiar with English slang, nuts is American English slang for testicles, similar to the British English balls. In this context, it means approximately 'go to hell'. Nuts can also mean 'crazy'.