In the central section, the attacks along the lines of St. Vith and Bastogne continued unabated and on December 18 the pro-Hitler Germans passed victorious over the Schnee Eifel. Two armored divisions are then launched against the defenses of Bastogne, but the American engineering departments stop the German advance with a series of road blocks, long enough to allow the 101st Airborne Division to reach the small Belgian town by land on December 19, at the crucial moment of the battle.
German armored units that fail to take Bastogne by storm pass, leaving an infantry division to besiege isolated US units.
“Go to hell!”: the resistance of the 101 in Bastogne
Meanwhile, Eisenhower and the officers under his command have taken the necessary countermeasures to stop the “breach” bulge «) that has been opened in the allied deployment. "Ike" entrusts Montgomery with the US 1st and 9th armies, with the task of stabilizing the front and prevent the Germans from reaching the Meuse and then move on to the counterattack. As a precaution, the bridges over the river, manned by 4 British divisions, were mined anyway.
In the southern sector, on the allied right flank, however, General George Patton with his 3rd Army, engaged in the advance to the east, it has already made a 90° turn to the north (a tactical and logistical masterpiece) to reach as soon as possible Bastogne and breaking its encirclement.
In fact, it is precisely in Bastogne that the fate of the camp is decided. Taking this small but essential road junction would actually allow the Germans to secure a fortress in the gap opened up in the Allied deployment, to continue their advance towards the Meuse. But while the armored units go further, German infantry fails to overcome fierce resistance from American paratroopers.
Lack of supplies to defeat Hitler
Meanwhile, the situation in the besieged town is increasingly critical: American soldiers, about 15.000, have been without supplies for days: there is a lack of ammunition, food, medicine. The sky is still cloudy, no support will come from above. The Germans are pressing harder and harder, but the commander of the 101st, Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, is good at handling the few assets available and successfully direct artillery fire.
Meanwhile, his men are showing great courage and tenacity.. On frozen forests around Bastognewithout winter coats as they were rushed to the front, with few bullets, without food for days, the Screaming Eagles It is no coincidence that, even today, the 101st Paratroopers are among the best known and most esteemed American units.
El December 22 A curious event occurs. A German patrol raises the white flag, approaches the American lines, and delivers a message: General von Lüttwitz, at the head of the army corps besieging Bastogne, invites the Americans to surrender. On the other hand, the situation of the American troops is desperate. The prisoners, the German officer assures, will be treated with respect.
The written response General McAuliffe sends to the Germans is destined to go down in the annals: "Nuts!" writes McAuliffe, a word that literally means "nuts" but can also be translated as "balls" (in the broad sense of "fuck you"), and which is translated into German with the more understandable "Go away!" to the hell! «.
Armed again against Hitler!
The next day, December 23, the sky was clear again and the American troops were supplied from above. Additionally, combatants can now provide immediate support to men on the ground. Nonetheless, On December 24, Christmas Eve, the Germans appear on the verge of closing their grip on Bastogne.. On Christmas night a powerful attack takes place, but this time also the German raids are repulsed: Lüttwitz's troops are also fighting bravely, fueled by patriotic pride, but they have run out of energy and the sky is about to fall. above them, a storm of bombs and shells.
El December 26, while the engines of the allied fighters roared in the sky, the US 4th Armored DivisionGeneral George Patton pushed forward, urging the unit to hurry, transmitting all his enthusiasm to his men. The tanks Sherman (M4-A1) and tank destroyers Jackson (M-36), then give life to a powerful battle with the Panthers ( Tanks V) and the Tigres of the Germans, who are fighting with determination on the other side.
En particular, the irreducibles Paratroopers (lit. "parachute hunters"), the counterparts to the "green devils" that long worried the Allies at the Battle of Cassino, faced Patton's men: huddled in the houses, among the trees, they put up an energetic and desperate resistance. At the end of the day, after a hard fight, the first tanks of the 4th division reach the defensive perimeter of the city and rejoin the 101. Gradually the remainder of Patton's 3rd Army, to which the 4th Armored Division has opened the way, breaks through from the south and breaks the siege: the battle of Bastogne is won.
The gap is closed: the allied counteroffensive
As the men of the 3rd Army fight to save Bastogne further north, the Allies they also permanently block Peiper's raid and the 1st SS Armored Division. Hitler he then orders Dietrich and the 6th Army to converge south and support Manteuffel, who continues to advance west with his armored divisions, towards the Meuse. After the initial surprise, however, the American defenses are now consolidated, and from a clear point of view. sky, Allied fighter-bombers begin to "feast" on the panzer German who ran out of fuel and without coverage.
The Germans are now defeated and Allied divisions recapture lost ground, closing the gap from the north with Montgomery's armies (American 1st and 9th) and from the south with Patton's 3rd armies. The offensive has failed, but Hitler does not want to admit it and insists that the advances continue. Manteuffel he would later remark bitterly:
"I telephoned Jodl and asked him to inform the Führer that I was about to withdraw my forces. But Hitler vetoed this step back. So instead of making an orderly and timely retreat, we were forced to retreat meter by meter under the pressure of Allied attacks. For us, it meant ruin."
Von Rundstedt no longer supports Hitler
Of the same opinion, of Rundstedt, commander of the Western Front, opposed the Ardennes offensive from the start:
“I would have liked to have stopped the offensive earlier, when it became clear that it could not have achieved its objective earlier; but Hitler furiously insisted that he must continue. It was a second Stalingrad. ".
On January 16, the two lines of the Allied advance, held back by a thick blanket of snow, they met in Houffalize, in the heart of the Ardennes. The escape, " the bulge “, as Anglo-Americans will call it, is closed. Autumn fog went bankrupt
Assessments and consequences of the Ardennes offensive against Hitler
Recklessly exposing themselves to a counter-attack in the Ardennes, ignoring all warnings that such an operation was imminent, and convincing themselves that an attack was the best possible defence, the Allies they were in real danger of a major disaster in December 1944.
However, Eisenhower and his subordinates, Bradley, Montgomerybut especially the general patton, are really capable of react extremely quickly, using the maximum power available. If at the beginning of the German offensive the Allies deploy just over 100.000 men, against 350.000 Germans, at the decisive moment of the battle, 800.000 soldiers and more than 3.000 armored vehicles will converge on the Ardennes. An avalanche of fresh troops and tanks, against the tired and worn-out German divisions, which are forced to withdraw, leaving 80.000 men killed, missing and wounded.
Even the Americans have had a very hard time. There are almost 20.000 deaths, 47.000 wounded, more than 20.000 missing and prisoners. The Battle of the Bulge, fought in the midst of heavy snowfall, during a icy winter, by very young and inexperienced soldiers, was a massacre for both sides. To win the war, Germany and the United States required great effort from their children: many German soldiers, but also many Americans, are not even adults.
A victory, a defeat, a lesson
The battle fought by the Allies who fought against Hitler in December 1944 was a military triumph, however, it leaves a great legacy. If before they were obsessed with the idea of advancing, to the point of neglecting the defense and risking a sensational setback, after the Ardennes, Eisenhower and many of his officers will begin to exercise excessive caution at times.. The fear of new counteroffensives, the attention not to reveal too much, the anxiety of facing significant losses again, will significantly slow down subsequent operations, effectively preventing the Allies from reaching Berlin first.
For the Germans, on the other hand, the Ardennes represent a last chance to change what now seems like a foregone conclusion. Germany has lost the war. Hitler has lost the war.. Obviously he didn't lose it in the Ardennes, but from now on it's just a matter of time. In January 1945, in the east, the Soviets launched their offensive across the Vistula and within a month reached the Oder (less than 100 km from Berlin), while the Allies were still bogged down on the Rhine.
Si Autumn fog it had an important consequence, surely it was that it delayed the Allies for a long time and withdrew vital forces from the eastern front, definitively handing over Berlin to Stalin's troops. The violent reaction in the Ardennes, brilliant on paper but impossible to achieve, does not reverse the fate of the conflict, but perhaps hastens its conclusion. Millions of citizens of the Reich now they would be paying for it.