At the end of 1944, after the liberation of France, the Allied forces were preparing to cross the Rhine and advance into the heart of the Reich. Adolf Hitler, however, still had one card to play: a counteroffensive in the Ardennes forest, a last attempt to turn the tide of the war.
Despite the initial surprise, the fierce resistance of American soldiers and General Patton's reaction lead to the failure of the German operation. The fate of Germany is sealed.
4 brushstrokes on Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau, Austria. He spent his youth in Linz and Vienna and in 1912 he moved to Munich, where in August 1914 he welcomed the outbreak of the First World War. Wounded and decorated combatant, Corporal Hitler deeply internalizes the experience of the conflict. In 1919 he joined the German Workers' Party. Thanks to his oratorical skills, he soon became the recognized leader of the new right, giving rise to the National Socialist Party in 1920.
After the failed Munich Putsch on November 9, 1923, Hitler was arrested and spent a few years in prison. During his imprisonment he wrote "Mein Kampf" (My battle) which became the programmatic text of the policy followed, from 1925, by the National Socialist Party. Over the years, the consensus within the country progressively increased. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor. From that moment on, the Nazi dictatorship of the Führer began, which lasted twelve years.
The first victims of Hitler's expansionism were Austria and Czechoslovakia and, soon after, Poland, whose invasion on September 1, 1939, it caused the outbreak of World War II. The Nazi onslaught spreads across north-central Europe, but in 1942 the tide of war turns and Germany is locked in ever tighter control. The end of Hitler materialized in the Berlin bunker, where on April 30, 1945 the dictator took his own life along with his wife Eva Braun, shooting himself in the head. From that moment on, the Nazi dictatorship of the Führer began, which lasted twelve years.
Of the operation " Wacht am Rhein " to " Autumn fog ”: Hitler's plan for the Ardennes offensive
In the fall of 1944, the Tercer Reich He is now surrounded by enemies. In the east, the Soviets have reached the Vistula in Poland and are preparing to launch another major offensive. To West, the Allies have now reached the banks of the Rhine, the natural border of Germany. On the western front, although with difficulty and at the cost of numerous losses, the Germans managed to stop the enemy advance, frustrating the allied ambitions, thanks to a series of bloody defensive battles. throughout the call west wall or Siegfried Line, the fortified line defending the western borders of Germany.
The Anglo-American high command, despite the forced pause that prevents them from concluding the war before Christmas, are completely convinced of the impossibility of the Germans taking offensive action. They think that the Germans have neither the strength nor the intention. The German commander of the Western Front ( O.B. West ), Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, is considered a prudent and conservative man, a skilled defensive strategist, but the Allies overestimate his weight. and flu
Indeed, it was Adolf Hitler, through his executors Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl, respectively Supreme Chief and Chief of Staff of the Oberkommando of the Wehrmacht (OKW, High Command of the German Armed Forces), who decided the actions to undertake on all fronts. After assassination attempt on July 20 of 1944 by a group of army officers, Hitler grew increasingly distrustful of the "old Prussian guard" and surrounded himself only with his loyalists..
Hitler's counteroffensive is coming
El Leader he is agitated, suspicious, visibly sick, on the verge of paranoia, but no less determined for that. He has a plan in mind, a massive counteroffensive., and does not listen to anyone who advises him to be cautious. So, on September 16, 1944, he met in Wolfschanze, his headquarters, to Keitel, Jodl and Guderian, the only ones he trusted, and explained his intentions.
Hitler's idea is to repeat the ingenious blow dealt to France in the spring of 1940. He intends to break into the weakest sector of the enemy front and cut its deployment in two.
Like four years before, not in vain, the weak point of the Allies is once again located in the Ardennes. It is a mountainous region full of forests that stretches between Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg. It is a difficult area to cross, along a front of more than 100 km, which is nevertheless badly manned, mostly by American troops considered quantitatively and qualitatively inferior to the German ones.
Taking advantage of the bad weather scheduled for the late autumn of 1944 (which would have prevented the Allies from relying on their preponderant air superiority) and the surprise factor, German armies were to cross the Ardennes, reach the river meuse (100 km to the west) and then bend to the north, over Antwerp (about 200 km from the front). The port of the Belgian city is so important to the Allied war effort that reconquering it, in hitler's mind, would have endangered the stability of the entire western front, causing a "second Dunkirk" and turning the tide of the war. Or at least, of that Hitler is absolutely convinced.
The "stones of the road" do not stop Hitler
More uncertain are their generals. Gerd von Rundstedt, the seventy-year-old commander of O.B. West, under whose command the operation was to be carried out, when he learned of the plan, stated:
“Antwerp? If we were to reach the Meuse we would have to kneel down and give thanks to God.
INCLUDED quarterback Walter Model, commander of Army Group B, architect of the effective defensive strategy implemented in those months, although he admits the possibility of launching a counterattack, proposes a "little solution" to Hitler. A minor offensive, to trap a substantial number of American divisions, but is ignored.
Hitler, with only Jodl's help, personally directs the Preparations for your “big solution”, whose operational plan is already ready in October. Initially, the plan took the name of » Christmas rose ", but almost immediately it was changed to » Wacht am Rhein » («Watch on the Rhine»), a name that deliberately suggests anything but the true intentions of the Germans.
The operation, scheduled for the end of November, involves the use of three armies, for a total of 12 infantry divisions and 18 armored divisions. It's based on two fundamental factors: the surprise effect and bad weather, that is, two quite random, especially the second.
In order to guarantee at least the first condition, the surprise effect, the preparations were carried out in great secrecy. Keitel, sure of being intercepted by Allied espionage, broadcast a false order to all commanders on the Western Front. He communicated the impossibility of taking offensive action, while Hitler entrusts the SS officer Otto Skorzeny the operation " Greif « (lit. "tap").
Well Prepared Squads
intelligently directed, squads of fluent English-speaking German soldiers wearing American uniforms infiltrate behind American lines to wreak havoc. They do this by spreading false orders and various sabotages. The operation is a success. Many US units panic and at the time of the German attack they will still be in the midst of great confusion.
Meanwhile, numerous armored divisions, including many units withdrawn from the eastern front, flow in an increasingly massive way near the Ardennes. In the area between the western wall and the Rhine and Moselle rivers. Wehrmacht soldiers and tanks advance only at night. Under cover of darkness, away from roads, sheltered by thick vegetation.
The artillery and armored units are then supplied with some 15.000 tons of ammunition and 14 million liters of fuel. Enough to cover the needs of the tanks for about 150 km of advance, at least on paper. It is an enormous logistical effort, which does not go completely unnoticed, but which is effectively disguised, as the Allies pass by, convinced that these are exclusively defensive maneuvers.
Everything ready... but it will have to wait...
Everything is ready at the end of November, but it is necessary postpone the start of the operation, which meanwhile has changed its name to the even more enigmatic " Autumn fog ” (“autumn mist”). In fact, the Allies are pressing on Aachen (north of the Ardennes) and it is necessary to push them back. Besides, weather conditions are still good, ensuring enemy cover from above. We will have to wait, then, for the bad weather, which providentially arrives in mid-December.
On the night of December 15, 1944, 250.000 soldiers, thousands of tanks and motor vehicles, 350 aircraft, including new Me-262 fighter jets were ready for action. The German infantry is well armed and has just been reorganized into the Volksgrenadier Division. It is made up of very young recruits and more experienced veterans called up or transferred from other departments.
The armored divisions are finally equipped with 200 Tiger i and 45 Tiger II, the new heavy tanks which weigh almost 70 tons. They are armed with an 88mm gun, far deadlier than their US tank counterparts. Morale, despite the difficult situation in Germany, is high. The young soldiers of the Wehrmacht are driven by a deep sense of patriotism, in fact, the fate of Germany depends on their success.