After their decisive defeat at Falaise the German retreated from Normandy with the Allied forces in hot pursuit. General Le Clerq entered Paris and the city was liberated after 5 years of occupation by the Nazis.
The Allied forces advanced to the Siegfried Line near the German border with France and also liberated Belgium taking the port city of Antwerp in which they could dock their ships and establish a supply their armies. There the advanced stalled as to a large extent they had outrun their supply lines.
Montgomery's failed attempt to take the bridge at Arnheim (Operation Market Garden) was a setback to the Allieds and in the meantime winter had set in. They were basically in a holding position excepting for Patton who was attacking the German border at Metz in Alsace.
Hitler in the meantime had suffered numerous setbacks besides that of Normandy. In July there was a failed attempt by a group of German army officers to assassinate him (Operation Valkyrie) and to overthrow the Nazi regime. The Russian's Operation Bagration was defeating the Germans in Russia and the Ukraine and driving the German army back towards the Reich. Hitler was becoming increasingly out of touch with reality, distrusted his generals and insisted on directing military operations himself.
Hitler decided to take a huge gamble to alleviate his bad situation and planned a major thrust which would invade Belgium through the Ardennes forest and drive through to take Antwerp. By doing this he would be depriving the allieds of a supply harbour and would also drive a wedge between the British and American armies. He drew up his plans in the greatest secrecy on a "need to know" basis and codenamed it "WACHT AM RHEIN", in English "Watch on the Rhine" and below is the plan of battle which was drawn up.
At the beginning of December 1944 he started amassing an army of some 250,000 men with armoured and artillery units in the forests on the German/Belgian, moving them only at night so that Allied air reconnaissance would not spot what was happening on the ground. He reinforced them by diverting troops and equipment from the eastern front, thereby weakening his positions there. Most of the units were made up of elite SS troops, many of whom had escaped from Normandy. Overall command was given to the highly experienced Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt. The operation had to be a lighting thrust so that a breakthrough to Antwerp could be made before the Allieds could reinforce their defences. As the Germans had by now lost access to their fuel supplies from the Caucasus the Germans would have to capture the enemy fuel dumps to keep their vehicles running. It was also essential that this assault be made in a period of inclement weather to negate Allied air supremacy.
Because the Americans believed that the Ardennes area would be difficult to assault their forces there were mainly comprised of troops on relaxation and refit after fighting on more active fronts as well as replacements fresh from the USA. They were comparatively lightly armed and had not yet been equipped with winter uniforms.
On the 16th December the German artillery let loose a huge barrage on the American lines whereafter their troops commenced their assault westwards. The American were taken completely by surprise. This was one of the biggest and vicious battles on the western front in World War II.
In the next postings I will deal with two of the most important battles, that of Kampfgruppe Peiper and the defense of Bastogne.
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