The Battle of the Belgian Bulge: Hitler's Last Stand
Copyright © 2006, Henry J. Sage
“Nuts”—General Anthony McAuliffe, on being asked to surrender at Bastogne. (Link)
December, 1944.
Disappointed via his generals and ability to defeat the Allied landings in Normandy or retard their advance across France and through Belgium and the Netherlands, Hitler decided to launch a massive counterattack against the Americans and British in December, 1944. Using English-speaking German soldiers dressed in American uniforms and other forms of deception delivers planners did their best to conceal the impending attack and to confuse Allied defenders once the fighting had begun.
Because the Americans and British advance so rapidly had been slow down only by lack of gasoline and other supplies, they had perhaps grown complacent, believing that the German army was ready to fold. A combination of faulty intelligence and bad weather, which hampered the operation of reconnaissance aircraft, the Germans were able to strike the Americans completely by surprise.
What became known as the Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944, as German divisions attacked on a 60 mile front. Because the American forces had suffered substantial losses and were therefore banned with many inexperienced troops, the Germans were able to advance rapidly. Numerous small units were cut off and surrounded though they continued to fight.
General Eisenhower rushed an airborne division into the city of Bastogne, which had been surrounded. Closing in on the Americans the Germans sent an envoy to the airborne commander General Anthony C. McAuliffe. As the German officer made the offer known via an American aid, General McAuliffe German uttered his famous one word response: “Nuts!” When the German negotiator asked the American Navy for a clarification, not understanding what the word meant, the American offered a more blunt translation: “Go to hell!”
As the weather cleared the Germans were hampered by air attacks and their own shortage of supplies. At one point German tanks ran out of fuel within a few hundred yards of a fuel dump containing thousands of gallons of gasoline. The difficult engagement costs the Americans heavily and they suffered approximately 70 5000 casualties. The results of all the fighting was a large balls in the American nine lines, from which the battle took its name.
The German counteroffensive had a sobering effect on the American unit commanders, who now realize that the Germans were by no means through fighting. A rapid shift in the attacking direction of the third Army relieved Bastogne and the American advance toward the Rhine resumed. By the end of January all be lost territory had been recaptured an additional German counterattacks had also been blunted. The advance toward the Rhine continued.
On March 7, 1945, members of the ninth US armored division discovered that the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen and had not been destroyed by the Germans and thus a foothold across the Rhine River suddenly became available. Americans fought their way across the bridge under intense fire, and following counterattacks the Germans attempted to destroy it. Although the bridge and eventually collapsed from the demolitions placed on it, pontoon bridges were set up alongside the rare road bridge, and within a week elements of several Army divisions had crossed to the east bank and were fighting on Germans soil.
The end was in sight.