Chapter 48: Dec 1944 the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes

Surrender? “Nuts!” Gen. Anthony McAuliffe’s 1944 Christmas Message to his Troops In mid-December 1944, Allied forces were surprised by a massive German offensive through the Ardennes Forrest that created a “bulge” in the Allied lines. Caught in what would become known as the “Battle of the Bulge,” the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Armed Forces was holed up in Bastogne while German armored divisions encircled the town. Outnumbered, outgunned, and running out of food, ammunition, and medical supplies, the embattled assistant division commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, faced bleak prospects.

On December 22, the American troops were sent an ultimatum from the German forces outside of the town, demanding “the honorable surrender” of the town within two hours. General McAuliffe reply was brief and succinct:

“To the German Commander: N U T S!

The American Commander”

Having made their position clear, the Americans dug in and waited for the attack. Contrary to German expectations, the 101st held out and reinforcements arrived in the form of the US Army’s 4th Armored Division. The Battle of the Bulge continued for several more weeks, with thousands of casualties on both sides, but by the end of January 1945, the Allies had retaken all the territory lost to the Germans and were headed toward Berlin.

This record was on display in the “Featured Documents” exhibit in the East Rotunda Gallery of the National Archives in Washington, DC, November 4, 2014, through January 5, 2015 in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.

The forward elements of the allied drive into German territory were disappointed that the war hadn’t ended by Christmas of 1944. They schemed to get those liberty passes to go back and visit Paris which had recently been liberated by the allied forces following an agenda set up by General Charles De Gaulle that effectively insured the war in Europe would take at least another year to end with the surrender in Berlin and the suicide of Hitler in his underground bunker underneath the ruins of the once beautiful city.

The American G2 office was running a skeleton crew because everything was quiet on the Western Front and they could resume the war after the holidays to chase the Nazi bastards back to their lair in Berlin if the Russians didn’t get there first.

Meanwhile, the German Wehrmacht had assembled an assault force of almost a half million men and almost one thousand tanks to attack the allied positions at their weakest point and drive a wedge into the allied attack aimed at Berlin itself. The entire battle lasted only a month from mid December 1944 to mid-January 1945.

Weather played a huge role in the battle and it was with the lifting of the fog and overcast skies that established the allied air superiority that sealed the defeat for the German forces and their eventual retreat to the relative safety of the Siegfried Line.

The most important result of the battle was the loss of most of the remaining armor left to the German forces and the loss of the remnants of a once-proud Luftwaffe. These were items that stood little chance of replacement with the constant day and night bombing of the German industrial complex that made production come to a screeching halt. It was also a time when the American industrial complex was producing tanks and other weapons at a blistering pace that gave the American armed forces their advantage in all areas of military might and allowed them to re-supply the other allies with tanks, airplanes, trucks and jeeps as well as other needed supplies to fight the enemy.

The double-cross by General De Gaulle was the main reason for the ability of the Germans to mount the counter-attack and his interference in international diplomacy after the war added to the European hostility to American efforts to restore all of Europe to a position of power in the world after World War II.

The simple fact was that the allied intelligence failed to catch the Nazi build-up and their overwhelming superiority of military might now surrounding the Fuhrer in his underground bunker gave them every reason to believe that the end was near with an unconditional surrender his only option.

What they underestimated was the discipline of the German Wehrmacht to following orders even when ordered by a madman and the ability of the Nazis to hide their assets from detection even with the extensive efforts to determine their true capabilities.

The German high command considered General Eisenhower to be a poor excuse for a General officer and they laughed at the British and their “Monty” General Montgomery with his constant posing for the cameras. In fact, the only General they feared was General George Patten because of his fierce determination and ability to always turn things to his advantage on the chaos of a battlefield. That was one of the reasons that they choose to strike as far from his Army as possible in the hope that he would not be able to get there fast enough to stop them from reaching their objectives.

The Germans wanted to deny the allies the use of the port of Antwerp and to split their forces in half and encircle the four armies forcing them to surrender without logistical support.

The initial attack by German armor was on American positions and they achieved total surprise.

The Americans suffered high losses and found that they were surrounded in Bastogne. Fortunately for them, they were able to pull in reinforcements to relieve the Airborne unit in the city and the weather turned in their favor and the Air superiority belonged totally to the allies.

The American units around Bastogne put up a stiff resistance that prevented the Germans from reaching the roads they needed to get to in order to win the day. It also prevented them from reaching the American fuel dumps that they needed to keep the tanks mobile. Without fuel, the tanks became stationary and unable to move either forward or back. When they depleted their ammo, the tankers simply abandoned them because they became targets for the allied anti-tank guns and the aircraft that could easily see them outlined on the snow. The German commanders realized the vulnerability of their position on or about 24 December and began a slow retrograde movement to the Siegfried Line for the purpose of keeping their core units from being captured by the allies.

On the day after Christmas, the advance elements of Patten’s Third Army reached the outskirts of Bastogne to the cheers of the 101st Airborne Division.

Both sides suffered about 100,000 casualties with the Germans also losing numerous tanks and airplanes it would never be able to replace. During the early months of 1945, the Wehrmacht suffered a large number of desertions from the enlisted ranks now that they were back in Germany again. Those ordered to the Eastern front quickly surrendered to the British and American forces facing them in the West not wanting to face the savagery of the Russian Army bent on vengeance against Germany. Others simply went back to their civilian locations shedding their uniforms for civilian clothes knowing that if they were caught, they would face summary execution. Higher ranking officers in SS units exchanged their uniforms for those of lower ranking enlisted men and they hoped to use their new identities to avoid the trials for war criminals certain to follow after the war was concluded.