Battle of the Bulge

:For other meanings of Wacht Am Rhein, see Watch on the Rhine (disambiguation)

Allied counteroffensive

On 23 December the weather conditions started improving, allowing the Allied air forces to attack. They launched devastating bombing raids on the German supply points in their rear, and P-47s started destroying the German troops on the roads. The Allied air forces also helped the defenders of Bastogne, dropping much-needed supplies—medicine, food, blankets and ammunition. A team of volunteer surgeons flew in by glider and began operating in a tool room.

Related Topics:
23 December - P-47 - Medicine - Food - Blanket - Ammunition - Surgeon - Glider

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By December 24 the German advance was effectively stalled short of the Meuse River. They had outrun their supply lines and shortages of fuel and ammunition were becoming critical. Up to this point the German losses had been light, notably in armor, which was almost untouched with the exception of Peiper's losses. On the evening of the 24th General Hasso von Manteuffel recommended to Hitler's Military Adjutant a halt to all offensive operations and a withdrawal back to the West Wall. Hitler rejected it.

Related Topics:
December 24 - Meuse River - Hasso von Manteuffel

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Patton's Third Army was now battling to relieve Bastogne. At 1650 on December 26 the lead element of the 37th Tank Battalion of the Fourth Armored Division reached Bastogne, ending the siege.

Related Topics:
December 26 - 37th Tank Battalion

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:Charles Boggess drove the first vehicle from the 4th Armored into the lines of the 101st Airborne. He was followed by Capt. William Dwight. 'How are you, General?' Dwight asked General McAuliffe, who had driven out to the perimeter to greet them. 'Gee, I'm mighty glad to see you', McAuliffe replied'. (Citizen Soldiers, p 248).

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Germans strike back

On 1 January, in an attempt to keep the offensive going, the Germans launched two new operations. At 0915 the Luftwaffe launched Operation Bodenplatte, a major campaign against Allied airfields in the Low Countries. Hundreds of planes attacked Allied airfields, destroying or severely damaging some 465 aircraft. However, the Luftwaffe lost 277 planes, 62 to Allied fighters and 172 mostly because of an unexpectedly high number of Allied flak guns, set up to protect against German V-1 flying bomb attacks, but also due to friendly fire from the German flak guns that were uninformed of the pending large-scale German air operation. While the Allies recovered from their losses in just days, the operation left the Luftwaffe "weaker than ever and incapable of mounting any major attack again". (A World At Arms, p 769, Gerhard Weinberg).

Related Topics:
1 January - Luftwaffe - Operation Bodenplatte - Low Countries - Aircraft - Flak - V-1 - Friendly fire

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On that same day, Operation Nordwind, a diversionary attack into the Alsace region, began. The fighting ranged over 150 kilometers, from Saarbrucken in the north to the Rhine in the South. After thirteen gruelling days of fighting, the Americans fell back, having taken some 11,609 casualties but inflicting 23,000.

Related Topics:
Operation Nordwind - Alsace - Kilometer - Saarbrucken

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Allies prevail

While the German offensive had ground to a halt, they still controlled a dangerous salient in the Allied line, from which their panzers could wreak havoc. The Allied counter-attack was slated to begin on January 1. Patton's Third Army in the south, centered around Bastogne, would attack north, Montgomery's forces in the north would strike south. The two forces would meet up at Houffalize.

Related Topics:
January 1 - Montgomery's - Houffalize

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Many of the men slated to attack were incredulous—they could not believe that after two weeks of heavy fighting they were being asked to spearhead another major offensive. Not only was exhaustion a factor, but the temperature during January 1945 was the coldest on record; trucks had to be run every half hour or the oil in them would freeze; weapons would freeze, and so men took to urinating on them to warm them up. Men typically wore multiple overcoats and slept with two to four blankets. The offensive went forward notwithstanding morale.

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Eisenhower had put American troops in the north (the 1st and 9th American Armies), under Montgomery's British 21st Army Group command. Eisenhower wanted Montgomery to go on the offensive on January 1, with the aim of meeting up with Patton's advancing Third Army and cutting off most of the attacking Germans, trapping them in a pocket. However, refusing to commit men he considered underprepared in a snowstorm, Montgomery did not launch the attack until 3 January, by which time substantial numbers of German troops had already managed to successfully disengage, albeit with the loss of their heavy equipment. Bradley later protested this assignment vehemently, describing Montgomery as "all-out, right-down-to-the-toes mad", and refusing to serve under him.

Related Topics:
1st - 9th - Montgomery - British 21st Army Group - January 1 - 3 January

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At the start of the offensive, the two Armies were separated by about 40 kilometers. American progress in the south was also slow—about a kilometer a day. The Germans performed a fighting retreat, doing their best to delay the Americans. The majority of the German force escaped the battle, although the fuel situation had become so dire that most of the German armor had to be abandoned.

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On 7 January 1945, Hitler agreed to pull back most of the forces from the Ardennes, including the elite SS Panzer Divisions, thus ending all offensive operations. The Ardennes Offensive was now over, leaving the Allies to mop up the remaining German stragglers.

Related Topics:
7 January - 1945

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On the same day Montgomery held a press conference at Zonhoven in which he gave credit for the victory to the "courage and good fighting quality" of the American troops, characterizing a typical American as a "very brave fighting man who has that tenacity in battle which makes a great soldier". He went on to talk about the necessity of Allied teamwork, and praise Eisenhower, stating that "Teamwork wins battles and battle victories win wars. On our team the captain is General Ike." Some of his comments, particularly his noting that when the situation "began to deteriorate", Eisenhower placed him in command of the north, were inflammatory to Patton. The comments implied that the situation worsened under his leadership, until he was rescued by Montgomery "with a bang". In the context of Patton and Montgomery's well-known mutual loathing, the phrasing of the comment can only be seen as malicious. Montgomery entirely failed to mention the contribution of the American generals beside Eisenhower to the victory, focusing exclusively on his own generalship. In the press conference Montgomery said that he thought the counter-offensive had gone very well; he did not explain the reason for his delayed attack on January 3 at the time, but later attributed this to needing more time for preparation on the northern front. According to Churchill, the attack from the south under Patton was steady but slow and involved heavy losses, and Montgomery claimed to be trying to avoid this situation.

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Bradley and Patton both threatened to resign unless Montgomery's command was changed. Subsequently Bradley started to court the press, and it was stated that he would rarely leave headquarters "without at least fifteen newspapermen"; it has been suggested that he and Patton began to leak information detrimental to Montgomery.

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Although the German advance was halted, the overall situation remained dangerous. On 6 January Winston Churchill once again asked Stalin for support. On 12 January, the Red Army launched the Vistula-Oder Offensive in Poland and East Prussia. Soviet sources claim this was done ahead of schedule, while most Western sources doubt it, and instead claim the Soviet offensive was delayed because of the situation in the West, with Stalin waiting out until both sides had militarily exhausted themselves.

Related Topics:
6 January - Winston Churchill - 12 January - Vistula-Oder Offensive - Poland - East Prussia

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The Battle of the Bulge ended when the two American forces met up on 15 January 1945.

Related Topics:
15 January - 1945

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