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NFT: 70 years ago today - Wacht am Rhein

Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 10:25 am
At 5:30 AM on December 16, 1944, 1600 German artillery pieces commenced a 90 minute barrage hammering a 80 mile portion of the American line in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg. It was Hitler's desperate gamble to overwhelm the Allies in the West, throwing virtually all of his strategic reserves into an attack of 300,000 men and almost a thousand tanks. It was a massive intelligence failure on the part of the Americans, as the German attack was carried out with nearly total surprise. Their objective was to cross the Meuse and capture Brussels and Antwerp. The plan was almost suicidally ambitious - due to shortages of fuel, the plan set the time to achieve their final objective of Antwerp at four days. They would be forced to rely on captured American fuel and ammo dumps for resupply, as they lacked the resources to supply their forward units.

The Ardennes was viewed as too densely covered with trees for a major attack with armored forces, and as such the US Army used it as a quiet sector for green, untested forces (99th and 106th Divisions, who had seen no combat) and to rehabilitate units chewed up in combat (the 28th Division, which had endured murderous fighting in the Hurtgen Forest).
Heavy snowfalls and fog prevented the Allies from using their overwhelming superiority in the air.

Outnumbered initially, some American forces fled in chaos and many were captured, but there was enough determined opposition from the green soldiers in the Ardennes to slow the German advance considerably. At Elsenborn Ridge and Bastogne, the Germans were stopped cold by outnumbered American forces. The German attack slowed and finally halted on Christmas Day. Reinforcements began arriving, and clearing weather allowed Allied airpower to be unleashed. A month after that opening barrage, the final remaining German units evacuated the Ardennes, and the Wehrmacht would never again mount a major attack on the Western front. The cost for victory was 19000 KIA, 47000 WIA, and 23000 captured or missing.









great post  
djm : 12/16/2014 10:32 am : link
...bump for later. I'm sure this thread will be chock full of interesting info.
.  
Rob in NYC : 12/16/2014 10:36 am : link
NUTS!
some links  
Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 10:38 am : link
Some great pictures

One Bulge veteran's story

The anniversary in Belgium

Another veteran's story

History of the battle
My grandfather was one of the captured  
Eli Wilson : 12/16/2014 10:42 am : link
He escaped, along with many others, on Christmas eve.

RIP grandpa, you were a real hero.
that kind of combat is hard enough for me to contemplate  
Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 10:46 am : link
Enduring the cold as well? Unbelievable. The US Army didn't exactly have top-notch cold weather gear at that time, either.
Tough bunch of guys  
Go Terps : 12/16/2014 10:46 am : link
.
big pic, I know, but worth it  
Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 10:49 am : link
Gen. McAuliffe's Christmas message to the 101st:

My friend's father was captured  
BillT : 12/16/2014 10:50 am : link
My former neighbor part of the 1st Army, 69th Div that blocked them in the northwest.
Had lunch with a 101st airborne vet  
Steve L : 12/16/2014 11:00 am : link
at the WW2 museum. Fascinating to hear him tell the story of that period of the war. He was adamant that Patton did NOT rescue them. And I recently watched the Band of Brothers episode from this battle with my kids. The best line was from Winters when he was told it was suicide and they were going to be surrounded. "We're paratroopers. We're supposed to be surrounded."

True heroes...all of them.
American Experience episode on the the Bulge  
Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 11:01 am : link
Well worth watching
Link - ( New Window )
as Joe Toye says in BoB  
Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 11:02 am : link
"How do I feel about being rescued by Patton? I'd feel just peachy about it, except we didn't need to be fucking rescued. Got that?"
Patton  
blapre74 : 12/16/2014 11:48 am : link
Has anyone read Killing Patton? I read Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy, both unimpressive rehashed writing. :)
Thanks for this, Greg...  
RC02XX : 12/16/2014 11:50 am : link
What an incredible generation of heroes they were.
A recent patient of mine was a  
MaineGiantFan : 12/16/2014 12:26 pm : link
Bulge veteran. Fascinating listening to him speak, particularly about how damn cold it was. Blew my days schedule but it was worth every minute
For WW2 buffs  
MaineGiantFan : 12/16/2014 12:27 pm : link
Is this when the Tiger II made its debut or was it shortly before this operation ?
according to Wikipedia  
Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 12:36 pm : link
The Konigstiger made its debut in Normandy in July 1944.
Ok ty Greg...  
MaineGiantFan : 12/16/2014 12:41 pm : link
Fascinating piece of equipment.
bumpski for later reading  
mfsd : 12/16/2014 1:56 pm : link
very interesting stuff gents, thanks for posting Greg
Great stuff. Thanks Greg.  
Big Blue Blogger : 12/16/2014 3:24 pm : link
My uncle was there. The stories are incredible.

Is there a connection between Die Wacht am Rhein and the Battle of the Bulge? I thought the song was from a much earlier conflict.
Fascinating to read  
JonC : 12/16/2014 3:29 pm : link
my Great Uncle was there, he was a translator and was shot in the shoulder blade to earn a purple heart.
Blogger  
Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 3:33 pm : link
The song dates back to before the Franco-Prussian War of 1871.
my dad was there and also was a translator -  
Del Shofner : 12/16/2014 3:35 pm : link
did not get shot but had some stories to tell.

Always interested to read about the history of it.
Del  
JonC : 12/16/2014 3:42 pm : link
I wish I'd recorded or written down some the stories ... I remember him talking about the cold, darkness, the feeling the forest was alive, and how savage the fighting was. Perhaps soldiers on both sides realized the war was close to being decided, in terms of Germany and a last gasp.
At the same time the Soviets were 200 miles from German-Polish border  
SB : 12/16/2014 3:48 pm : link
so Hitler moves 4 armies consisting of 300,000 troops to the other side of Europe. Amazing.
RE: Del  
Del Shofner : 12/16/2014 3:53 pm : link
In comment 12038165 JonC said:
Quote:
I wish I'd recorded or written down some the stories ... I remember him talking about the cold, darkness, the feeling the forest was alive, and how savage the fighting was. Perhaps soldiers on both sides realized the war was close to being decided, in terms of Germany and a last gasp.


Same as to the cold and the feeling the forest was alive.

I was born in 1952. It was still pretty fresh in his mind when I was a kid. When I was 7 or 8, it's like something that happened in 1999 or 2000 today. It's weird to think about in those terms. We tend to think of it as ancient history, but it wasn't then.
I've never been able to find the hard numbers  
Greg from LI : 12/16/2014 4:08 pm : link
But I've read that the winter of 1944-45 was one of the coldest of the 20th century in Western Europe.
yeah  
djm : 12/16/2014 4:27 pm : link
what freaks me out or puts this whole thing into a weird light is that when I was born in 1972, it was only 27 years prior that this shit was still going down.

27 years ago today is 1997. That's yesterday. That's just mind blowing to me.

No wonder people my Dad was close with back when I was a kid, his generation, were still talking about Pearl Harbor day like it was a fresh wound. It was.

Just think how we will all be feeling in 10 years or so when we think back to 9-11. It won't feel like 25 years at all.
actually  
djm : 12/16/2014 4:28 pm : link
I am fucking stupid. 1997 is 17 years ago.

So forget everything I just said.
RE: I've never been able to find the hard numbers  
MaineGiantFan : 12/16/2014 6:41 pm : link
In comment 12038205 Greg from LI said:
Quote:
But I've read that the winter of 1944-45 was one of the coldest of the 20th century in Western Europe.
I believe that the winter of 1941 was also a record breaker. Certainly slowed the German advance in Russia. Also compounding this was German soldiers still fighting in Summer dress that winter. Eastern front was a bitch
RE: Great stuff. Thanks Greg.  
ray in arlington : 12/16/2014 6:55 pm : link
In comment 12038123 Big Blue Blogger said:
Quote:
My uncle was there. The stories are incredible.

Is there a connection between Die Wacht am Rhein and the Battle of the Bulge? I thought the song was from a much earlier conflict.


Musical setting from 1854 according to Wikipedia.

The Germans sing it in "Casablanca", and other bar patrons counter it with "La Marseillaise"
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