Or so the Allies thought.

The Germans, meanwhile, had secretly amassed men and material along the outskirts of the Ardennes along the Schnee Eifel. It would prove to be their last offensive of the war, that would come to be known as the Battle of The Bulge, but during the attack's initial stages, the outcome was very much in doubt. 

With the element of surprise, the Germans launched their furious assault hoping to drive a wedge between the American and British sectors. The main objective was to push all the way to Antwerp in hopes of forcing a negotiated peace with the western powers, so they could then concentrate fully on the Soviet juggernaut steamrolling them on the eastern front.

The attack did initially meet with success as the Allies were caught with their pants down. However, those pants were just as quickly pulled back up, and the German advance was stymied on all fronts, with pockets of slapped together, yet stubborn, resistance buying SHAEF time to recover, reinforce, plan a counterattack, and eventually thwart the Nazi plan.

Admittedly, that is a very over-simplified version of what transpired between 5:30 AM on December 16, '44 and January 28, '45. There are many harrowing, dastardly and heroic tales to be told about the Battle of the Bulge:

      Otto Skorzeny's Grief Commandos: German infiltrator's dressed as GIs, parachuted behind enemy lines to capture several key bridges and disrupt communications. They really didn't accomplish their military objectives but caused confusion and paranoia among the Allies with wild tales of a General Eisenhower execution squad. The German deception was quickly uncovered when they were challenged and couldn't answer trivial questions like what league the Cubs played in or who Li'l Abner's girlfriend was.

      The American 106th Division, The Golden Lions, first taste of combat was taking the brunt of the initial German assault. The division, stretched dangerously thin along the front, broke down, was overrun and basically obliterated as a fighting unit on the first day of the attack. Elements of the 106th managed to hold together and formed up with other units and fought on.

      The 285th Field Artillery Battalion, moving in as reinforcements, were ambushed by the First SS Panzer Division south of the town called Malmédy. Their convoy was surrounded and destroyed, so they surrendered. The prisoners were gathered in a field and executed. Out of 140 men, only 54 survived the infamous Malmédy Massacre.

      Lt. Colonel Joachim Peiper, the fanatical Commander of that First SS Panzer Division, spear-headed a path of destruction through the Allied lines, committing one atrocity after another on both military and civilian targets.

     "Those damned engineers" that Peiper and his fellow commanders cursed as their advances were constantly thwarted by Combat Engineers who blew up bridges and blocked roads with mines, burning gas cans and everything else they could find. The German timetable was shot to hell due to these tactics and helped turn the tide of battle. The 291st Combat Engineers, a small, outnumbered and outgunned detachment held the town of Malmédy itself and it never fell into German hands.

     The American 28th Division's Band and Quartermaster Corps - musicians, clerks and cooks (!) - putting up a stubborn two-day defense around the town of Wiltz before retreating because they were out of ammuntion.

There's plenty more; the see-saw struggle over St. Vith, the massacre of civilians in Stavelot, but I promised this would be a brief history lesson.

The most storied tale to come out of the Bulge was the defense and siege of the Belgian town of Bastogne. Bastogne was a strategic objective for both sides because seven highways intersected there, so it was vital that the Allies keep it out of German hands. With the Allied Air Corps. grounded by bad weather, holding the road intersections and bridges were a priority to stop the German Panzers.

The 106th and 28th Divisions, along with the 9th Armored, were stationed around Bastogne but had been bloodied badly by the German assault. What was left of the 106th and 28th were ordered to withdrawal and regroup further west. Eisenhower knew that Bastogne had to be held and he desperately needed replacements. His only real option was to use the combat experienced 10th Armored and the 82nd (who were sent to St. Vith) and 101st Airborne.

Operation Market Garden had taken it's toll on the 101st. The Division had lost 1/3rd of it's men in Holland and were currently in Mourmelon, France, for rest, resupply and replacements. Things were quiet enough that General Taylor, the Division Commander, was flown back to Washington for a conference. So when Ike's call came, it was Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe who took command of the defense of Bastogne.

Now the 101st Airborne Division gets the lion's share of credit for that defense of Bastogne but, and this is absolutely no knock on the 101st, they weren't the only ones there. 

      A detachment from the 10th Armored Division was also rushed to Bastogne under the command of Colonel William Roberts. Roberts broke his command into three groups, Team O'Hara, Team Desobry and Team Cherry and sent them out to the small towns just outside of Bastogne to buffer the German advance. It was Team Desobry's tanks and infantry that denied the Germans the Houffalize Road out of Noville, a straight shot into Bastogne, buying the 101st enough time to set up their defenses.

      Roberts managed to create another Combat Team by forming up all the retreating stragglers who wanted to stay and fight. This makeshift unit, designated Team SNAFU, was used as a reserve to plug up the gaps in the Allied Perimeter.

      Elements of the 609th and 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion, armed with new higher velocity 76mm guns, managed to get in before Bastogne was completely surrounded. Infantry going up against German armor without armor support for itself was suicidal.

     The 969th Field Artillery Battalion, a colored unit, provided much needed support with their "Long Tom" Howitzers. 

Coupled with the 101st Airborne, these men, facing one of the harshest winters on record, with almost no food (the defenders were sustained on flour flapjacks and snow), medical supplies (The entire 101st Medical Staff was captured early during the siege) and scarce ammunition, managed to hold off the German offensive from December 19 until elements of General Patton's 4th Armored broke the siege on December 27th.

Before the battle was even over, the surrounded defenders were dubbed "The Battle Battered Bastards of Bastogne" (joining their Pacific brethren "The Battling Bastards of Bataan.") a name that is still associated with the 101st Airborne today.

Before the 4th broke through, the Germans sent an envoy under a flag of truce asking, since they were completely surrounded, for the Americans to surrender. When the official request was read to General McAuliffe he responded wryly "Aw, nuts." (Although newer reports claim that McAuliffe actually dropped an F-Bomb.)

His aides thought it was a perfect response, so the official reply was "To the German High Commander: Nuts!" The message was delivered to the envoy by a Colonel Harper who explained to them "If you don't understand was 'Nuts!' means, in plain English, it is the same as 'Go to Hell.' And I will tell you something else - if you continue to attack, we will kill every goddamn German that tries to break into this city!"  

The siege was broken but the Battle for Bastogne and the Bulge was far from over. Massive fighting continued over the next month as the German salient was stopped and then grudgingly pushed back.

On January 28th, 1945, when the front was reestablished back to where it was on December 16th, 1944, the Battle of the Bulge was declared officially over.

Back to Battleground Part One.

Back to Battleground Part Two.