THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412160008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
At 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16, 1944 - 50 years ago today - the German Army launched a surprise counteroffensive along a 60-mile front in the hilly Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg.
As The Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of World War II (New York, 1978) puts it, the German counteroffensive initiated ``the largest pitched battle ever fought by American arms.'' It was fought in bitter winter weather. Bastogne - a crossroads where surrounded Americans withstood the worst the Germans could throw at them - is the most memorable symbol of the battle.
When the campaign ended, in the last week of January 1945, American casualties totaled 81,000; German, 100,000; British, 1,400. Some 19,000 Americans had been killed. Another 15,000 were prisoners of war. The rest were wounded, crippled by cold or missing in action.
The Ardennes campaign, known formally as the Battle of the Ardennes and popularly as the Battle of the Bulge, was conceived by Hitler to save the steadily shrinking Third Reich. Hitler chose the Ardennes because it was thinly defended by American troops at the end of lengthy supply lines. He believed they would be able to do little to block the German thrust.
That thrust was far more powerful than the Allies had believed possible. Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower had earlier bet Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery that the fighting in Europe would end by Christmas Day. Montgomery would win the bet. Nazi Germany was doomed, yes, but it would not be subjugated until the spring of 1945.
Hitler's plan - ambitious beyond reason in light of his war machine's immense losses - was to split the Allied armies on the Western Front and to seize the Belgian port of Antwerp. He hoped that the Americans and British would then seek a negotiated peace. Hitler calculated that even if the German Army did not reach Antwerp, the Ardennes campaign would buy time for Germany to direct more firepower against the advancing Soviet Army.
Some U.S. military-intelligence teams near the front detected signs of a buildup in the Ardennes and passed the word upward. Gen. Omar Bradley, commander of the 12th Army Group, knew that a German counterattack might occur. He had designated specific divisions to respond to one.
But no one on the Allied side foresaw the dimensions of the offensive. Against all odds, the Germans had assembled 250,000 men into 28 divisions, 10 of them mechanized. They faced a half-dozen American divisions, one of them armored.
These Americans fought far better than Hitler expected they would. They delayed the German advance. But the counter-offensive created a bulge in the 350-mile Allied front line 40 miles wide and 60 miles deep. Out of ammunition and fuel, the German units at the tip of the bulge halted on Dec. 24, 65 miles short of Antwerp and the costly rollback began.
A million men or more, about 600,000 of them American, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. The survivors - some of whom live in Hampton Roads - dwindle.
On June 6, the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy was commemorated with appropriate ceremony. The Battle of the Bulge was also a watershed in World War II. It is no less worthy than D-Day of reverent remembrance, reflection, mourning, pride.
At 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 16, 1944 - 50 years ago today - the German Army launched a surprise counteroffensive along a 60-mile front in the hilly Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg.
As The Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of World War II (New York, 1978) puts it, the German counteroffensive initiated ``the largest pitched battle ever fought by American arms.'' It was fought in bitter winter weather. Bastogne - a crossroads where surrounded Americans withstood the worst the Germans could throw at them - is the most memorable symbol of the battle.
When the campaign ended, in the last week of January 1945, American casualties totaled 81,000; German, 100,000; British, 1,400. Some 19,000 Americans had been killed. Another 15,000 were prisoners of war. The rest were wounded, crippled by cold or missing in action.
The Ardennes campaign, known formally as the Battle of the Ardennes and popularly as the Battle of the Bulge, was conceived by Hitler to save the steadily shrinking Third Reich. Hitler chose the Ardennes because it was thinly defended by American troops at the end of lengthy supply lines. He believed they would be able to do little to block the German thrust.
That thrust was far more powerful than the Allies had believed possible. Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower had earlier bet Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery that the fighting in Europe would end by Christmas Day. Montgomery would win the bet. Nazi Germany was doomed, yes, but it would not be subjugated until the spring of 1945.
Hitler's plan - ambitious beyond reason in light of his war machine's immense losses - was to split the Allied armies on the Western Front and to seize the Belgian port of Antwerp. He hoped that the Americans and British would then seek a negotiated peace. Hitler calculated that even if the German Army did not reach Antwerp, the Ardennes campaign would buy time for Germany to direct more firepower against the advancing Soviet Army.
Some U.S. military-intelligence teams near the front detected signs of a buildup in the Ardennes and passed the word upward. Gen. Omar Bradley, commander of the 12th Army Group, knew that a German counterattack might occur. He had designated specific divisions to respond to one.
But no one on the Allied side foresaw the dimensions of the offensive. Against all odds, the Germans had assembled 250,000 men into 28 divisions, 10 of them mechanized. They faced a half-dozen American divisions, one of them armored.
These Americans fought far better than Hitler expected they would. They delayed the German advance. But the counter-offensive created a bulge in the 350-mile Allied front line 40 miles wide and 60 miles deep. Out of ammunition and fuel, German units at the tip of the bulge halted on Dec. 24, 65 miles short of Antwerp, and the costly rollback began.
A million men or more, about 600,000 of them American, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. The survivors - some of whom live in Hampton Roads - dwindle.
On June 6, the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy was commemorated with appropriate ceremony. The Battle of the Bulge was also a watershed in World War II. It is no less worthy than D-Day of reverent remembrance, reflection, mourning, pride. by CNB