Die Maas im Visier
On December 24, 1944 the 2. Panzer Division advanced further westwards without resistance. The march was delayed again and again because fuel was short and was distributed only by jerry cans. Frustration spread among the tank soldiers. Without the fuel problems the river Meuse would have been crossed already, they said. In this early morning the advance party approached Celles, eight more kilometres up to the Meuse. At a crossroads nearby the restaurant "Pavillion Ardennais" a tank hit a mine. An officer used the opportunity to ask the landlady of the bistro, madame Marthe Monrique, for the way to Dinant. This lady now said that the Americans had mined all the roads in the direction of the Meuse and laid out ambushes. The officer believed madame Monrique and ordered to take up an all round defence position. The chance to cross the Meuse quickly was wasted.
At the second Christmas day the 37. U.S. Tank Battalion of the 4. Armoured Division was only eight kilometres far from Bastogne. Good weather permitted heavy use of the Air Force. Patton: “Fine weather, to kill Germans ". At 15.00 the assault on Bastogne started. At first the village of Assenois was taken. 19-year Private James Hendrix managed all by himself to take two 88 mm guns in a surprise attack. A short time later the men from Bastogne joined Pattons 3. Army. Meanwhile the Royal Air Force bombed St. Vith with 300 Lancaster and Halifax, 200 civilians died in the ruins.
The second Christmas Day should be the beginning of the end of the German advance. General Ernie Harmons 2. Armoured Division began to surround and annihilate the Germans in Celles. It was obvious for the GIs that they could decide the battle of the Ardennes here and now. Although the German 2. Panzer Division got support by a strong unit of Panzer-Lehr from the southeast they could not join the battles either any more. Typhoon fighter-bombers destroyed the approaching Tigers and Panthers. In dozens of small battles Harmon's tanks turned the German opponents off. The German 9. Panzer Division which was only 25 km away wanted to help their comrades. In vain. At the end of the day the casualty list of the Germans looked that way: 2 500 fallen and injured men, 1 200 prisoners, 405 vehicles destroyed, 88 tanks and assault guns destroyed and the entire artillery, 75 guns, lost.
During the daily discussion of the situation in Germany, von Rundstedt tried to convince Hitler in vain to cease the offensive. But Hitler stood by his strategy, announced a small relief offensive in the Alsace, called "North Wind", and insisted in the taking of Bastogne. Afterwards Model should re-start the offensive again with fresh forces. Around midnight of December 30, nine Panzer- and Volksgrenadier Divisions renewed their attack on Bastogne.
The corridor which Patton had opened was three kilometres wide now. Reinforcements rolled in. He also wanted to put an offensive into start which should remove the wedge. With two fresh divisions, the 11. Tank and the 87. Infantry Division Patton aimed at Houffalize.
The last great attack of the Luftwaffe on Allied airfields started on January 1. This operation, planned by Göring and Hitler, got the code-name "Hermann". The mission was to gain the air supremacy in the west by one single blow. At 07.45, 1 100 Focke Wulf 190 and Messerschmidt Me 109 took off in four large formations from their military airstrips and flew under guidance of a Junkers Ju 88, at total radio silence, in the direction of the Ardennes. Behind the Rhine the Ju 88 passed on responsibility to beamers and other visual aids to conduct the way. The attack was over by 10.30. 27 U.S. and British airfields between Brussels and Eindhoven were destroyed, more than 300 aircraft shot in flames, a Pyrrhic victory because 300 German pilots and 59 squadron leaders were killed at the same time. The Luftwaffe should never recover from that bloodletting again.
The first German large-scale attack on Bastogne had led to nothing. The next one should mean the hoped-for capture of the town. The Allies started with their pincer movement from south and the north at the same time. Patton's units moved to the west and to the east of the road Bastogne - Liège in the direction of the north, Montgomery sent the British XXX. Corps under general Sir Bryan Horrocks to the south, in the direction of the Houffalize.
Von Manteuffel sent three army corps in the battle but the U.S. resistance hardened from hour to hour from day to day. On January 9 Patton sent another corps, the III., in the fights for Wiltz and St.Vith, the VIII. Corps should further advance on Houffalize. Approximately at the same time Hitler realized the defeat and ordered a general retreat behind the line Dichamps - Longchamps.
January 12 was going to be a memorable day for the Germans. Field marshal Konjew opened the offensive at the East Front with an artillery barrage never seen to date at the upper Vistula. In the Ardennes, American units encircled 15 000 elite soldiers between Wiltz and Bastogne. Among other units also the largest part of the 5. Paratrooper Division. With this operation the battle of Bastogne was ended.
The Allies met in Houffalize on January 16. The German great retreat started few days later on January 20. At first Dietrich's 6. Panzer Army rolled eastward followed then by von Manteuffels army. The heavy attack on St. Vith started two days later. The weather brightened up and Allied fighter bombers destroyed the German convoys. The effect of these air raids was devastating. 1 177 vehicles were destroyed totally, further 536 were damaged. In the morning of January 23 the last attack on the town started. The Germans, armed with light weapons and machine guns only, offered hard resistance. By midnight the fight was decided and with it the “Battle of the Bulge”.