Antony Beevor
* * *
ARDENNES 1944
Hitler’s Last Gamble
Contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LIST OF MAPS
TABLE OF MILITARY RANKS
1. Victory Fever
2. Antwerp and the German Frontier
3. The Battle for Aachen
4. Into the Winter of War
5. The Hürtgen Forest
6. The Germans Prepare
7. Intelligence Failure
8. Saturday 16 December
9. Sunday 17 December
10. Monday 18 December
11. Skorzeny and Heydte
12. Tuesday 19 December
13. Wednesday 20 December
14. Thursday 21 December
15. Friday 22 December
16. Saturday 23 December
17. Sunday 24 December
18. Christmas Day
19. Tuesday 26 December
20. Preparing the Allied Counter-Offensive
21. The Double Surprise
22. Counter-Attack
23. Flattening the Bulge
24. Conclusions
ILLUSTRATIONS
ORDER OF BATTLE, ARDENNES OFFENSIVE
NOTES
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
GLOSSARY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOLLOW PENGUIN
ARDENNES 1944
Antony Beevor is the author of Crete – The Battle and the Resistance (Runciman Prize), Stalingrad (Samuel Johnson Prize, Wolfson Prize for History and Hawthornden Prize for Literature), Berlin – The Downfall, The Battle for Spain (Premio La Vanguardia) and D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (Prix Henry Malherbe and the RUSI Westminster Medal). His latest work, The Second World War, has been another No. 1 international bestseller. His books have appeared in thirty languages and have sold more than six million copies. A former chairman of the Society of Authors, he has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Kent, Bath and East Anglia, and is a visiting professor at the University of Kent. In the United States he received the 2014 Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.
By the Same Author
Inside the British Army
Crete: The Battle and the Resistance
Paris after the Liberation (with Artemis Cooper)
Stalingrad
Berlin: The Downfall 1945
The Mystery of Olga Chekhova
The Battle for Spain
D-Day
The Second World War
For Adam Beevor
List of Illustrations
1. US infantry advancing through the Siegfried Line, or Westwall, in October 1944
2. Fallschirmjäger mortar crew in the Hürtgen Forest
3. 1st Infantry Division in the Hürtgen Forest
4. Medics with wounded soldier
5. French troops in the Vosges
6. Maastricht meeting with Bradley, Tedder, Eisenhower, Montgomery and Simpson
7. German prisoners captured in early December in the Hürtgen Forest
8. Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model, commander-in-chief Army Group B (IWM MH12850)
9. Field Marshal Montgomery lecturing an increasingly exasperated Eisenhower
10. General von Manteuffel of the Fifth Panzer Army
11. Oberstgruppenführer-SS Sepp Dietrich of the Sixth Panzer Army
12. Oberst then Generalmajor Heinz Kokott
13. Oberstleutnant Friedrich Freiherr von der Heydte
14. Briefing panzer commanders before the Ardennes offensive on 16 December 1944
15. Two SS panzergrenadiers enjoying captured American cigarettes
16. A Königstiger tank carrying soldiers of the 3rd Fallschirmjäger-Division
17. Volksgrenadiers advance loaded down with machine-gun belts and panzerfausts
18. The first killing of American prisoners by the Kampfgruppe Peiper in Honsfeld
19. SS panzergrenadiers pass a burning convoy of American vehicles
20. American prisoners taken by the 1st SS Panzer-Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
21. The 26th Infantry Regiment arrives to defend Bütgenbach at the base of the Elsenborn ridge
22. Members of the same regiment manoeuvring an anti-tank gun as the Germans approach
23. Belgian refugees leaving Langlir as the Fifth Panzer Army advances (IWM 49925)
24. As the Germans advance on St Vith, the people of Schönberg shelter in caves
25. American medics turned skis into toboggans to drag the wounded back for evacuation
26. American troops dig in on the forward edge of a wood (IWM 050367)
27. As the Germans advance on Bastogne, townsfolk start to flee in farm carts
28. A platoon of M-36 tank destroyers near Werbomont
29. Volksgrenadiers taken prisoner in the fighting round Rocherath–Krinkelt
30. Brigadier General Robert W. Hasbrouck receiving the silver star from Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges
31. US military police check the identities of Belgian refugees near Marche-en-Famenne
32. Belgian refugees rush to cross the Meuse at Dinant
33. A bazooka team from the 28th Infantry Division after three days of fighting in Wiltz
34. A young SS trooper taken prisoner near Malmédy (IWM EA048337)
35. Civilians murdered by Kampfgruppe Peiper at Stavelot
36. Vapour trails over Bastogne
37. 23 December: the US Air Force send in transport aircraft to drop supplies to Bastogne
38. American wounded in cellars in Bastogne
39. Bastogne: paratroopers of the 101st Airborne sing carols on Christmas Eve
40. Remnants of the 2nd Panzer-Division in a farmyard in Foy-Notre-Dame (IWM B13260)
41. Bastogne. General Patton with Brigadier General McAuliffe and Lieutenant Colonel Chappuis.
42. American reinforcements advancing in steeply wooded Ardennes terrain
43. A patrol from the British XXX Corps in the Ardennes wearing snowsuits
44. Soldiers from the 26th Infantry Regiment finally advance from Bütgenbach
45. La Roche-en-Ardenne in ruins
46. Investigators start the work of identifying the American soldiers massacred at Baugnez, near Malmédy
47. A very young prisoner from the Waffen-SS
48. Joachim Peiper on trial for war crimes including the massacre near Malmédy
ILLUSTRATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The majority of the photographs come from The National Archives in the USA. Other photographs are from: 1, 13, AKG Images; 5, Documentation Française; 11, Tank Museum; 12, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz; 6–7, 18, 20, 25–6, 30–32, 34, 36, 38–9, 41, 46–7, US Army (part of National Archives); 8, 23, 26, 40, Imperial War Museum, London; 10, Heinz Seidler, Bonn Bad Godersberg, reproduced from W. Goolrick and O. Tanner, The Battle of the Bulge.
List of Maps
The Ardennes: Front line just before German offensive
The Western Front
Antwerp and the Scheldt
The Battle for Aachen
The Hürtgen Forest
The German Offensive
The Northern Shoulder
The Destruction of the 106th Division and Defence of St Vith
The Destruction of the 28th Division
The Southern Shoulder
Rocherath–Krinkelt and the Elsenborn Ridge
Advance of Kampfgruppe Peiper
Bastogne
VII Corps and XVIII Airborne Front
The Lunge for the Meuse
The Third Army Advance on Bastogne
Operation Nordwind, Alsace
Crushing the
Bulge
The Ardennes: Furthest point of German advance
Key to Military Symbols
Allied
12th Army Group
First US Army
US VII Corps
British XXX Corps
101st Airborne Division
Combat Command B of 10th Armored Division
335th Infantry Regiment, 84th Division
German
Army Group B
Fifth Panzer Army
26th Volksgrenadier Division
Panzer Lehr Division
3rd Fallschirmjäger Division
115th Panzergrenadier Regiment, 15th Panzergrenadier Division
Reconnaissance Battalion, 26th Volksgrenadier Division
Table of Military Ranks
American British German army Waffen-SS
Private Private/Trooper Schütze/Kanonier/Jäger Schütze
Private First Class Oberschütze Oberschütze
Lance-Corporal Gefreiter Sturmmann
Corporal Corporal Obergefreiter Rottenführer
Sergeant Sergeant Feldwebel/Wachtmeister Oberscharführer
Staff Sergeant Staff/Colour Sergeant Oberfeldwebel Hauptscharführer
Technical Sergeant Regtl Quartermaster Sgt
Master Sergeant Coy/Sqn Sergeant Stabsfeldwebel Sturmscharführer
Major
Regimental Sergeant
Major
2nd Lieutenant 2nd Lieutenant Leutnant Untersturmführer
Lieutenant Lieutenant Oberleutnant Obersturmführer
Captain Captain Hauptmann/Rittmeister Hauptsturmführer
Major Major Major Sturmbannführer
Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Oberstleutnant Obersturmbannführer
Colonel Colonel Oberst Standartenführer
Brigadier General Brigadier * Generalmajor Oberführer
Brigadeführer
Major General Major General ** Generalleutnant Gruppenführer
Lieutenant General Lieutenant General *** General der Infanterie/ Obergruppenführer/
Artillerie/Panzertruppe General-der Waffen-SS
General General **** Generaloberst Obergruppenführer
General of the Army Field Marshal ***** Generalfeldmarschall
This can only be an approximate guide to equivalent ranks since each army has its own variations. Some ranks have been omitted in the interests of simplicity. In the British and US armies the following ranks command the following sub-units (below a battalion), units (battalion or regiment) and formations (brigade, division or corps).
Rank British and Canadian army US Army Approx. number of men at full strength
Corporal Section Squad 8
2nd/Lieutenant Platoon Platoon 30
Captain/Major Company Company 120
Lieutenant Colonel Battalion or Armoured
Regiment Battalion 700
Colonel Regiment 2,400
Brigadier Brigade Combat command 2,400
Major General Division Division 10,000
Lieutenant General Corps Corps 30,000–40,000
General Army Army 70,000–150,000
Field Marshal/
General of the Army Army Group Army Group 200,000–350,000
Victory Fever
Early on 27 August 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower left Chartres to see the newly liberated Paris. ‘It’s Sunday,’ the Supreme Allied Commander told General Omar Bradley, whom he took with him. ‘Everyone will be sleeping late. We can do it without any fuss.’ Yet the two generals were hardly inconspicuous as they bowled along towards the French capital on their supposedly ‘informal visit’. The Supreme Commander’s olive-drab Cadillac was escorted by two armoured cars, and a Jeep with a brigadier general leading the way.
When they reached the Porte d’Orléans, an even larger escort from the 38th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron awaited in review order under the orders of Major General Gerow. Leonard Gerow, an old friend of Eisenhower, still seethed with resentment because General Philippe Leclerc of the French 2nd Armoured Division had consistently disobeyed all his orders during the advance on Paris. The day before, Gerow, who considered himself the military governor of Paris, had forbidden Leclerc and his division to take part in General de Gaulle’s procession from the Arc de Triomphe to Notre-Dame. He had told him instead to ‘continue on present mission of clearing Paris and environs of enemy’. Leclerc had ignored Gerow throughout the liberation of the capital, but that morning he had sent part of his division north out of the city against German positions around Saint-Denis.
The streets of Paris were empty because the retreating Germans had seized almost every vehicle that could move. Even the Métro was unpredictable because of the feeble power supply; in fact the so-called ‘City of Light’ was reduced to candles bought on the black market. Its beautiful buildings looked faded and tired, although they were mercifully intact. Hitler’s order to reduce it to ‘a field of rubble’ had not been followed. In the immediate aftermath of joy, groups in the street still cheered every time they caught sight of an American soldier or vehicle. Yet it would not be long before the Parisians started muttering ‘Pire que les boches’ – ‘Worse than the Boches’.
Despite Eisenhower’s remark about going to Paris ‘without any fuss’, their visit had a definite purpose. They went to meet General Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the French provisional government which President Roosevelt refused to recognize. Eisenhower, a pragmatist, was prepared to ignore his President’s firm instruction that United States forces in France were not there to install General de Gaulle in power. The Supreme Commander needed stability behind his front lines, and since de Gaulle was the only man likely to provide it, he was willing to support him.
Neither de Gaulle nor Eisenhower wanted the dangerous chaos of liberation to get out of hand, especially at a time of frenzied rumours, sudden panics, conspiracy theories and the ugly denunciations of alleged collaborators. Together with a comrade, the writer J. D. Salinger, a Counter Intelligence Corps staff sergeant with the 4th Infantry Division, had arrested a suspect in an action close to the Hôtel de Ville, only for the crowd to drag him away and beat him to death in front of their eyes. De Gaulle’s triumphal procession the day before from the Arc de Triomphe to Notre-Dame had ended in wild fusillades within the cathedral itself. This incident convinced de Gaulle that he must disarm the Resistance and conscript its members into a regular French army. A request for 15,000 uniforms was passed that very afternoon to SHAEF – the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.* Unfortunately, there were not enough small sizes because the average French male was distinctly shorter than his American contemporary.
De Gaulle’s meeting with the two American generals took place in the ministry of war in the rue Saint-Dominique. This was where his short-lived ministerial career had begun in the tragic summer of 1940, and he had returned there to emphasize the impression of continuity. His formula for erasing the shame of the Vichy regime was a majestically simple one: ‘The Republic has never ceased to exist.’ De Gaulle wanted Eisenhower to keep Leclerc’s division in Paris to ensure law and order, but since some of Leclerc’s units had now started to move out, he suggested that perhaps the Americans could impress the population with ‘a show of force’ to reassure them that the Germans would not be coming back. Why not march a whole division or even two through Paris on its way to the front? Eisenhower, thinking it slightly ironic that de Gaulle should be asking for American troops ‘to establish his position firmly’, turned to Bradley and asked what he thought. Bradley said that it would be perfectly possible to arrange within the next couple of days. So Eisenhower invited de Gaulle to take the salute, accompanied by General Bradley. He himself would stay away.
On their return to Chartres, Eisenhower invited General Sir Bernard Montgomery to join de Gaulle and Bradley for the parade, but he refused to come to Paris. Such a small but pertinent detail did not deter certain British newspapers from accusing the Americans of trying to hog all the glory
for themselves. Inter-Allied relations were to be severely damaged by the compulsion in Fleet Street to see almost every decision by SHAEF as a slight to Montgomery and thus the British. This reflected the more widespread resentment that Britain was being sidelined. The Americans were now running the show and would claim the victory for themselves. Eisenhower’s British deputy, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, was alarmed by the prejudice of the English press: ‘From what I heard at SHAEF, I could not help fearing that this process was sowing the seeds of a grave split between the Allies.’
The following evening the 28th Infantry Division, under its commander, Major General Norman D. Cota, moved from Versailles towards Paris in heavy rain. ‘Dutch’ Cota, who had shown extraordinary bravery and leadership on Omaha beach, had taken over command less than two weeks before, after a German sniper had killed his predecessor. The fighting in the heavy hedgerow country of Normandy had been slow and deadly during June and July, but the breakout led by General George S. Patton’s Third Army at the beginning of August had produced a surge of optimism during the charge to the River Seine and Paris itself.