Posted on 12/17/2015 8:23:55 AM PST by WhiskeyX
Generals At War: Episode 06 The Battle of the Bulge The Greatest battle America ever fought was against Hitler's Army when it staged one of the last offensives of the war in Belgium against American troops who were alone and unprepared for the Nazi onslaught. Despite overwhelming odds American troops defeated the German Blitz preventing history from repeating itself as it did when Hitler first invaded Belgium in the begining of the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Oliver North, now about the only good reason to watch Fox, has a great War Stories episode on the Bulge. It was on this past weekend. His histories are among the very best in 1 hour format for getting a grasp on many of our battles.
Once upon a time, I was also assigned to the 101st Airborne Division Fort Campbell Kentucky. If you are ever near Hopkinsville Kentucky or Clarksville Tennessee, it will be worth your while to visit the 101st Airborne museum.
Gentlemen, Operation Nordwind was to seize Strasbourg, France and to cut into the rear of the US Third Army. Schweinfurt was safely under German control 300 kilometers to the northeast of Strasbourg, in northern Bavaria. A summary of Nordwind:
On 31 December 1944, German Army Group G (Heeresgruppe G)— commanded by Generaloberst (Colonel General) Johannes Blaskowitz — and Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein) — commanded by Reichsfuhrer - SS Heinrich Himmler — launched a major offensive against the thinly stretched, 110 kilometres (68 mi)-long front line held by the U.S. 7th Army. Operation Nordwind soon had the understrength U.S. 7th Army in dire straits. The 7th Army — at the orders of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower — had sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes involved in the Battle of the Bulge.
The initial attack was conducted by three Corps of the German 1st Army of Army Group G, and by 9 January, the XXXIX Panzer Corps was heavily engaged as well. By 15 January at least seventeen German divisions (including units in the Colmar Pocket) from Army Group G and Army Group Upper Rhine, including the 6th SS Mountain, 17th SS Panzergrenadier, 21st Panzer, and 25th Panzergrenadier Divisions were engaged in the fighting. Another, smaller, attack was made against the French positions south of Strasbourg, but it was finally stopped
Thanks, well done. The last German effort was commanded by Himmler.
I was in Schweinfurt when Roosevelt died. I think I used the correct S place here if this was the Nazi ball bearing center. It was a long time ago and a little dim for my 90 years. {:-) regards,
No, the planned attack to take out the 3rd Army was Operation Zahnarzt, a planned follow up to Nordwind. Nordwind was basically a push south toward Strasbourg along the west bank of the Rhine.
I have an uncle who is in his 90’s who was in the battle of the bulge. He had been at Omaha beach and ended up in the Huertgen Forest meat grinder where he got trench foot/frost bite and got moved to a hospital for treatment and then to the Ardennes to a quiet sector he was told, yeah right...
My Dad was 47 when I was born and most of what I know, I learned from my older siblings. What I do remember him saying was that he was in the infantry, not sure the number, and they were called the “bastard outfit” because they were added on to so many other groups. I also remember how much he hated Patton because his troops were always given top priority when it came to supplies.
My Dad has been gone ten years now but he was a patriot and loved this country. You are right. We will never see their kind again.
Germany just didn't have the manpower and materiel for a sustained war no matter how good their tanks or other weaponry. And even though Germany introduced heavy tanks and jet planes, the Allies were coming up with their own. And again, they could produce a lot more.
The only chance Hitler had would have been for his super weapons, mainly the V-2 rocket, to destroy the Allies. And again, they weren't powerful enough (no nuclear warhead), and he didn't have enough of them.
LOL! Goering had a brother, though. Name of Albert. Useless bon vivant, or so everybody thought. When they arrested him at the end of WWII enough Jews came forward revealing that he'd helped them escape that the Allies released him immediately. He was then arrested by the Czechs, and the same thing happened. THIS is his story.
One of the interesting aspects of the story is the way in which Hermann Goering went to so much trouble getting his brother out of trouble despite knowing in general what his brother was doing to help Jews to escape.
Yes, he did. It gives Hermann Goering's character a complexity that is a little disagreeable to moral absolutists but is rather intriguing. It excuses nothing, of course, but apparently yes, he knew what his little brother was doing, and covered for him.
Par, you are correct on Zahnarzt, I got it mixed in with NordWind.
Yes, Schweinfurt was the city the USAAF and RAF hit repeatedly to stop ball bearing production. Thanks for being there back then and I’m glad you got home safely.
Or, as we like to say it Auf Deutch, Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein or Ardennenoffensive.
'We can still lose this war!'
- U.S. General George S. Patton , 4 January 1945.
But if he had even one with a Virus House nuclear warhead, or even one submarine-launched, terminally guided Reichenberg V1 similarly equipped, we might have lost Washington, DC and the then-new Pentagon headquarters and General Staff. As well as the President and his cronies.
But if he had even one with a Virus House nuclear warhead, or even one submarine-launched, terminally guided Reichenberg V1 similarly equipped, we might have lost Washington, DC and the then-new Pentagon headquarters and General Staff. As well as the President and his cronies.
My dad was in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, the capture of the bridge at Remagen and the liberation of Burgesgarten as a First Div Army Ranger. 2 purple hearts, silver star and bronze star. Almost never spoke of it.
In late 1966-'67 I was stationed with my first line outfit, the Second battalion of the 70th Armored regiment...which has the interesting distinction of being the oldest and most decorated independent tank battalion in the US Army. [Still is- they did pretty well in Desert Storm and OIF] But in the Spring of 1967, we started getting tourists dropping by out motor pool- guys who had been in the 70th twenty-plus years previously, were in Germany on vacation or business, and stopped by *to see how the old outfit was getting along.* Our battalion commander and sergeant major found out about it, and gave orders that any time one of the old hands dropped by without warning, they were to be immediately escorted to the Old Man's office, where they were invited as guests of honor to eat with us in our mess hall, were given a tour of the barracks and arms room [M14s for the Infantry then, close enough to the M1, and us tankers still used the M1911A1 .45 and M3 *Grease Gun*] and got to tour the motor pool. Though by then we were using the M60 and M60A1 tanks [Patton tanks] they were close enough to the WWII M26 Pershing that they were, again, familiar, and several got photos with them with the 1967 tank that carried the front numbers of their old WWII Sherman. In fact one guy told me what the name was of his old HQ company tank back then, and since I was in the three-tank HQ company tank section, *Hangman* became the new name for our ride. Of course those old guys were civilians, and not trained on the M60, and there were probably a lot of regulations against giving them a ride, or [heaven forbid!] letting them drive. Usually to our washrack, the fuel dump where we filled up, and back to the motor pool. We'd stick a fatigue shirt on one, show him how to use the new tanker's helmet commo switch, and off we'd go, and not once nailed by the MPs.
And a couple of times I'd ask one of them what it was like in the 70th in '44 and '44. Usually the answer was about the people: we took care of each other or real swell guys. So one time I asked a guy [gunner] about the Battle of the Bulge and Bastogne.
Cold, he said. And real busy.
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The question is also, how much more territory would the Russkies have acquired if Hitler’s attack in the West had more success?
The question is what if Hitler had managed to neutralize Russia by taking Moscow, and creating havoc within the Soviet Government. The War in the East could have taken decades if that occurred. I think Stalin was on much thinner ice than most think. Had Moscow been taken, he may very well have been deposed, and another “Civil War” broken out between the Russians.
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