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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 12/16/2002 5:38:35 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Dec. 16, 1944 - Jan. 25, 1945 Note: Since all the mentions of this army and that army can become confusing, German units are given in italics, and American units are in normal type.  The Battle of the Bulge began with the German attack (Operation Wacht am Rhein and the Herbstnebel plan) on the morning of December 16, 1944. Two later attacks on New Year's Day 1945 attempted to create second fronts in Holland (Operation Schneeman) and in northern France (Operation Nordwind). The overall German plan is laid out in the map above (from Hugh Cole's official history "The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge", Map IX). In the original plan, three Armies (the Sixth Panzer Army [referred to by Hitler as Sixth SS Panzer Army but not formally designated as SS at the time - Cole, p. 76], Fifth Panzer Army, and Seventh Army) would attack. In a revised plan on November 1, 1944, the Sixth Panzer Army, for political reasons [Cole, p. 34], was given the official role of making the main effort and capturing Antwerp. .gif) The Fifth Panzer Army was not designated as the main force in name, but it actually had the responsibility of hitting the center of the American lines, promptly capturing the highly strategic rail and road center of St. Vith, and driving on to capture Brussels. The Seventh Army in the south was to peel off as it moved west and then turn and form a defensive line, in order to form a buffer area to prevent U.S. reinforcements from hitting the Fifth Panzer Army. In the offical order signed by Hitler on November 10, 1944, the Fifteenth Army was added [Cole, pp. 34-36]: The Fifteenth Army "was not to be employed until the Allies had reacted in force to the German attack, and in any case could not be expected to launch a large-scale attack until the Allied front east of Aachen had been drastically denuded of troops." In fact, on December 13, 1944, the US 2nd Infantry Division began an attack in the Fifteenth Army area that further nullified any effect the Fifteenth Army might have in the attack. With the exception of the critical road and rail center at St. Vith, the main towns were to be bypassed by the attacking panzer (armored) forces, so that the speed of the attack would not be slowed. Rear echelon infantry would clean out the bypassed towns. The military goal was to capture Antwerp and cut off the Allied troops to the north. The political goal was to cause division among the Allies and destroy the Allied coalition. The terrain was the dense Ardennes Forest. The weather was chilly mist and fog, so that Allied air support was nullified until December 23. (In fact, one of the German plans was named Herbstnebel or Autumn Mist.) In addition, ground visibility for the troops was often very low, due to the trees and fog. The dense forest had very few roads, none of which were large. Traffic jams on both sides of the front were a major problem for both Armies.  The only railroad on the entire front to cross from Germany into Belgium came to St. Vith, Belgium, making St. Vith, which was also a major road junction the most vital initial prize the Germans sought, in order to allow supplies to flow to support the remainder of the attack. It was no accident that St. Vith was right in the very center of the Fifth and Sixth Panzer Armies: St. Vith had to be the main line of supply for both Armies. The German plan called for capture of St. Vith by 1800 on December 17 by Fifth Panzer Army, but the defenders held at St. Vith until late on December 21. This led the German Fifth Panzer Army Commander, Gen. Hasso von Manteuffel, to recommend to Hitler's adjutant on December 24 that "the German Army give up the attack and return to the West Wall." Manteuffel's reason for this recommendation was "due to the time lost by his Fifth Panzer Army in the St. Vith area." [Manteuffel press conference of 22 December 1964 in Watertown, NY] Hitler did not accept Manteuffel's recommendation, and the German supplies began to run out. German columns ran low on gas and ammunition well before reaching even their first major goal: the Meuse River. On December 23, the weather cleared, and Allied planes finally filled the skies in support of the besieged American troops. (Some of the GI's had wondered why they saw German planes before that, despite the conditions, but saw no American planes.)  Slowly but surely the Allies -- from the North, the West, and the South -- closed the salient, the Bulge. The First US Army troops from the north met the Third US Army troops from the south at Houffalize, Belgium on January 16, 1945. St. Vith was recaptured on January 23, 1945. The ending date of the Bulge is considered as January 25, 1945, since this was the date on which the lost positions were officially thought to have been completely regained. In fact, as a series of letters in the VBOB "Bulge Bugle" have noted, some positions were not regained until after January 25, 1945. In the largest battle ever fought by the U. S. Army, with 600,000 GI's involved, it is difficult to place one unit or location ahead of another in importance. But the reality is that two crucial stands at the front lines are what really doomed the German attack to certain failure: Holding the Northern Shoulder: The 99th Infantry Divsion and the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion bore the brunt of the Sixth Panzer Army attack on Day 1, and they held most of their ground, creating what would become the northern shoulder. (Keep in mind that the southern shoulder was one that the Germans themselves intended to form with their Seventh Army -- which they pretty much succeeded in doing.) Holding St. Vith: The 7th Armored Division and the 106th Infantry Division, with elements of the 9th Armored Division and 28th Infantry Division, held St. Vith four days beyond the German timetable. Even the German Fifth Panzer Army commander recognized that the attack was doomed as a result.  It is significant to note that the 7th Armored Division was near Aachen, Germany when the German attack began. The 7th Armored Division had to move 60-70 miles to the south on Day 2. If the 99th Infantry Division and 291st Engineer Combat Battalion had not held on the northern shoulder, the 7th Armored Division never would have reached St. Vith. Even when the 7th Armored Division had reached St. Vith, it was the troops on the northern shoulder and the newly arrived 82nd Airborne Division that kept a very narrow escape route open for the virtually surrounded defenders of St. Vith. But once the defense of St. Vith was set up, that defense also bolstered the defense of the northern shoulder, as both defenses forced the German columns off of their planned routes and led to considerable congestion as the Gemran columns were then funneled in between the northern shoulder and the St. Vith salient. But what about Bastogne? In popular thinking, the Battle of the Bulge is synonymous with the Battle of Bastogne. This is very unfortunate, since it ignores the real military keys (holding the northern shoulder and holding St. Vith) to the defeat of the Germans. Journalists hungry for some sign of American success at stopping the German onslaught played up the defense of Bastogne, where Gen. Anthony McAuliffe (101st Airborne Division) said "Nuts" to a German surrender demand and where the Third US Army (10th Armored Division) broke through the German Seventh Army's buffer to reach the surrounded town on Day 3 of the Battle of the Bulge. This was truly heroic stuff. But from a military strategy point of view (and this can easily be seen on the map above), while Bastogne was a strategically important major road junction for sustaining the attack, it was on the periphery of the attack and well behind the initial front lines. The German plan was to have the panzers bypass Bastogne and let the later echelons of infantry and artillery units clean it out. And the panzers did succeed in bypassing Bastogne, so that their plan in that sector was on schedule. As a source for rallying U. S. spirits, the defense of Bastogne and McAuliffe's "Nuts" were a success. But from a strategic perspective, the German fate had already been sealed at St. Vith, when they could not take that critical supply center on Day 2 - nor on Days 3, 4, 5, and most of 6. Bastogne did not become surrounded by forces intent on taking it until the night of December 21, Day 6 of the Battle of the Bulge. And the famous "Nuts" did not come until December 22, Day 7. Heroic as the deeds of the defenders of Bastogne were, the defense of Bastogne is a very important secondary element but not one of the true strategic keys to the German failure. 
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Big bump for the vets who survived the Battle of the Bulge and for our friends, Ed and Tom.
By Peter Guinta
Associated Press
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — While helping his sister clean out her garage, Walter Kelly ended up with historic World War II documents — and a mystery as well.
The documents he found include original operational plans, maps, overlays, air routes, and final orders for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France by Allied airborne units on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Now, Kelly wants the world to see and study what was hidden from sight for nearly 60 years. D-Day was the largest opposed landing of all time, and it proved the beginning of the end for Hitler’s Germany.
“These plans are one of 10 copies made between May 31 and June 1, 1944,” Kelly said. “This was the big picture.”
Landing involved 176,000 men and 2,700 ships attacking the Atlantic Wall, the German fortifications, along 60 miles of Normandy beaches. Part of that force included 20,000 paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division and Allied glider units who dropped inland — many right on top of the Germans — to cut capture bridges and railroad tracks, spread confusion and prevent reinforcements from reaching the defenders on the coast.
Kelly’s documents also include many historical details, such as the contributions of French intelligence agents as well as analyses of enemy strength, gun emplacements and radar installations. They also pinpoint airborne and glider drop zones, passwords and countersigns.
However, according to Marty Morgan, research historian for the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, other sets of these plans do exist.
“It’s difficult to say without actually seeing them, but we have four or five sets of those plans already,” Morgan said. “These were an absolute necessity for briefing troops. It sounds like material we have here in abundance.”
Kelly said that he called and wrote collectors and experts all over the country and no one had anything like it.
“What they did have were plans held by company and battalion commanders, which were only a portion of the whole plan. No one had a full, detailed battle plan, which these are,” he said. “When you look at the documentation in history books, no written record was kept by any official organization that participated in the battle. All the documents surfaced later.”
This particular set came from 9th Air Force headquarters, which was in charge of the airborne troops and the gliders, he said. Kelly has had the plans examined by four officers from the Air Force Museum in Warner-Robbins, Ga., who want the plans for a D-Day exhibit.
Unearthing these historic documents sparked a mystery that still isn’t solved. Where did they come from?
That story begins with Staff Sgt. Drury McCarthy, an artillery observer with the 11th Armored Division of Gen. George Patton’s Third Army. He was stationed at Fort Ord, Calif., during D-Day and arrived in France Dec. 24, long after the landing. McCarthy fought through the Battle of the Bulge and ended the war in Germany.
Afterward, he came home, went to Stanford University in California, and met and married the former Donna Kelly, Walter’s sister. He became an architect and builder and died of a heart attack at age 69 in 1993.
Walter Kelly and McCarthy’s son, Michael, cleaned out McCarthy’s garage when Donna McCarthy decided to move to Florida. In doing so, they found a safe buried deep inside a file cabinet. The plans were inside. All pages were marked “Top Secret,” with “Neptune-Bigot” underneath, the true authenticating words for D-Day plans.
“We had no idea what it was,” Kelly said. “We wrote to the Department of the Army, and they declassified them in 1996. We also had them archivally preserved.”
The family is interested in the historical context of these documents.
“We want a way that they can be honored as they should. This has given me a fresh new way of looking at World War II veterans. Everyone who was there is a hero. So many men sacrificed their lives.”
But no one knows how a staff sergeant who wasn’t at D-Day could have had plans from the highest echelon of Allied command. Kelly said McCarthy hung around with World War II vets and might have taken them in trade for architectural work or building a veteran’s house. “But he never said anything about them,” he said.
The family’s gotten offers from collectors and one from an auction house to sell them _ for remarkable amounts of money _ but Kelly refuses because he believes that if sold they would be “busted up and sold to different collectors. We want to keep them intact and in a place where people could learn from them,” he said.
Last month, Kelly showed the documents to friend Tom Crawford, a member of American Legion Post 194. Crawford realized Kelly owned a rare historic document and convinced him it was too important to keep under wraps.
“These things are going up to the Air Force Museum and have never been on public display,” Crawford said. “We have them here in St. Augustine right now. It would be a shame to put them in a museum in Georgia without displaying them at least once in St. Augustine.”
Kelly said the first time he ever took the documents out of his vault and showed them was to a group of World War II veterans.
“Some of them came to tears,” he said. “Again they heard the anti-aircraft fire, saw planes drop around them in flames. They were experiencing it all once more. These have that effect on people.”
Link HERE.
SAM, this song is for your mother. :)
<-------click on the picture
The source link has a picture of one of the maps.
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