Waffen-SS: The Ardennes Offensive, 1944

Background

Hitler's last great offensive in the West, spearheaded by Dietrich's Sixth Panzer Army, commenced on 16 December 1944. At first it made good progress, aided by low cloud that denied the enemy air cover. But the road network in the Ardennes was not suitable for large-scale armoured advances, and soon the SS armoured columns were facing traffic jams and stiff American resistance.

The German objective

At 05:30 hours on 16 December 1944, 1600 German guns and rocket launchers drenched the American frontline in deadly shrapnel. Then the first attack waves of infantry moved forward to clear a route for the panzer columns, which were to be unleashed to capture their first objective - the bridges across the Meuse - within 48 hours. The panzers would push on to Antwerp and victory.

"Sepp" Dietrich's Sixth Panzer Army was placed on the right flank of the assault and it would be the schwerpunkt, or main effort, for the attack. I SS Panzer Corps would lead the advance to the Meuse, with II SS Panzer Corps following close behind. Once the vital river crossings were secure, Bittrich's divisions would spearhead the advance on Antwerp. To help Dietrich reach the bridges before the Americans had time to destroy them, Otto Skorzeny's special forces brigade - with small teams wearing US uniforms taking the lead - was to race ahead of the Waffen-SS panzers and capture them in a coup de main operation. A regiment of Luftwaffe paratroopers was also to be dropped ahead of Dietrich's corps to capture a key road junction.

The Ardennes terrain

The sister Leibstandarte and Hitlerjugend Divisions would advance side by side towards the Meuse, after army Volksgrenadier divisions had cleared a way through the string of weak American units holding the front along the Belgian-German border. Once unleashed, the two divisions would race through the narrow, forested valleys of the Ardennes until they reached the open countryside in the Meuse valley. The region's roads were winding and poorly maintained and, in most places, could barely take single-file traffic. The constricted road network in the Ardennes meant Dietrich's divisions had to be split up into self-contained columns, each of which was assigned its own specific route, or Rollbahn. All told, more than 6000 Waffen-SS vehicles had to be squeezed through the Ardennes road system. The speed of the Waffen-SS advance was determined as much by the commanders' traffic-control abilities as by their tactical skills.

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