Saturday, December 16, 2006
This Day in American History
On this day in 1944, beginning at 5:30 am, three German Armies attack American lines in the Ardennes, near the German border with Belgium and break through creating the bulge in the line for which the month long battle is popularly named. The Germans had kept radio silence during their preparation for the attack which cut off our access to the Enigma code (which we had cracked) so our intelligence was totally clueless (sound familiar?) . Eisenhower's best countermove is to place the 101st at Bastogne and the 82nd at St. Vith. These paratrooper divisions hold up Sepp Dietrich's near fanatical and well equipped 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, and von Manteufel's 5th Panzer-Armee long enough to destroy the critical timing of the plan.
For the Americans, it is a monumental defeat with 81,000 casualties (19,000 dead, 24,000 captured and the rest wounded). However, the Germans get only half as far as they needed, end up with 84,000 casualties--15,000 dead, 23,000 captured--and have nothing left by the end of January, 1945 to stop our steady advance or the Russians from the East. A very risky gamble by Hitler who needed four things to go just right and only got two and a half.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:49 AM 
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The Bulge was a major Allied victory. Sure, it didn't start so well, but Stalingrad didn't start so well for the Soviets, either.
By about a month after the battle began, the Germans had effectively no mobile reserve left in either east or west, the Allies were back to their lines of a month before, and German morale was broken. The Germans lost more men and materiel in absolute terms, and perhaps an order of magnitude more in percentage terms, than the Allies did. I rate that a major victory.
Without the Bulge, it is likely that the war would not have ended for at least two more months in Germany, and perhaps much longer.
By about a month after the battle began, the Germans had effectively no mobile reserve left in either east or west, the Allies were back to their lines of a month before, and German morale was broken. The Germans lost more men and materiel in absolute terms, and perhaps an order of magnitude more in percentage terms, than the Allies did. I rate that a major victory.
Without the Bulge, it is likely that the war would not have ended for at least two more months in Germany, and perhaps much longer.
We certainly won the war and the results of this battle were just as you say. It's historically perceived to be a defeat so who am I to say different. I say Italy was a defeat too even though we were miles from the pass into Austria by May, 1945. I apparently have more stringent definitions of victory than many historians.
No, but he's channeling him. I always got the feeling that McAuliffe was second rate and not liked by the men, but had his finest moment due to the right attitude at the right time. I could be wrong.
I can't speak to McAuliffe's overall military competence, but I will speak to the US Army's use of paratroops during WWII:
Paratroops are (were) elite light infantry. In this they were similar to Rangers and the 10th Mountain Division. The USA seems to have been incapable of reading past "elite".
Light infantry isn't optimal for defending against armor or assaulting fortifications (unless the assault required climbing cliffs or the like). But because of the generally high morale and training of these light units, they were regularly placed in situations for which they were not equipped. Bastogne during the Bulge is a prominent example of this misuse.
Light infantry is exactly the wrong choice of units to defend against armored assault, but of course that was what the 101st was tasked with. (To be fair, Eisenhower didn't have lots of choices in this case.) That they were as successful as they were is remarkable.
Paratroops are (were) elite light infantry. In this they were similar to Rangers and the 10th Mountain Division. The USA seems to have been incapable of reading past "elite".
Light infantry isn't optimal for defending against armor or assaulting fortifications (unless the assault required climbing cliffs or the like). But because of the generally high morale and training of these light units, they were regularly placed in situations for which they were not equipped. Bastogne during the Bulge is a prominent example of this misuse.
Light infantry is exactly the wrong choice of units to defend against armored assault, but of course that was what the 101st was tasked with. (To be fair, Eisenhower didn't have lots of choices in this case.) That they were as successful as they were is remarkable.
The 10th Armored Division was at Bastogne as well so it wasn't completely light infantry against tanks. Hitler quit having his paratroopers jump out of airplanes after the Phyrric victory on Crete and the Fallschirmjaeger did well thereafter defending, for example, Montecasino and points northward in Italy. We've gotten the message you're giving and pretty much have abandoned paratroopers in favor of helicopter assault.
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