80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge
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| National Archives Museum |
German Propaganda Footage about the Ardennes Offensive- 4 January 1945 "The Ardennes Offensive, in English also known as “Battle of the Bulge”, officially called “Operation Wacht am Rhein” was one of the last major German offensives of WWII.
"Driven by wrong political and diplomatic conclusions, Hitler believed that the Coalition of the Western Allies was close to collapsing in mid/late 1944, and all that was needed was one crucial victory. He therefore ordered the last German reserves to be mobilized for a large offensive in the Ardennes region, which was planned from September 1944 onwards. The goal was to inflict a major loss on the Allies and capture the important port of Antwerp. "Three German armies, the 6th and 5th Tank Armies and the 7th Army, totaling around 220,000 soldiers, 550 tanks and 700 assault guns, attacked on December 16th, 1944, in the Ardennes region in Belgium/Luxembourg. "The Allies, who didn’t thought Germany was still able of launching a major offensive, had only weak forces in that area, around four divisions and a few other units, most of them fresh units with little to no combat experiences, around 85,000 men. They further failed to recognize the German troop movements, largely because the Germans kept their plans on a tight security level, with most orders being given via courier, instead of radio, so that the Allies were unable to intercept these messages. The Germans had supply shortages, especially fuel, so they planned to capture Allied fuel depots during their offensive. "The Germans initially made some progress but failed to capture large Allied fuel depots and encountered stiff Allied resistance, especially at the famous Siege of Bastogne and the less famous, but even more important Battle of Elsenborn Ridge in the northern section of the offensive. "Ultimately, the Allies were able to bring in enough reserves and the initial surprise quickly wore off, so the Germans had to stop their offensive in late December 1944. The Allies recaptured all their lost territory until February 1945. "Both the German (17,200 killed,16,000 prisoners 530 tanks and 800 aircraft ) and Allies (19,200 killed, 21,200 prisoners, 800 tanks and 1,000 aircrafts) suffered heavy losses during the offensive, but the Allies were able to replace these losses in a short time, the Germans weren’t. " "Thus, the Battle of the Bulge wasted the last substantial reserves the Germans had and ultimately sped up Germanys already unavoidable downfall. "This is footage from German propaganda newsreels, showing the initially successes of the Ardennes offensive. "It was shown in the German Newsweek, a German propaganda newsreel, on January 4th, 1945." |
| Belgium: Monument to the Wereth Eleven |
"When German prisoners of war arrived at Camp Gruber, Tech. Sgt. William Edward Pritchett was compelled to deliver a concern to his captain. The men of the 333rd noticed the POWs were fed better than the 333rd and that white GIs showed more courtesy and respect for the Germans than to their fellow black comrades. McLeod forwarded those remarks to Kelsey, but they were shooed aside.
In that regard we have become so much better now that we were then. These are the people to whom reparations are owed, not the Joy Reid's, Al Sharpton's and Letitia James's who grate on America's ears today. TD
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