Ardennes Counter-offensive: southern front

Southern attacks: Erich Brandenberger

The U.S. 112th Infantry under the 28th Infantry Division offered stiff resistance to Brandenberger's forces crossing the Our river bridges, upsetting their schedule by two days. But unfortunately the 109th and 110th infantry were spread so thinly that their position was easily bypassed. Both offered stiff resistance and threw the Germans off-schedule by several more days. The transport confusion on the German side, and the resistance of American strongpoints bought time for the U.S. 101st Airborne to reach Bastogne and set up defences.
By 19th December, as senior Allied commanders met in Verdun, it was known that Bastogne had ben bypassed and would be subsequently beseiged by the 2nd Panzer, 26th Volksgrenadier, and the PanzerLehr of 67th Panzer Corps. (The seige took place on the 21st morning)

General Anthony McAuliffe

Eisenhower realized that it was easy for the allies to counter the Germans when they (Allies) were in the open and on the offensive instead of defensive. Hence, they ordered massive reinforcements to the area.
Eisenhower asked General Patton how much time he would take to move his Third Army and counterattack. Patton replied, (to much disbelief) that he needed only 48 hours. In truth, he was anticipating movement orders and had ordered his army to begin moving towards Bastogne before even reaching the conference.
Meanwhile, Bastogne was facing a tough time with supplies depleting. Medical officers and equipment had been captured. But thankfully weather cleared over the next few days, and supplies (mainly Ammunition) were airdropped. The perimeter of Bastogne was held all through the German attacks.
The German commander Heinrich von Luttwitz offered an "honorable surrender" to General Anthony McAuliffe, the commanding officer of Bastogne. McAuliffe replied to their offer in one word, "Nuts" This reply became historically famous. The XLVII Panzer Corps launched concentrated attacks at the western perimeter but were unsuccessful, and soon on 26th January, General Patton's 4th Armored division spearhead broke through the seige to Bastogne.
Weather conditions had improved by 23rd December, allowing Allied air-attacks. Bombing raids were carried out on supply points and infantry was machine-gunned by attacking P-47 Thunderbolts. Allied air support also supplied Bastogne with the necessary supplies including volunteer surgeons, who were flown in by military glider.
By 24th December, the German advance was effectively stalled short of the Meuse. They had run out of rations and fuel supply was critical due to being cut off from supply lines. German losses upto now were light, notably in Armor (with the exception of Joachim Peiper). In the evening, General von Manteuffel recommended a withdrawal of all forces. But it was rejected by Hitler.

The Ardennes Offensive was also significant because it was the first incident where black soldiers fought shoulder-to-shoulder with their white counterparts. Facing shortage of personnel, Eisenhower ordered for black volunteers to come forward. Till then, the black, or "colored" soldiers had been serving as drivers and support staff, (with a few exceptions of tank destroyers and Army Air Force pilots) but when Eisenhower's orders came through, over 2000 of these soldiers volunteered to fight.

Operation Carthage

Operation Carthage was an Allied air raid on the Gestapo building in Copenhagen. As the Allied armies pushed through Europe in Spring 1945, the Gestapo ruthlessly clamped down resistance movements.
Ever since the Normandy invasion, the Danish resistance had begun working in full force. On the invasion day itself, fifty Danish resistance personnel destroyed the Globus factory which manufactured parts for the V-2 rockets, and many more raids were carried out during the next six months

V-2 Rocket

The SS responded by capturing and executing eight of the saboteurs on 23 june, and proclaimed an emergency in the capital.
In answer to the SS, 10,000 shipyard workers from Denmark's largest shipyards went on strike, and soon they were followed by tens of thousands of factory workers.
On the 30th of June, Hitler's personal ambassador for Denmark, Dr. Werner Best, (picturised below)

Dr. Werner Best, Hitler's personal ambassador to Denmark

cut off electricity, gas, and water and executed a few more saboteurs. Copenhagen declared a general strike, and soon, open rebellion broke out during which a few hundreds were injured. These strikes and consequent sabotage resulted in a hold-up of several Wehrmacht divisions which were being moved to France to block and repel the invasion.
Werner's answer to this was an SS raid on EVERY police station in Denmark. 10,000 police personnel were arrested and 2000 of them were being deported to concentration camps.

Allied High Command immediately acknowledged the contribution of the Danish resistance movement and decided to help them. Intelligence was aware that the Gestapo Headquarters in Aarhus, Copenhagen, and Odense were interrogation centers, and that dangerous information about the resistance was documented in there.
On 31 October 1944, total 25 de Havilland Mosquito aircrafts compiled from 21st Squadron RAF, 464th Squadron RAAF (Australia) and 487th Squadron RNZAF (New Zealand) hit the Aarhus buildings. In eleven minutes, they destroyed the two university buildings. Eugen Schwitzgeigel, Denmark Head of the Gestapo was killed in this raid.\
Air Vice Marshal Basil Embery suggested a raid on the Copenhagen HQ in November, and subsequently received support from Svend Truelsen, the head of the Danish resistance in London.

Air Vice Marshal Basil Embery

Svend Truelsen

The building was a low U-shaped structure facing south, with the two flanks running northwards. It was originally the Denmark HQ of the Shell Oil Company, and was comandeered by the Gestapo in May `1943. The operation's purpose was to destroy the records and release the prisoners.

The same formation which had attacked Aarhus was tasked with the Copenhagen raid as well. First wave of four Mosquito aircraft's was led by Wing Cdr. Bob "Pinpoint" Bateson, and it also included Vice Marshal Embery himself. (21st Squadron RAF)
Second wave was led by Wing Cdr. Bob Iredale, with Six mosquito aircraft's. (464th Squadron RAAF)
And the third wave was lead by Wing Cdr. F. H. Denton, comprised of six mosquito aircraft's (487th Squadron, RNZAF)
Accompanying them were unarmed mosquitoes of Film and Photography department.

Mosquito Mk. VI, used in the raid

As soon as the mosquitoes reached the jutland coast, Bateson throttled up to 275 miles/hr. This was the signal for the entire formation to loosen out into the fan formation. Wind was calm, but visibility was low due to the windscreens clouded with dust and pulverized insects (They were flying at tree-top height)
They soon passed the Tisso Lake, and Bateson wobbled his wings again. This time, the second and third waves banked out, leaving Bateson and a few of the escorting P-51 Mustang fighters to bomb the target alone. The second wave then made a wide circuit of the lake and proceeded to target. The third wave did another circuit and proceeded to target. This separated the waves by around one minute.
Bateson was gaining on the target. The aircraft were spread 30 feet apart. The bomb-bay doors were open and the navigator was squinting at the windsheild. He suddenly pointed the pilot towards the camouflaged building of the Gestapo... the target of the raid.

Bateson came in first, and as bullets and tracers ripped past him from roof-top gunners of the target and surrounding buildings. He dropped his bombs and banked out. Vice Marshal Embery came in next. And first three bomb-loads had hit the target
But unfortunately, Wing Cdr. Peter Kleboe, who was not in forrmation got distracted by a searchlight and crashed into his tail-plane and then into the ground.
One mustang was hit while opening fire on the Anti-Aircraft defences. The raid was over in Four minutes.
Along with Kleboe and the Mustang, four other aircraft faild to return to base. One P-51 crashed on the west coast of Jutland and the pilot was taken prisoner. Two mosquitoes of 464th Squadron were shot down, and one from 487th Squadron crashed, killing the crew.

In spite of much collateral damage like the Jeanne d'Arc school, the raid was successful in destroying the records of the Gestapo concerning the Danish Resistance. A bonus was that resistance workers salvaged two filing cabinets full of names of collaborators.
After the final raid of the RAF on the Odense HQ, the Gestapo in Denmark was crippled. Denamrk was liberated only 18 days later

Ardennes Counteroffensive: Secondary operations (Greif & Währung)

Operation Grief and Währung were two secondary operations carried out by the 9th Waffen-SS division. They were commanded by Waffen-SS Commander Otto Skorenzy

Otto Skorenzy in 1944

The idea was to have German SS units infiltrate the Allied lines under the guise of American MP's and create certain level of confusion. Their primary objectives were important bridges on the Meuse and Our rivers. The commando units were assembled from the best English-speaking soldiers in the Waffen-SS and in some cases the Wehrmacht as well.
Unfortunately, these men had little knowledge of commando tactics, and there was little time to train them. They were given crash-course style training in certain skills like Radio operations, Demolition, etc. They also studied the U.S. Army's rank-and-field structure.

Dressed in US Army uniforms (the highest US Army rank used was that of colonel), armed with US Army weapons, and using US Army jeeps, the commandos were given three missions:

• Demolition squads of 5 or 6 men were to destroy bridges, ammunition dumps, and fuel stores.

• Reconnaissance patrols of 3 or 4 men were to patrol on both sides of the Meuse river and also pass on false orders to any American units they met, alter road signs, remove minefield warnings, and cordon off roads and warning of false mine-fields

• "Lead" commando units would work closely with the attacking units to disrupt the US chain of command by destroying field telephone wires and radio stations, and issuing false orders.

 American MP's created roadblocks and asked questions to passing soldiers, questions every American was expected to know. This also resulted in detaining of General Omar Bradley by error. Due to this method, most of these soldiers were captured. But one positive impact it did have was that the rumors spread by these Germans circulated all the way to the Allied High command.
One rumor spread by such captured soldiers was that Skorenzy and his personal commandos were on a mission to capture Dwight D. Eisenhower. Because Skorenzy was well known about his rescue about Benito Mussolini, security around Eisenhower was increased, and hence he wasn't quite excited about spending the christmas of 1944 alone.