Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). The Kursk and Ardennes offensives were not based on serious military plans, but were gambles with very high stakes in terms of human resources and with decisive political and economic consequences. Both were intended to bring about a change for the better, but accelerated the demise of their own war machines.
It was a last stand by the Nazi strategists – then as now. Based on the following explanations of the Battle of the Bulge, it should not be difficult to recognise the similarities.
The Ukrainian ‘blitzkrieg’ into the border regions of Russia north of Kharkov has attracted worldwide attention and even briefly provided a welcome distraction from the Zionist genocide in the Gaza Strip, which is resolutely supported with money and weapons by most members of the Western community of unvalues, but fiercely rejected by their populations.
However, despite the nostalgic memories of the neo-fascists in Kiev of their German Nazi role models, the Ukrainian military operation towards Kursk cannot be compared to a ‘blitzkrieg’ by the Wehrmacht, but rather to a military commando operation. Just a few days after the alleged ‘blitzkrieg’, the advances of the rapid Ukrainian units were stopped by the Russians. As they have little hope of receiving sufficient supplies of weapons and material, their fate is predetermined.
Although history does not repeat itself, the alleged Ukrainian ‘blitzkrieg’, which was supposed to bring about a turning point for Kiev, is fatally reminiscent of the ‘Rundstedt Offensive’, better known as the ‘Battle of the Bulge’, which was intended to split the front of the Western Allies in Belgium and Luxembourg at the end of 1944 and push the Americans and British back as far as the English Channel.
The German Battle of the Bulge was also a high-stakes game during the Second World War. On the Western Front, it was the last decisive battle launched by Nazi Germany against the Allied forces in the winter of 1944/45. Named after Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, who commanded the operation, this offensive was Germany’s last major attempt to turn the tide of the war in its favour and – such was the wishful thinking of the Russian-hating German generals – negotiate a separate peace with the Americans in order to use the army tied up in the west against the advancing Soviets.
Here is a brief history of the offensive: after their D-Day landings in Normandy in July 1944, the Allies had made considerable progress by the end of the year. The German High Command increasingly realised how critical the situation was and developed an insanely bold plan to split the Allied forces, capture the important port of Antwerp and encircle and destroy four Allied armies.
This plan was insane because it could only succeed if a number of uncontrollable factors interacted, i.e. it was based on the principle of hope. This madness was devised by the German general staff under the leadership of the GRÖFAZ (greatest general of all time) Adolf Hitler. It was to be carried out by a surprise attack in the densely wooded Ardennes region, a terrain previously considered impassable for tanks and other large-scale military operations.
The offensive, officially codenamed ‘Operation Wacht am Rhein’, aimed to exploit the element of surprise and poor weather conditions that would keep the superior Allied air forces on the ground. The plan concentrated Nazi Germany’s remaining military reserves, including its elite armoured divisions, on this objective.
However, even von Rundstedt, who was known as a capable commander, harboured serious doubts about the plan’s ambitious goals and the logistical challenges involved – for example, that the German tanks had only a narrowly limited range due to fuel shortages. According to the plan, in order to be able to advance further, the Americans’ fuel depots behind the front had to be captured undamaged first.
The main objectives were
- Breakthrough of the sparsely occupied front line in the Ardennes
- capture important road junctions, especially near Bastogne
- Reaching the Meuse and ultimately the conquest of Antwerp
- Isolation and destruction of the Allied forces in Belgium
On 16 December 1944, under the cover of thick fog and snow, the Germans launched the battle. The initial attack was very successful due to the element of surprise and overwhelmed the American forces stationed in the region. The German advance created a significant ‘bulge’ in the Allied front lines, hence the American name for the Ardennes offensive ‘The Battle of the Bulge’.
Key to the German advance were the towns of St. Vith and Bastogne. As planned, St. Vith fell after a short time and intense fighting. But everything went wrong at Bastogne: the town, defended by the 101st Airborne Division, became a symbol of tenacious and heroic American resistance. Despite the encirclement and severe shortages of weapons, ammunition and food, the defenders held out in the freezing cold in the defence lines until they were relieved by General Patton’s 3rd Army. As a result, the German tanks were denied access to the US fuel depots.
Elsewhere, the German advance also stalled, partly due to fierce resistance, partly due to logistical problems and the Allies’ ability to regroup quickly. The bad weather, which initially favoured the Germans, cleared up at the end of December and enabled the Allies to use their absolute air supremacy, including for devastating air attacks on German supply lines and positions.
In January 1945, the Western Allies then launched their counter-offensive from the north and south of the arc and gradually reduced the arc, inflicting heavy losses on the German forces. The failure to reach key objectives and the exhaustion of German resources marked the beginning of the end.
The Battle of the Bulge was Germany’s last attempt in the Second World War to stave off defeat in the west. The losses on both sides were considerable, but only one side was decisively weakened. German counter-offensives in the west or operations by large army units of the Wehrmacht were finally over. Only in isolated cases, such as at the Remagen bridge, was there still hard fighting. It was only a few months after the end of the Battle of the Bulge until the final defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945, when Soviet soldiers placed their victorious flag on the roof of the Reichstag.
