Then And Back Again

[F2d5thCav]

In spite of the massive chaos in the Allied camp following the rupture of the Ardennes front, several positive influences served to blunt the German advance.

The U.S. Army, like the British Army, had a high ratio of support forces to combat forces.  Thus, while the Germans broke through in several places along the front held by the U.S. VIII Corps, they did not have open roads before them, for the "rear area" of VIII Corps had plenty of soldiers not normally on the front lines.  To the credit of the surprised U.S. soldiers, many fought bitter rearguard actions, and some, like the engineers, were able to blow up bridges.  There was a veritable sea of micro-battles, all of which dealt friction to the German advance -- and consequently, delays that ultimately doomed the German plan.

Some historians have claimed the only reserves available to General Eisenhower in mid-December 1944 were two American airborne divisions.  But this was not true.  To the north, General Montgomery had British 30 Corps, which he used to backstop a defensive line along the Meuse River and therefore "draw a line" beyond which the Germans would not advance.  To the south, General Patton had assembled the U.S. III Corps for future operations.  This corps was sent north to attack into the southern flank of the German offensive.  One of the airborne divisions, the 101st, successfully held critical road junctions in a town called Bastogne, although surrounded by a German force several times their own size.  The stubborn defense of the 101st Airborne Division forced the German mechanized columns to bypass to the north.

By the end of December, it was clear the German thrust had failed.  Their 2d Panzer Division, out of fuel, was defeated by American and British forces just east of the Meuse River, while to the south, Bastogne's encirclement was broken by the advance of General Patton's soldiers.  And, in the interim,  one of the most bitter winters in recent European history had descended upon northwest Europe, filling the hills and valleys of the Ardennes with a deep snow.

These parts of the battle are well known, but what followed was less heralded.  For Hitler did not believe in giving up ground without a fight, and so the American and British forces began a difficult and casualty-intensive series of battles to drive the Germans out of the Ardennes in the middle of a terribly cold winter.  These actions lasted the entire month of January 1945.  Fighting as part of these clashes were battalions of Belgian Fusiliers, and it is in late January we return to the experiences of Herve Fauré.

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