Operation Wacht am Rhein – the Ardennes Counteroffensive (I)

German fighter Messerschmitt Bf 109 of Jagdgeschwader 1 Oesau

Ardennes Offensive/Battle of the Bulge

Waffen-SS Jagdpanzer IV/70 during the Ardennes Offensive

Heavily damaged Panther of the Windhund in Hotton

The Battle of the Bulge fought from December 16 1944 – January 25 1945, was the German offensive launched toward the end of World War II through the Ardennes Mountains region of Wallonia in Belgium. At 05.30 on December 16 1944 three German armies struck the Allied troops on an 80 kilometers wide front. For the Americans the Battle of the Bulge was the largest and bloodiest battle that they fought in World War II. The Wehrmacht's code name for the offensive was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein after the German hymn. In the northern sector SS-Oberstgruppenführer Josef Dietrich's 6.SS-Panzerarmee assaulted Losheim Gap and Elsenborn Ridge in an effort to break through to Liège. It was entrusted with the offensive's primary objective, capturing Antwerpen. SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Prieß I.SS-Panzerkorps consisted of 1.SS-Panzer-Divison Leibstandarte SS, 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend and schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 501. The 9.SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen was involved in the fighting around Bastogne, taking heavy casualties and losing much equipment to the incessant attacks of Allied ground attack aircraft. Casualty estimates for the battle vary widely. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, American forces suffered 89,500 casualties including 19,000 killed and 23,000 missing. The German High Command estimated that they lost 81,834, of which 12,652 were killed and 30,582 were missing. The German casualty reports and the historian Hermann Jung estimates a much lower rate of German casualties than the German High Command. Top image: a Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 of Jagdgeschwader 1 with the III.Gruppe emblem pictured on an earlier occasion. The wing fought in the Battle of Bulge, despite the bad weather, the Luftwaffe attempted large-scale close air support missions to support the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. On Dec. 18 1944 JG 1 was one of the few German wings to reach the battle area near Monschau and Malmedy. The decimated Luftwaffe provided very little assistance by late 1944 in Allied-dominated skies. Credit: Richard James Molloy. c. Bundesarchiv. Middle clip is believed to show a Jagdpanzer IV/70 from SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 12 of the Hitlerjugend. Its tank-destroyers were used with the support of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 when the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division positions guarding the first line defense trenches at Krinkelt-Rocherath villages were overrun on Dec. 18 1944. There was heavy fighting that lasted the whole day, but the Hitlerjugend withdrew the next morning expecting reinforcements and supplies. Credit: Julius Backman Jääskeläinen. U.S. NARA. Bottom image: soldiers of the U.S. 3rd Armored Division inspecting knocked-out German Panzers of Kampfgruppe Bayer of the 116.Panzer-Division Windhund on Dec. 26 1944 after the fighting for Belgian Hotton. Credit: Ryan N81. U.S. NARA.