On the morning of the 16th of December 1944, the Ardennes forest in Belgium and Luxembourg was not a battlefield but a quiet sector where American troops were resting after weeks of hard fighting. The German army, however, was preparing a massive surprise offensive that would become the last major German attack on the Western Front during World War II. The Allies, including the U.S. First Army, had left the Ardennes region thinly defended, believing the terrain and weather would protect them from a major assault. This overconfidence was based on faulty intelligence and a lack of aerial reconnaissance due to the heavy overcast skies that would later ground Allied aircraft. The Germans, under the command of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt and General Walter Model, planned to pierce the Allied lines, split the armies, and capture the vital port of Antwerp. The offensive, known as Operation Watch on the Rhine, was intended to force the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in favor of the Axis powers. The battle would last until the 25th of January 1945, and it would become the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II.
The Northern Shoulders
The northern shoulder of the offensive, centered around Elsenborn Ridge, became the decisive component of the Battle of the Bulge. The U.S. 99th Infantry Division, though outnumbered five to one, inflicted casualties in a ratio of 18 to one, losing about 20% of its effective strength. The German 6th Panzer Army, led by SS Sepp Dietrich, included the elite of the Waffen-SS, including the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper led a Kampfgruppe of 4,800 men and 600 vehicles, which was charged with leading the main effort. The terrain and poor road conditions made the advance difficult, and the Germans were delayed by the stiff American resistance. The 99th Infantry Division, along with the 2nd Infantry Division, prevented the Germans from reaching the vast array of supplies near the Belgian cities of Liège and Spa. The German advance was further slowed by the destruction of bridges and fuel dumps by retreating American engineers. The battle for Elsenborn Ridge was so critical that it is considered the most decisive of the Ardennes campaign.The Malmedy Massacre
On the 17th of December 1944, the 1st SS Panzer Division, under the command of SS-Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper, committed one of the most notorious war crimes of the Battle of the Bulge. After capturing the town of Honsfeld, Peiper's forces executed dozens of U.S. prisoners of war in a fuel depot in Büllingen. The massacre continued as Peiper's forces advanced towards the River Meuse, and at the crossroads of Baugnez, they encountered elements of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. After a brief battle, the lightly armed Americans surrendered and were disarmed. About fifteen minutes later, the main body under the command of SS- Werner Pötschke arrived and opened fire on the prisoners. Accounts of the killing vary, but at least 84 of the POWs were murdered. The massacre was followed by another atrocity in Wereth, Belgium, where eleven black American soldiers were tortured and shot by men of the 1st SS Panzer Division. The perpetrators were never punished for this crime. The Malmedy massacre and the Wereth 11 killings became symbols of the brutality of the war and were later the subject of trials and tributes.