Posted on 12/15/2014 4:20:43 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Didn’t we have or shouldn’t we have had double-agents working inside the Reich?
I know the Soviets had a mole inside the German High Command codename “Lucy” that tipped them off on the German’s Kursk Offensive on the Eastern Front in 1943: they were prepared for it.
However, by this time, especially after the July 20th 1944 Bomb Plot, the Germans no doubt tightened their security and maybe by then there no more moles left in AH’s inner circle.
The Detachment is in Manderfeld, Belguim, with the HQ of the 14th Cavalry Group, which has been assigned to defend the northern flank of the 106th Infantry Division, which three days ago relieved the 2nd I.D. and occupied this position. It is a green outfit, just arrived in Europe. The 14th Group is to defend the western end of the Losheim Gap, a pass through the Schnee Eifel, a line of hills on the German side of the border.
It is another quiet day on a quiet front. Grandpa's CO and XO are in Luxumbourg, leaving him in charge. The 14th Group's CO tracked him down to complain about the appearance of the town. Grandpa is to make the locals tidy up their woodpiles. It is the kind of order an officer with time on his hands and too little to do gives. Grandpa is ticked off about getting such an order from an officer outside his chain of command, but sets about to see what he can do.
The 14th Group will soon have plenty to do.
Wow. Thanks for sharing. Stories like that do a lot to give a human face to the big picture.
LOL! We want this to be a tidy war!
I was thinking the same thing about the Battle of the Bulge, I think the official start date was Dec 16 (?).
Regards the Allied Intelligence “failure” there are three main factors to consider.
First the planning for the Great Offensive, Watch on the Rhine, was very closely held. Hitler had banned any mention of the offensive from the radio waves. Also the Germans had the advantage of the German phone system as well. The planning was done by a small group of General Staff officers and documents for the most part were couriered between the groups. It was not until about December 2nd that the generals in charge of the corps and divisions were let in on the secret. Regimental and battalion commanders did not find out what was going on until about December 14th or so.
Second the Germans mounted an aggressive disinformation campaign in support of the Watch on the Rhine offensive. The title Watch on the Rhine was chosen to convey to the Allies a defensive mindset should it be discovered. The cover plan for the Great Offensive was called “The Defensive Battle in the West” and the plan was designed to lead the Allies to think that the forces being gathered were for a counter offensive in the Aachen – Bonn area against the 1st and 9th US armies. Several fake headquarters were established along with bogus radio stations and traffic all emphasizing “The Defensive Battle in the West”. Remember Patton and the fictional First US Army Group in the run-up to the Normandy Invasion. Well this was the Germans revenge!
Also along this line in the week or so leading up to the start of the offensive the Germans left no stone unturned in camouflaging the buildup of forces across from the Ardennes. Vehicles were moved up on roads covered in straw to muffle sounds. The Luftwaffe flew low level patrols over the area to help cover the sounds of armor moving up and cooking fire were forbidden were just a few of the measures the Germans took to cover the buildup.
Lastly a look at what happened to the Allies. If I had to pick one word it would be “hubris”. By and large since the end of July almost everything had gone the Allies way. In France the Germans had basically been run out of the country by the US 12th Army Group (Bradley) and 6th Army group (Devers) with an able assist by the British 21st Army Group (Montgomery). Yes there had been some issues, anybody remember Market Garden and the failure to clear the Scheldt estuary in a timely fashion? So the mindset of the Allied High Command was that the Germans were on the ropes.
So what happened that let the Germans have strategic and tactical surprise? Here again one word would suffice “Ultra”. By this December the Allies had become hooked on Ultra to divine the Germans plans. And since Hitler had forbade any mention of “Watch on the Rhine” on the radio the Allies never heard about it. And if you never hear about it then of course it never existed, right?
There was a vast amount of circumstantial evidence out there to alert the Allies as to what was going to happen but between the German disinformation campaign “The Defensive Battle in the West” and the old “Hubris” thing the Allies missed the boat.
One quick comment regards Ultra and the Bulge. Once the fight was on the Germans went back on the air and Ultra provided the Allied command all sorts of useful information that was very helpful in countering the German offensive but that as they say is another story.
A pretty “brief” outline on how the Germans pulled off the start of the Battle of the Bulge offensive
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
In Charles MacDonald’s book he relates the story of a Civil Affairs officer who was, by chance, manning a small switchboard that was about the only link between the 106th Division HQ and VII Corps or 1st Army HQs. I don’t recall which off hand.
Perhaps there was an inadvertent mix up that led to the 106th not pulling the 2 regiments off the Schnee Eifel.
I will try to track that passage down later.
Regards
alfa6 :>]
Tidy is as tidy does. My dad’s division went through Patton’s area, and he groused decades later that while there they had to shave and wear neckties. Pearl-handled revolvers were not required.
yes ...
The Germans are still holding Dunkirk???
Very good analysis. Wouldn’t disagree with any of it.
Agreed Market Garden was an over ambitious fiasco which should have never been executed. I think Ike approved it to assuage Monty’s massive ego. The mission was even out of character for Monty, who was otherwise thought to be very cautious and conservative. Lightly armed paratroopers have little chance against heavily armored elite SS Panzer divisions which just happened to be refitting in the area.
The German preparations we so thoroughly secret and the Germans had suffered such terrible defeats on all fronts, not to mention having most of their cities pulverized into rubble, I do think most people on the Allied side were not unreasonable to conclude that Germans were beat at this point.
I think it was Hitler who made most of the really big mistakes in the Battle of the Bulge. He needed more fuel to reach Antwerp, and he needed more bad weather to ground Allied aircraft in order for this plan to have half a chance. And once Allied armored divisions including Patton’s army was thrown into the mix, it became more of an even fight. Of course Hitler’s army had no chance once the weather improved with the Allies enormous airpower taken into consideration.
Hitler did have once ace up his sleeve: The mammoth Tiger II tank. This tank was truly monster. Even bigger than the dreaded Tiger I it must have scared the crap out of our troops. Problem was it consumed gazillion gallons of gas and it was impossible to manufacture in great quantities. Our tanks were pea shooters in comparison to this massive monster on the battlefield.
But Hitler must have been on his meds to think he was actually going to pull it off given massive Allied air supremacy coupled with Germans limited fuel supplies. The plan was destined for defeat.
Good stuff, alfa6. Thanks.
Yeah. Surprisingly, they held it until the surrender in May.
If you’re a German unit surrounded at Dunkirk or any of the other little coastal enclaves on the Bay of Biscay shown on Homer’s map, that’s a pretty safe spot to ride out the rest of the war. Same for the Allied forces surrounding them. No hurry...
Germans also held on to a pocket along the Baltic Coast in Latvia’s Courland Peninsula, well behind the lines until the end of the war.
Or off them.
One of the more astonishing factors of the Allied offensive in Europe was the absence of any real German air power, apparently because early on, their fuel supplies, which apparently came from certain relatively remote locations, had been cut off.
Reminds me a bit of the USSR, its rise and fall. Reagan called their bluff by raising the economic stakes and challenging them to match which they could not. The USSR was a heavily armored shell. Military might and economic anemia. Looks like Nazi Germany might have been similar with things like critical resources in relatively vulnerable locations easily cutoff.
Latvia’s Courland Peninsula probably looked a lot better than whatever Stalin’s regime had in mind for them.
Advantages of interior lines of supply only go so far if your fighting on 3 converging fronts.
The meds Dr. Morell was providing AH were not the type to help you think clearer. They had an adverse effect.
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