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The last bastion panser1/28/2024 ![]() Due to heavy rain preceding the German attack, only one of the roads was in good enough condition to be used as a crossing point-the northernmost road, which crossed the Our at Dasburg on its way to the Luxembourgish town of Clervaux (in German: Klerf, in Luxembourgish: Klierf) and Bastogne. ![]() The forces were too thin to maintain an even battle line, they focused their attention on the four roads that crossed the Our. The Allied forces were gathered into small groups at major Luxembourgish villages, with outposts along the river manned only during the daytime. Opposing this significant force were two battalions of the 110th Infantry Regiment (the third was held back as a division reserve), responsible for a 9 mi (14 km) front along the river Our which forms the border between Germany and neighboring Luxembourg. Lüttwitz planned to attack a 7 mi (11 km) front with three divisions: the 26th Volksgrenadier and the 2nd Panzer would lead the assault, with the Panzer-Lehr-Division behind them. Hasso von Manteuffel-commanding the 5th Panzer Army-gave Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz′s XLVII Panzer Corps the responsibility of capturing Bastogne, before crossing the Meuse near Namur. The seven roads in and out of Bastogne were critical to the movement of German armor, making Allied retention of the roads imperative. The Allies believed only an infantry division was present opposite the 28th Infantry, and they believed any attack along this sector would be limited in scale. Bastogne, a hub city that commanded several important roads in the area, was defended mainly by the 28th Infantry Division, which had seen continuous fighting from 22 July to 19 November, before being assigned to this relatively quiet area. In addition, intelligence reports suggested that the only German divisions stationed in the area were weary, and in the weeks leading up to the assault, no Allied commander saw reason to believe that an attack was imminent. Meanwhile, the Allied commanders considered the Ardennes area to be unsuitable for a large-scale German attack, mainly because of terrain issues. Despite major misgivings from his senior commanders, including Gerd von Rundstedt and Walther Model, the plan was not modified and the jump-off date was eventually set as 16 December 1944. Adolf Hitler soon laid out a plan to attack the Allied lines in Belgium and Luxembourg 25 divisions would launch a surprise attack through the Ardennes, with the aim of crossing the river Meuse (called Maas in German and Dutch) and recapturing Antwerp. The valuable port city of Antwerp had been captured during the push, and by the time winter arrived, the Allies even had control of German territory near the city of Aachen. The siege was lifted on 26 December when a spearhead of the 4th Armored Division and other elements of General George Patton's Third Army opened a corridor to Bastogne.Īfter the successful invasion of Normandy and the subsequent eastward push through France, the Allied front lines extended from Nijmegen in the north down to neutral Switzerland in the south. Until the 23 December the weather prevented Allied aircraft from attempting resupply of Bastogne or ground attacks against German forces. Although outnumbered the regiments of the 28th Infantry division delayed the German advance towards Bastogne allowing American units, including the 101st Airborne Division, to reach Bastogne before the German forces surrounded the town and isolated it on 20 December. ![]() The German offensive began on 16 December. Because all seven main roads in the densely wooded Ardennes highlands converged on Bastogne ( Bastnach in German), just a few miles away from the border with neighboring Luxembourg, control of its crossroads was vital to the German attack. In order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. The goal of the German offensive was the harbor at Antwerp. ![]() The siege of Bastogne ( French pronunciation: roughly Ba-STO-nyuh, rather than BAS-tone) was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge.
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