[Bodston]

From 'Tank War' by Janusz Piekalkiewicz

On Saturday 16th December 1944, the Germans launched a major offensive in the West, (their last attempt to regain the strategic initiative), along the front between the Ardennes and Luxembourg. The Germans called it Operation 'Watch-on-the-Rhine', or the Ardennes offensive or the Rundstedt offensive, (and the allies knew it as the Battle of the Bulge). The main German offensive force was Model's Army Group B including SS General Dietrich's Sixth SS Panzer Army, von Manteuffel's Fifth Panzer Army and Brandenburger's Seventh Army: a total of 12 infantry divisions, 2 parachute divisions, 7 panzer divisions plus reserve forces (4 infantry divisions, 2 panzer divisions and one panzer grenadier division) with 1,750 tanks and self-propelled guns in all. Air support was supplied by the approximately 1,800 planes of Schmid's Air Force West, The German objective was to (attack the thinly distributed American troops in the Ardennes while bad weather was keeping allied planes on the ground), drive a wedge through between the American and British forces, push through to take Antwerp and compel the allied invasion troops to retreat. Sixth SS Panzer Army met determined resistance from the start and was able to advance only about 6 miles, while Fifth Panzer Army drove about 20 miles through the American lines.