World: Hitler's Last Great Gamble

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Had Hitler been persuaded to call off his attack, Europe might have followed a different course. According to Manteuffel, Stalin knew all about Wacht am Rhein through a security leak in German headquarters. He said nothing to his allies. Instead, he waited until the German offensive was spent, then sent the Red Army dashing across Eastern Europe a month after the Ardennes battle began. Stalin was apparently aware that the last 200,000 members of the German army's strategic reserve were among the men committed to the Ardennes. Had those reserves been available for the Eastern Front, they might have stopped or delayed the Russians. U.S. soldiers, as a result, might have met Russian troops at the Oder instead of on the Elbe, 125 miles farther west. The British would have reached the German rocket base at Peenemünde before the Russians captured its secrets. U.S. and British columns would have been first into Berlin. Moreover, the Russians would have lost the psychological advantage they have exploited throughout Eastern Europe by billing themselves as the true conquerors of the Third Reich.

Quick Reaction. Hitler, however, could not be swayed. On the morning of Dec. 16, 1944, German artillery shattered the darkness before dawn and shook the snow-covered pines with a massed barrage. Four U.S. divisions, stretched thin along an 88-mile front, were overwhelmed. U.S. intelligence was unaware that Rundstedt had tucked 26 divisions, 1,800 armored vehicles and 2,000 pieces of artillery in the snowy groves of the Schnee Eifel, waiting for "Null-Uhr [zero hour]."

Stunned at first, U.S. troops quickly recovered. By doggedly holding St.-Vith and encircled Bastogne, they prevented the Germans from widening their front. Within three days, Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower had 500,000 men en route toward the breakthrough. On Jan. 9, Hitler himself conceded failure. He had lost 27,000 killed, 38,000 wounded and 16,000 prisoners. At least 600 tanks had been destroyed. The U.S. had lost 8,000 dead, 48,000 wounded and 21,000 prisoners. Within a month the bulge had disappeared. Within two, the Allies were across the Rhine and racing through Germany.