by TIMOTHY J. THOMPSON

Created on: July 23, 2010   Last Updated: July 24, 2010

On June 1 1944, 57 German divisions guarded Hitler's Western European Empire. Specificaly, they consisted of 44 regular infantry, 5 regular Panzer, 5 deadly Waffen S.S. Panzer, 2 Paratroop, and 1 mechanized S.S. Panzer Grenadier, or armored infantry. All told, this powerful force numbered 550,000 soldiers, supported by over 1,500 tanks, tank destroyers, and armored assault guns, and augmented by 3,500 artillery pieces, mortars and rocket tubes.

Just ninety days later, this, once mighty, force had practically ceased to exist! Indeed, by September 1 1944, the German Army on the Western Front was on absolute life support. Distinctively, nearly one-half million of its troops were killed, wounded, missing, or captured. In addition to this, 1,400 of its armored force was totally destroyed, and every single piece of its artillery had been totally obliterated.

As a result, victory fever swept through the Allied camp. Euphoria had overcome every member at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, or SHAEF, for short. The Allies had won the war! Or, so they thought.

German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler had other ideas. He believed in an entirely differnt outcome to the conflict. Hitler was convinced that the Western Allies were dangerously short of supplies, and that their apparent unity was nothing more than an artificial common front with each participant having strong divergent post war aims. As a result, he ordered his generals to gather up every available means for one last desprate assault that would turn the tide of the Second World War back in Germany's favor.

There is a very famous old saying that goes like this: An animal is meanest when cornered, most vicious when wounded, and most dangerous when desperate. That describes Germany precisely in the winter of 1944. They were cornered. They were wounded. They were desperate. And they would lash out like a demon possessed. It would lead to one of the most epic campaigns in military history.

At precisely 5:30 AM, Saturday morning, December 16, 1944, the misty calm of the Ardennes Forest was violently shattered by the deafening roar of thousands upon thousands of German guns. All up and down an 85 mile front from the ancient city of Monschau in the north, down to the leisurely resort city of Echternach in the south,  75 mm cannons, 88 mm cannons, 150 mm cannons, 155 mm cannons, 3 inch mortars, self-propelled artillery, 20 mm flak guns, MG 34 medium machine guns, MG 42 heavy machine guns, rocket

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