 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (May 2024)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
| Operation Northwind | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theWestern Front ofWorld War II | |||||||
 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Germany | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 230,000 (average strength)[1] | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
 United States:11,609[2][3] killed and wounded, captured or missing[4]  France:7,000[5] killed and wounded | 23,000 killed, wounded, or captured[6] | ||||||
Operation Northwind (German:Unternehmen Nordwind) was the last majorGerman offensive ofWorld War II on theWestern Front. Northwind was launched to support the GermanArdennes offensive campaign in theBattle of the Bulge, which by late December 1944 had decisively turned against the German forces. It began on 31 December 1944 inRhineland-Palatinate,Alsace andLorraine in southwestern Germany and northeastern France, and ended on 25 January 1945. The German offensive was an operational failure, with its main objectives not achieved.
By 21 December 1944, the German momentum during theBattle of the Bulge had begun to dissipate, and it was evident that the operation was on the brink of failure. TheGerman high command believed that an attack against the7th US Army further south, which had extended its lines and taken on a defensive posture to cover the area vacated by the3rd US Army which had turned north to assist at the site of the German breakthrough, could relieve pressure on German forces in the Ardennes.[7] In a briefing at his military command complex atAdlerhorst,Adolf Hitler declared in his speech to his division commanders on 28 December 1944 (three days prior to the launch of OperationNordwind),
The goal of the offensive was to break through the lines of the U.S. Seventh Army and theFrench 1st Army in theUpper Vosges Mountains and the Alsatian Plain and destroy them, as well as seize the city ofStrasbourg, whichHimmler had promised would be captured by 30 January. The achievement of these objectives would pave the way forOperation Dentist (Unternehmen Zahnarzt), a planned major thrust into the rear of theU.S. Third Army, intended to lead to the destruction of that army.[3]: 494
On 31 December 1944, GermanArmy Group G (commanded by GeneraloberstJohannes Blaskowitz) andArmy Group Upper Rhine (commanded by Reichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler) launched a major offensive against the thinly stretched, 110-kilometre-long (68 mi) front line held by the U.S. 7th Army. Operation Nordwind soon had the overextended U.S. 7th Army in dire straits; the 7th Army (at the orders of U.S. GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower) had sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in theArdennes involved in the Battle of the Bulge.
On the same day that the German Army launched Operation Nordwind, theLuftwaffe (German Air Force) committed almost 1,000 aircraft in support. This attempt to cripple theAllied air forces based in northwesternEurope was known asOperation Bodenplatte. It failed without having achieved any of its key objectives.
The initial Nordwind attack was conducted by three corps of theGerman 1st Army of Army Group G, and by 9 January, theXXXIX (39th) Panzer Corps was heavily engaged as well. By 15 January at least 17 German divisions (including units in theColmar Pocket in "Operation Solstice") from Army Group G and Army Group Oberrhein, including the6th SS Mountain,17th SS Panzergrenadier,21st Panzer, and25th Panzergrenadier Divisions were engaged in the fighting. Another smaller attack was made against the French positions south ofStrasbourg, but it was finally stopped. TheU.S. VI Corps—which bore the brunt of the German attacks—was fighting on three sides by 15 January.
The 125th Regiment of the 21st Panzer Division under ColonelHans von Luck aimed to sever the American supply line to Strasbourg, by cutting across the eastern foothills of the Vosges at the northwest base of a natural salient in a bend of theRiver Rhine. Here theMaginot Line, running east–west, was used by Allied forces, and "showed what a superb fortification it was".[8] On January 7 Luck approached the line south of Wissembourg at the villages of Rittershoffen and Hatten. Heavy American fire came from the 79th Infantry Division, the 14th Armored Division, plus elements of the 42nd Infantry Division. On January 10 Luck reached the villages. Two weeks of heavy fighting followed, Germans and Americans each occupying parts of the villages while civilians sheltered in cellars. Luck later said that the fighting around Rittershoffen had been "one of the hardest and most costly battles that ever raged".[9]
Eisenhower, fearing the outright destruction of the U.S. 7th Army, had rushed already battered divisions hurriedly relieved from the Ardennes, southeast over 100 km (62 mi), to reinforce the 7th Army. But their arrival was delayed, and on 21 January with supplies and ammunition short, Seventh Army ordered the much-depleted 79th Infantry and 14th Armored Divisions to retreat from Rittershoffen and fall back on new positions on the south bank of theModer River.
On 25 January the German offensive was halted, after the U.S.222nd Infantry Regiment stopped their advance nearHaguenau, earning thePresidential Unit Citation in the process. The same day reinforcements began to arrive from the Ardennes. Although Strasbourg had been successfully defended, the Colmar Pocket had not yet been eliminated.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
https://wisvetsmuseum.com/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=OH_00915.xml
