The Meuse-Argonne Offensive and the End of World War I Essays

With German forces on the run following the Allied success at Normandy and the breakout and pursuit across France, Allied forces were staged to enter Germany in late summer 1944. Both Field Marshal Montgomery and General Bradley clamored to be given the priority of effort. General Eisenhower chose Montgomery’s Operation MARKET GARDEN as the plan for action. It called for airborne forces to open the route for a ground force to move more than sixty miles up a single road, ending up north of the Rhine River near Arnhem, Netherlands. By accomplishing this task, the German Ruhr industrial heartland would be within easy grasp. But the operation failed. The ground force

The arrival of additional German troops ended American hopes which created a lost for the American Military. While Montfaucon was taken the next day, the advance proved slow and American forces were plagued by leadership and logistical issues. By October 1, the offensive had come to a halt. Traveling among his forces, Pershing replaced several of his green divisions of soldiers with more experienced troops, though this movement only added to the logistical and traffic difficulties. On October 4, Pershing ordered an assault all along the American line. This was met with ferocious resistance from the Germans with the advance measured in yards. It was during this phase of the fighting that the 77th Division's famed "Lost Battalion" made its stand. Elsewhere, Corporal Alvin York won the Medal of Honor for capturing 132 Germans (Clodfelter, 2007). On October 8, Pershing made a push on the east side of the Meuse with the goal of silencing German artillery in the area. This made little headway. Two days later he turned command of the 1st Army over to Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett.

The terrain of the Huertgen and surrounding area was hugely significant in this battle. The Huertgen was a dense forest, and it has not yet to this day over seventy years later recovered from the massive amount of shelling that occurred during the 4 months between September and December 1944. The Huertgen is approximately 50 square miles, and was heavy with 100 foot tall trees. It was so dark that it was difficult to see more than a few meters in front of oneself in certain areas, thus making travel extremely difficult for the advancing U.S. forces. The Germans that were waiting the advance of the American troops within the forest in fortified bunker positions had the renewed determination of fighting on their own soil. The Huertgen is made up of a deep gorge like valley known as the Kall Valley. It is beset by two large spurs of high ground where the towns of Schmidt, Vossenach and Kommershiedt lay. The Americans objective for the advance towards the Huertgen was to take these towns, destroy the German forces until the Huertgen was empty of any possible German resistance, thus protecting what would be their Southern flank on the march towards victory, bringing a quick end to the war.

By the time of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the war had been raging on for four years. The United States had only entered the war the previous year and saw its first combat in the spring of 1918. The American Expeditionary Force, commanded by General Pershing, brought certain relief to the beleaguered French and British armies. Paris was in danger of falling as the Germans were in artillery range of the city. The German lines would eventually falter and the allies would regain their lost territory. The AEF would spend the next year building its forces and training for this new style of

The first American artillery round in World War I was on October 23, 1917. This demonstrates the start of the use of artillery from the American perspective. Trench warfare seemed to have settled down; General John J. Pershing insisted that American troops were to be trained in open warfare. By the time American troops began to appear on the battlefield in significant numbers, the general did this in order for the American troops to have skills in open warfare allowing for artillery to be moved closer in order to attack the infantry thus the war had become more mobile. In 1918, American troops joined in at Chateau-Thierry to halt General Erich Ludendorff's offensive. Counterattacking under a heavy artillery barrage, they cleared the Germans in 2 weeks. This demonstrates the power artillery had during the war not only on the side of the Allies but also on the German side as well. On July 4, allied artillery laid down a devastating barrage for an hour before the enemy's guns attacked. The enemy fell back and a massive Allied attack was launched. Approximately 3,010 guns of 26 calibers and 46 models poured 74 types of ammunition into the salient in the 4 hours and 45 minutes prior to the attack. A total of about 900,000 rounds of ammunition

For seven days, the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge was valorously held by the artillery forces and Infantry forces of the United States Army. (Starmann R. , 2015). This battle was the greatest crushing victory of the Ardennes valley and is the only part of the Battle of the Bulge line where the Germans failed to advance. (Starmann R. , 2015). From this ridge, the United States forces were extremely trenched in. They used the few days leading up to this battle to maneuver more units to the ridge to help protect the Germans from securing the two villages. These villages were critical to the Germans because without them they would not be able to resupply

On August 7 allied forces begonia moving from their positions, Canadian and British from Canen, moving south and the Americans from Avranches, moving north. German leadership realized that their army was being encircled and that the only route of egress was through the towns of Chambois and Argentan. The German forces fought hard to keep this gap open and evade encirclement, if they could not maintain a possible escape route the only choice would be to fight and die. General Bradley, after studying the map and movements of ground troops noticed a gap that would allow German forces to elude the allied advance. In order to close the gap General Bradley need to act swiftly to prevent the German army form escaping the pocket, he issued orders to General Patton; “strong elements of Patton’s Third Army turned north at Le Mans and moved aggressively toward the city of Alençon, they could link up with the Canadians and British, who were attacking south toward Falaise. This would block all the roads out of Normandy and trap Army Group B”. If General Bradley’s plan would work he saw it as “ a once-in-a-century opportunity

Both sides rushed north in a ‘race to the sea'. If one army got there first it could take control of crucial channel ports and also move to encircle the armies of its rival. Incidentally, neither army moved south as both French and German borders were intact and heavily fortified all the way to the Swiss border. As both sides moved north at an even pace and neither wanted to lose any ground, a line of deeply dug trenches appeared all the way the way through Belgium and Northern France. These trenches were extremely well designed defensive positions and were almost impenetrable by conventional means. The beginning of the war was now over, deadlock had been established and the long bloody middle was about to begin. It would be this trench warfare that would be the key factor behind the failure for either side to advance over the coming years.

This was a major battle during World War II. It all took place in the city of Aachen during the 2nd of October 1944 through the 21st of October 1944. Aachen was a city considered to be held in high regards by Adolph Hitler. This city is the place that is said to be where the First German Reich was founded. It was a plain and simple strategy. Adolph Hitler and the German forces were not going to let the American forces

I am taking the offensive in the Ardennes! Across the Meuse and on to Antwerp!” From the end of September to December 7th, Hitler and his most trusted generals worked up the plan for the Ardennes Offensive that was first titled Operation “Christrose” but when Hitler saw the final version, he cheerfully renamed it, “Watch on the Rhine.” High commanding officers were read into the operation. By the end of December 7th, the first load of supplies was loaded on trains and on the way to the Ardennes to ensure all the supplies they would need for the operation were stockpiled and on December 11th the buildup was complete. Hitler moved his headquarter near a castle in Ziegenburg so he was about to keep a close, personal eye on the operation and set the date of December 16th for the attack to begin. Hitler briefed his division commanders himself and concluded by saying, “This battle is to decide whether we shall live or die. I want all my soldiers to fight hard and without pity. The battle must be fought with brutality and all resistance must be broken in a wave of terror. In the most serious hour of the Fatherland, I expect every one of my soldiers to be courageous and again courageous. The enemy must be beaten—now or never! Thus lives our Germany!!” The commanders were sent back to the Ardennes to start moving their divisions to their line of

During the battle of Elsenborn Ridge the German Army faced frequent difficulties in their attempt to advance on allied positions. On December 18th Peiper’s 1st SS Division Leibstandarte

The Ardennes Forest, was a dense forest with only a few roads that stretched seventy-five miles, these roads were being help by four inexperienced and tired American divisions. Using them element of surprise the German troops attacked the forest on December 16, 1944. The American divisions, desperately sought to stop advancing German troops. Despite their attempts by the end of the day the German stoops had broken through the American lines, taking over important intersections and had surrounded the majority of the infantry division. (Battle of the Buldge December 1944) German troops pushed forward towards the Meuse River and managed to

The Ardennes Offensive was a German attack on the Allied western front on December 16th, 1944. This battle is widely known as the “Battle of the Bulge” because the German’s initial attack pushed the Allied front in the Ardennes region to the west, creating a bulge in the generally north to south running Allied western front. The Allied western front ran north to south, stretching from the northern part of Belgium down into the southern parts of France. The German’s main focus was an area called the Ardennes region in the middle of the Allied front. The German’s end state was to attack the middle of the Allied front in order to split Allied forces. The Ardennes region was a heavily forested area and German commanders knew the Axis forces had to seize the city of Bastogne in order to control the main supply routes (MSR’s). The city of Bastogne was a piece of key terrain in the Ardennes region due to the highly trafficable MSR’s. The MSR’s would allow the Axis forces to easily maneuver their fifteen panzer divisions and supply trains westerly through the Allied front. 1

Germany and its allies had captured almost all of mainland Europe with the exception of four neutral countries. The Soviet Union had been fighting Germany since nearly the beginning of the war and wasn’t making much progress. The Soviet Union had been urging its allies to start a new rush on the eastern front of the war. At this time America hadn’t expanded their army to as big of a size as they would need and Britain had recently lost at Dunkirk which gave Germany the ability to take control of France. Little progress had been made against Germany itself, however it’s allies, Japan and Italy, were being weakened and it was time to start wearing down Germany. It was decided that to do this they would have to go through the eastern front.

The Allied forces were caught by surprise and unable to leverage their air assets due to heavy snow storms in the Ardennes. The storm front effectively hindered both forces. On the northern shoulder, Germany’s 6th Panzar Division pushed forward attacking American positions on Elsenborn Ridge and Losheim Gap. Deitrichs men were committed to battle, having met heavy resistance from the United States 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. The smaller inferior Allied force was able to significantly delay the German advance, quite possibly the most decisive actions of the Ardennes campaign.