Christmas 1944 found the United States Army fighting its largest and costliest battle in U.S. history – the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler’s last major offensive in WWII was motivated by the hope that his troops could drive toward the coast and seize the port of Antwerp, Belgium, effectively cutting off British supply lines to their army in the north and from the Americans to the south. The Germans would then crush the isolated British troops. When this was accomplished, Hitler thought the Allies would sue for peace and leave the Nazis in power in Germany. This would leave the Germans to concentrate on defeating the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front.
Under cover of night and radio silence, the Germans amassed an attack force of thirty divisions (more than 200,000 troops) and over 2000 tanks. On December 16th before dawn, they launched their surprise attack through the Ardennes Forest, the least expected place and the lightest defended area (85 miles of dense woods). This move both surprised and created alarm and confusion among the Allies. For the first three days, the Allied air forces were grounded due to mist and rain.
American soldiers captured by German troops in the Ardennes between December 16 and 22, 1944. Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.
The Germans initially bypassed the city of Bastogne, which was defended by the 101st Airborne but later besieged the city. The German commander demanded the Americans surrender, but the American commander responded “Nuts!” On December 26th, Patton’s 3rd Army relieved Bastogne.
A dugout built under snow in the Bastogne area. Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.
On Christmas day, the 2nd U.S. Armored division stopped the German tanks before they reached the Meuse River. British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery had brought reserve troops south quickly and shored up the defense at the Meuse River crossings, which the Germans never reached. The “Allied lines bulged but did not break.”
On January 3rd, the U.S. 1st Army began their counteroffensive. Realizing the Allies were attempting to surround and pinch them off, the Germans retreated. The battle lasted for six weeks (12/16/44 – 1/25/45), until the Allies pushed the Germans back across the border.
The battle was costly on both sides. Germany lost 120,000 men. Out of the 600,000 U.S. troops who participated, more than 23,000 were taken prisoner and 19,246 died. There were well over 80,000 casualties. This battle accounted for approximately 10% of all combat casualties for the U.S. in World War II.
Germans captured during the allied counterattack. Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.
British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill stated, “This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.”
In February of 1944, American fighter pilot Bob Hoover was shot down over the Mediterranean Sea south of France. A German patrol boat rescued him, and he was sent to Luft Stalag I in northern Germany. Hoover wasn’t happy confined to a prisoner of war camp, awaiting the Soviet Army to liberate him. In the closing days of the war, Eisenhower sent a message for Allied POW’s to stay put, but Hoover’s never-give-up attitude won out over playing the waiting game.
The prison guards at Luft Stalag I had become lax, so when hundreds of prisoners staged a fight, Hoover and another POW escaped the camp. A German farmer’s wife fed the men the first eggs they’d had in over a year. Down the road, another woman gave them a handgun, saying in broken English that they needed it more than she did. The two men confiscated a pair of bicycles and made their way to an airfield, full of damaged aircraft.
Hoover located a Focke-Wulf 190 single-seat fighter with a lot of damage but a full tank of gas. They confronted a German mechanic with their pistol, but he didn’t try to stop them. Hoover’s companion chose to continue his journey by bicycle rather than risking his life in the damaged craft. Hoover didn’t waste time using the runway. He taxied across a grassy field and lifted off. He didn’t have a parachute or a seat cushion and could barely see out the canopy windscreen.
A Restored Focke-Wulf 190. Courtesy of Wikimedia by Kogo – Own work, GFDL.
Hoover didn’t know where he was going, but he had a compass, so he headed west, hoping to stay aloft until he reached Allied territory. He was concerned that an American or British pilot would spot the German aircraft and finish him off, so he flew low, below the cloud cover. After Hoover spotted the windmills of Holland, he landed in a plowed field and was immediately surrounded by “an angry group of farmers armed with pitchforks.”
Hoover tried to explain to the Dutchmen “why an American was flying a German warplane.” Fortunately for him, British soldiers pulled up in their truck and translated. Hoover hitched a ride with them and ended the war safely. Incidentally, the other escapee on the bicycle survived the war also and he and Hoover met up many years later. After the war, Bob Hoover became a civilian test pilot and later an air show display pilot, flying for nearly fifty years before he retired. He died in 2016 at the age of 94. Jimmy Doolittle dubbed Hoover “The greatest stick and rudder man who ever lived!”
Bob Hoover in 2011 Courtesy of Flikr via Wikipedia
Sources:
Strange and Ocscure Stories of World War II by Don Aines. Skyhorse Publishing, 2020.
