Montgomery and Eisenhower had been positive that the Nazis lacked both the petrol and the men to lead an offensive campaign.
Anyone else could agree with them at the time as it had been known that Hitler had lost most of his resources along with the loss of his allies. Furthermore, the world had been aware that Hitler had lost influence in Germany and that the bombing attempt had also crushed his confidence in his own men.
Nevertheless, Hitler managed to get together an impressive number of soldiers and resources. During the last months of 1944, his army seemed to have recovered and it appeared to be ready to lead an offensive. The Fuhrer knew that this had been his last chance of winning the war because there would be no more men to recruit or resources to use in case if he lost his men and his supplies.
Hitler's plan had been to use all of the military power available for "Operation Autumn Fog." The operation involved having the troops sent to the Black Forest and Ardennes hills where they would catch the enemy by surprise. Later on, Hitler's troops would head to the north of Belgium to Antwerp where they would break vital Allied lines.
The plan had been devised alone without any advice from his military staff. In fact, his military advisors all rejected the plan claiming that it would be useless to lead such a campaign instead of defending Germany. Hitler didn't listen to those that had been more experienced in such matters and decided to do as he planned. At the time the Fuhrer had been convinced that he had been the only person in his staff that had been thinking straight. One additional reason for why Hitler insisted that a counter-offensive would be launched had been that he only had two options: victory or death.
The chance that Hitler got to raise his army had been owed to the difficult terrain that the Allies had to use and to the success that Rundstedt and Model had had. In spite of Rundstedt's achievements, he did not believe in a German victory. Hitler believed that Germany's losses had been partly owed to the fact that some of his military leaders didn't believe in victory.
The Fuhrer did not want to think about a defensive plan, nor did he want to enforce his positions on the eastern front. He believed that his offensive would bring him back on the right track. He expected that the Allies to break up after his operation in Antwerp would be successful. A great mistake from behalf of Hitler was that he underestimated the English and the American forces. He thought that both armies would quickly leave the war after the Germans would push them back. In his mind, the Russians had been much more experienced in the military than the Allies.
Hitler's plan made some sense at the time because everybody knew that a defensive campaign would only postpone the outcome of the war. In addition to that, Antwerp had been one of the perfect places weak enough for one to attack to capture. The Allies did not expect any offensive, and, if Hitler managed to capture the port of Antwerp, they would have received a major blow at their supply lines.
Conversely, in case Hitler would have eventually take-over the port of Antwerp, the victory would be short-lived. The Allies would have been affected by the occurrence, but their military power had been too big to be seriously influenced by such an incident. Hitler's generals had lost any determination to intervene and advise their Fuhrer by the time. They only acted because of the respect that they had for their leader and because they feared that they would not be murdered just as the others that disobeyed Hitler's orders.
By the beginning of December Hitler had collected twentyeight divisions for the Ardennes attack and another six for the thrust into Alsace which was to follow. The main brunt of the offensive was to be carried by two panzer armies, the Sixth S.S. Panzer Army under Sepp Dietrich and the Fifth Panzer Army under Manteuffel, which between them disposed of some ten armoured divisions."
The German offensive was to be lead by Field Marshal Rundstedt who received the planning with great secrecy and with the order that he should not intervene in any way with the schedule. Hitler wanted full control of the situation, and, therefore, he moved his HQ to Bad Nauheim just behind the Western Front. The Autumn Fog Operation is an example of how a dying nation can rise...
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