Ideals are beautiful, but reality is cruel!
The cruelty of reality is that the development of things is always beyond your expectations.
In just one day, the situation was completely out of control-the road from Bastogne to the rear was extremely congested, and the reinforcements of the US military had occupied the entire road.
At dawn the next day, a small advance team of the 7th Armored Army had already entered Bastogne. They would reinforce St. Vith. The town was the most important road and railway center in the eastern Ardennes except Bastogne.
As soon as the advance team arrived in Bastogne, it immediately blocked the traffic and directly controlled the road.
"Sir, the order we received was very clear. Take over the road to facilitate the march of the troops. The road is only this wide. If you use it, our troops will definitely not be able to get up..."
While speaking, the military police major deliberately took a look at the behemoth in front of him-the M25 Dragon tank trailer.
You don't have to guess the result. Once that thing drove on the road, it directly occupied the entire road.
Looking at the crowded vehicles and American troops on the road which was only three meters wide, George suddenly felt overwhelmed.
What is a perfect plan?
This is it!
After calculating everything, he did not expect that the narrow road would be occupied by the reinforcements of the American troops. Not only was it occupied, but the road was also directly blocked!
"Then when can we get on the road at the earliest?"
"It depends on the situation, sir. The most important thing now is to reinforce the front line. My suggestion is that you wait here!"
Wait here?
In Bastogne!
What a joke!
Stay here and wait to die?
Looking at George with an uncertain expression, the military police major shrugged his shoulders helplessly and said.
"Even if we leave Bastogne now, we can't go far. The road is crowded with troops..."
An hour later, on a road more than 30 kilometers away from Bastogne, two convoys stopped on the side of the road. The convoys had both SdKFz250 half-track armored vehicles and several M3 half-track armored vehicles. Wei Shanhe jumped out of the oncoming jeep and reported.
"Sir, we met the American troops of the Red 1st Division at the pass. They have blocked the pass. No matter who it is, they will not let anyone pass. They said that even if there is an order from the Allied Command, they will never let us pass..."
George's heart instantly cooled down after his subordinates' report.
Damn it!
We are stuck here, this is the end of us...
While George's heart cooled down, there was a person in the forest whose heart was burning hot-Lieutenant Colonel von der Heydt. When he was ordered to lead the paratroopers in an airborne battle, he occupied the transportation hub to assist the German troops on the ground.
However, this airborne landing was a disaster from the beginning. The fierce anti-aircraft fire from the Allied ground dispersed the flight formation. The inexperienced pilots did not realize that the wind speed was so fast. When the scheduled parachute time arrived, most of the paratroopers were far away from the scheduled location, distributed within a range of 20 miles, and the casualty rate during parachuting reached more than 10%. Fortunately, the landing site was a forest and the US military could not arrive in time.
When Haidt landed, he broke another arm. He also broke an arm in a previous parachute jump. With both arms injured, he only gathered about 100 paratroopers. By the morning of the 2nd, Haidt had only gathered 125 people, and by the afternoon, he had gathered another 150 people. But most of the paratroopers were injured in the parachute jump, and all of them were frostbitten due to the severe cold. They found almost no weapon boxes, no radios, and no food. Without heavy weapons, they could not occupy the intersection.
If his cousin Count Felix von Stauffenberg's bomb plot had succeeded, he would not have stayed in this icy and snowy place.
Four days ago, Sepp Dietrich of the 6th SS Panzer Corps had boasted that he would reach this area at noon on the first day of the attack. But now it was the morning of the second day, and there was no sign of Dietrich.
A few minutes later, more than 300 captured German paratroopers looked at these guys with resentment. They had already confirmed their accents, so how could they become Americans again?
No, they are not Americans.
As for Lieutenant Colonel Heydt's fiery heart, it also became cold.
However, for him with injured arms, he could do nothing at the moment. He could only... surrender, yes, only surrender. Facing hundreds of enemies holding STG44 and MG42, what else could they do except surrender with only pistols?
The last airborne operation of the German army in World War II ended in a disaster. They surrendered without even a fierce battle.
In fact, Lieutenant Colonel Heidt should feel fortunate. In another world, after the breakout was hopeless, he disbanded the troops and divided them into groups of 2-3 people to reduce the target, hoping that they could return to a safe area. Then, he chose to surrender after being injured, and most of the paratroopers he disbanded died in the forest. Their bodies were not found until the snow melted in the spring of the following year.
At least now, they are all alive.
To a certain extent, it is because old friends gave them such a good opportunity. After all, they survived anyway.
If it weren't for the appearance of old friends, they would just be a pile of frozen meat in the ice and snow.
"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel..."
George walked up to Lieutenant Colonel Heidt with a smile.
"Congratulations, you are captured by us!"
Capturing a group of German paratroopers is simply too simple.
Just like this, they are still a group of special forces. They are really a group of special forces, but they are a little unlucky!
What does he want to do?
The other party's enthusiasm gave Lieutenant Colonel Heidt an inexplicable feeling - he felt that the other party was looking at a new pet.
Yes, it is a new pet!
In George's view, this group of paratroopers are not just paratroopers, but coaches of the future Borneo Special Forces.
Don't look at these guys so embarrassed now, but in history, these guys are the ancestors of special forces in various countries in the world. To a certain extent, special forces around the world are trained according to the training outline of these guys, and there is no problem with their training in special forces.
Capturing a group of elite paratroopers is certainly a good thing, but it does not get rid of the current predicament. The Allied Supreme Command may not know, but George knows very well that he is in danger.
What to do next?
George couldn't help but feel a little headache. The road to evacuate Bastogne was occupied by the American troops who were reinforcing the Ardennes. The congested roads were crowded with American troops. It was almost impossible to evacuate now.
Is it really necessary to play here?
At this time in the Ardennes, the American defense line had been breached, and the Allies were standing on the edge of the cliff of disaster, swaying in the wind and rain.
It was already past midnight, and in the headquarters of the German Army Group G, far south of the Ardennes, the phone rang. The person on the other end of the phone claimed to be the Führer, and he wanted the commander-in-chief to answer the phone in person.
General Balke of the Armored Forces hurried to answer the phone.
"From today, Balke,"
Hitler said,
"We can't give up an inch of land. Today, we attack!"
"Yes, yes."
Balke responded, pulling over a chair and sitting down.
Hitler told him that they had made a good start in the Ardennes. He told how Dietrich, the loyal old Dietrich, had opened a gap in the Rosheim Gap, and that he was only a few miles from Honsfeld and would soon rush out with the Peip battle group. He also told how Manteuffel quickly surrounded the Sini Eifel Mountains with one army and was attacking the Meuse River with two other armies; he had occupied the commanding heights east of Clervaux and promised to pry open the road to Bastogne before noon tomorrow.
And the weather now still belongs to Germany. Heavy fog, light rain, haze, and cloudy weather still prevented the Allied planes from taking off. Hitler believed that in such bad weather, victory would definitely belong to Germany.
Hitler talked to Balke for five minutes without any pause. Balke, who had experienced the battlefield on the Eastern Front, sat in a chair, listened quietly, and couldn't help getting excited.
Finally, Hitler was so excited that his voice became tense. He shouted loudly:
"Balke, Balke, the situation on the Western Front has changed! Victory - complete victory - is within our grasp!"
After hanging up the phone, Hitler looked at the map with shining eyes. His eyes scanned the key points one by one, and finally fell on Bastogne. Then, he said to himself.
"This must be another Battle of France."
Another glorious victory. Even if he only had one-third of the Allied forces, even if the air supremacy depended entirely on the weather, the smooth start made Hitler believe that victory must belong to Germany!
Just when Hitler was looking forward to victory, in Verdun, although confusing intelligence flooded into Verdun, he still couldn't figure out the full situation of the German attack. Eisenhower took some corresponding measures to ensure safety. He had urgently transferred the veterans of the 1st Division who were good at overcoming difficulties from the north, so that they could be prepared in case the actual situation was worse than it seemed.
In the Allied Supreme Command, although the battle had broken out for two days, Eisenhower and other senior generals only thought that the counterattack in the Ardennes region was just a German attack to contain the US military in the Saar direction.
On the evening of the 2nd, Hodges, commander of the 1st Army, called the Supreme Command of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Versailles to find General Bradley. Last night, Bradley spent the night in Eisenhower's stone villa in Saint-Germain.
"Bradley,"
Hodges said,
"I want those two airborne divisions."
"But Courtney, the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions are the only reserve forces Ike has, and they are all in Paris."
"You have to give them to me. It's a mess here, and I need reinforcements."
"Okay, I'll ask."
After hanging up the phone, Bradley stood in front of the map again. The chaotic and even contradictory information made it difficult for him to peek into the fog of war.
Just like that, Bradley stood in front of the map, staring at the distribution map of enemy and our forces on the map. His brows were wrinkled from time to time, and he was outlining something on the map with a pencil from time to time.
After thinking for a long time, Bradley's expression became more and more solemn, and then he suddenly seemed to have figured something out, and screamed loudly.
"Damn it, that's how it is!"
In the early morning of December 3, Bradley went to see Eisenhower and said as soon as he entered his office.
"Ike, we're done!"
"Yes, we're done!"
Eisenhower stood in front of the map and pointed at it.
"I was just about to call you. If Germany launches a full-scale counterattack this time, we're probably really done. Our troops are too far away from the Ardennes..."
After that, Eisenhower turned and looked at Bradley and said.
"This time, the Germans are likely to replicate their victory in the Battle of France!"
On the third day of the Ardennes counterattack, at 2 a.m., the Allied High Command finally figured out one thing - the German troops in the Ardennes were not a diversionary harassment attack.
It can only be said that these guys are too smart...