![]() ![]() A third German army-the Seventh under General der Panzertruppen Erich Brandenberger-was tasked with guarding the southern flank of the German offensive. Warming to his subject, Hitler said that the German Sixth Panzer Army would capture Liege, Belgium, while to its immediate south Manteuffel’s Fifth Panzer Army would take the port city of Antwerp. The Führer explained that he had managed to scrape together everything he could-25 divisions containing 250,000 men and 800 armored fighting vehicles-for the effort, and if it did not succeed, the war would be lost. The Nazi dictator harangued his generals with a two-hour prepared speech, ending with the declaration that in a few days the German Army would launch a massive counterattack in the West. ![]() A half-hour bus ride brought the entire group to the field headquarters in the West of, and face-to-face with, their supreme leader: Adolf Hitler. There he found assembled all the German army, corps, and division commanders serving on the Western Front. The answers to those questions came two days later.ĭecember 12 witnessed a summons for Bayerlein to appear at the Wehrmacht high command’s headquarters in the West located at Ziegenberg. It was apparent to the tank leader that a German offensive in the West was in the offing, but where and when it would take place he did not know. Bayerlein, commanding the Panzer Lehr Division, was specifically asked if he could take the Belgian crossroads town of Bastogne, to which he replied that unless the place could be captured by surprise “otherwise only a heavily prepared attack could take it.” Army during World War II) Fritz Bayerlein was called to a meeting at Kyllburg (Eifel) to participate in a map exercise involving an advance to the Meuse River.Īmong the German Army officers present was General der Panzertruppen (i.e., lieutenant general) Hasso von Manteuffel, commander of the Fifth Panzer Army, and several tank corps leaders. On December 10, 1944, Generalleutnant (equivalent to major general in the U.S. ![]()
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