Sublime

Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, at sixty-eight, was not only the oldest, but the most senior commander in the Wehrmacht.e Known as the “Black Knight” (Schwarzer Ritter), he had led the invasion of Poland in 1939, the breakthrough in the Ardennes in 1940, and the capture of Kiev in 1941.

At SHAEF, the precariousness of the German position was not apparent. Von Rundstedt’s troops, although outgunned, outmanned, and short of virtually every military necessity, fought with skill and tenacity, while Rommel took advantage of every American and British miscue.

Of all of Germany’s senior commanders, including Rommel and von Rundstedt, few were more eager to attack than Kesselring, and none had his ability to combine air and ground operations.

The German Army Group B, commanded initially by Rommel, then by von Kluge,m had committed two veteran armies, the Seventh and Fifth Panzer, some forty divisions (600,000 men), and 1,500 tanks to the battle. The Allies deployed four armies, also totaling about forty divisions, 600,000 men, and 3,000 tanks.

General Heinz Guderian (1888–1954) was the true author of blitzkrieg as propounded in his book Achtung Panzer (1937).

Against the impassioned opposition of his generals, he launched a western offensive in the worst season of the year, at the place the Allies least expected it—the Ardennes forest, on the frontiers of Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. The objective was to reach Antwerp, splitting the Allied front.

The principal assault (code-named BAGRATION, for the great Czarist general killed at Borodino in 1812) was directed at Army Group Center, some 700,000 troops who held the midsection of the German front. Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who coordinated the attack, committed 166 Red Army divisions—2.4 million troops, 5,300 aircraft, and 5,200 tanks—twice that

For Montgomery, given the horrendous British losses in the trench warfare of World War I, attrition was unthinkable. Instead, he preferred to keep the enemy off balance by maneuvering and then deliver a concentrated blow at a single point. Rather than conduct a broad-front offensive, Monty sought to breach the enemy line and exploit the breakthroug