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- "Operation North Wind" was also a joint German-Finnish naval operation in the Baltic Sea in 1941, see Operation Nordwind (1941).
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Operation North Wind (Unternehmen Nordwind) was the last major German offensive of the Second World War on the Western Front. It began on 1 January 1945 in Alsace and Lorraine in north-eastern France, and it ended on 25 January.
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Objectives
German dictator Adolf Hitler declared in his speech to his division commanders on 28 December 1944 (three days prior to the launch of Operation North Wind):
This attack has a very clear objective, namely the destruction of the enemy forces. There is not a matter of prestige involved here. It is a matter of destroying and exterminating the enemy forces wherever we find them. The question of liberating all of Alsace at this time is not involved either. That would be very nice, the impression on the German people would be immeasurable, the impression on the world decisive, terrific psychologically, the impression on the French people would be depressing. But that is not important. It is more important, as I said before, to destroy his manpower.
The objective was simple. Break through the lines of the U.S. 7th Army and French 1st Army in the Upper Vosges mountains and the Alsatian Plain, and destroy them. This would leave the way open for Operation Dentist (Unternehmen Zahnarzt), a planned major thrust into the rear of the U.S. 3rd Army which would lead to the destruction of that army.
The offensive
On 1 January 1945, German Army Group G (Heeresgruppe G) commanded by Colonel General (Generaloberst) Johannes Blaskowitz and Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein) commanded by Heinrich Himmler launched a major offensive against the thinly stretched, 110 km line of the U.S. 7th Army. Operation North Wind soon had the understrength U.S. 7th Army in dire straits. The 7th Army, at the orders of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, had sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes involved in the "Battle of the Bulge."
The initial attack was conducted by three Corps of the German 1st Army of Army Group G, and by 9 January, the XXXIX Panzer Corps was heavily engaged as well. By 15 January, at least seventeen German divisions (including units in the Colmar Pocket) were engaged from Army Group G and Army Group Upper Rhine, including the 10th SS Panzer, 7th Parachute, 21st Panzer, and 25th Panzer Grenadier divisions. Another attack, smaller, was against the French positions south of Strasbourg but it was finally stopped.
U.S. VI Corps, which bore the brunt of the German attacks, was fighting on three sides by 13 January. With casualties mounting, and running severely short on replacements, tanks, ammunition, and supplies, Eisenhower, fearing the outright destruction of the U.S. 7th Army, rushed already battered divisions hurriedly relieved from the Ardennes, southeast over 100 km, to reinforce the 7th Army. Their arrival was delayed, and the Americans were forced to withdraw to defensive positions on the south bank of the Moder River on 21 January. The German offensive finally drew to a close on 25 January, the same day that the reinforcements began to arrive from the Ardennes. Strasbourg was saved but the Colmar pocket was a danger which was to be collapse.
Results
In the bitter, desperate fighting of Operation North Wind, VI Corps suffered a total of 14,716 casualties. The total casualties for the U.S. 7th Army as a whole is unclear, but it included approximately 3,000 killed, 9,000 wounded, and 17,000 sick and injured1
The German Air Force (Luftwaffe) committed almost one-thousand aircraft to Operation Baseplate (Unternehmen Bodenplatte) in support of the Operation North Wind, this "led to the final destruction of the German Air Force as an effective force. It gave the Allies total air supremacy."2
In February 1945, with the assistance of the U.S. XXI Corps, the French First Army collapsed the Colmar Pocket and cleared the west bank of the Rhine River of Germans in the area south of Strasbourg.
See also
References
- Smith and Clarke, "Riviera To The Rhine," The official US Army History of the Seventh US Army.
- Nordwind & the US 44th Division *Battle History of the 44th I.D.
- 14th Armored Division Combat History
- The Ardennes-Alsace campaign US Army brochure
- The NORDWIND Offensive (January 1945) on the website of the 100th Infantry Division Association contains a list of German primary sources on the operation.
Footnotes
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 11 August 2008, at 09:52.
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