The Nero Decree ( German : Nerobefehl ) was issued by Adolf Hitler on 19 March 1945, ordering the destruction of German infrastructure to prevent its use by Allied forces as they penetrated deep within Germany . It was officially titled Decree Concerning Demolitions in the Reich Territory ( Befehl betreffend Zerstörungsmaßnahmen im Reichsgebiet ) and has subsequently become known as the Nero Decree, after the Roman Emperor Nero , who, according to an apocryphal story, engineered the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. The decree was deliberately disobeyed by Albert Speer shortly before the fall of the Nazi regime .
63-618: By the beginning of 1945, the situation for Germany was desperate. Most of the conquered territories had been liberated or recaptured, the Ardennes Offensive had failed, and Allied armies were advancing on Germany proper from both the East and the West . However, Hitler was not willing to accept the terms of unconditional surrender , and considered this as repeating the same shame as Versailles . Moreover, according to some around him, Hitler came to view
126-522: A Blitzkrieg attack through the weakly defended Ardennes, mirroring the successful German offensive there during the Battle of France in 1940, and aimed at splitting the armies along the U.S.-British lines and capturing Antwerp. The plan banked on unfavorable weather, including heavy fog and low-lying clouds, which would minimize the Allied air advantage. Hitler originally set the offensive for late November, before
189-427: A joint "small solution" to Hitler. When they offered their alternative plans, Hitler would not listen. Rundstedt later testified that while he recognized the merit of Hitler's operational plan, he saw from the very first that "all, absolutely all conditions for the possible success of such an offensive were lacking." Model, commander of German Army Group B ( Heeresgruppe B ), and von Rundstedt, overall commander of
252-612: A rest area for the U.S. First Army , with limited Allied operational objectives in the area. The Allies defended the Ardennes line very thinly, due to the favorable defensive terrain (a densely wooded highland with deep river valleys and a rather thin road network) and because they had intelligence that the Wehrmacht was using the area across the German border as a rest-and-refit area for its own troops. The Allies faced major supply issues, due to
315-477: A rest area for the U.S. First Army, and the lines were thinly held by fatigued troops and inexperienced replacement units. The Germans also took advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies' superior air forces for an extended period. American resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive, around Elsenborn Ridge , and in the south, around Bastogne , blocked German access to key roads to
378-678: A shift in the German planning starting in January to February 1940. Army Group A was now accorded the operational focus, and Army Group B became a formation with a support and auxiliary role. With 29⅓ divisions , it was clearly smaller than its southern neighbor with 44⅓ divisions (whereas Army Group C in the far south on the French border received only 17 divisions). Army Group A also received preferential treatment in terms of access to reserve formations. Whereas Army Group A received seven armored divisions and three motorized infantry divisions, Army Group B
441-404: A total of 55 understrength divisions. Adolf Hitler first outlined his planned counter-offensive to his generals on 16 September 1944. The goal was to pierce the thinly held lines of the U.S. First Army between Monschau and Wasserbillig with Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model 's Army Group B by the end of the first day, get the armor through the Ardennes by the end of the second day, reach
504-429: Is not the lack of roads as much as the lack of almost anything else on which to move that matters. The OKW decided by mid-September, at Hitler's insistence, that the offensive would be mounted in the Ardennes, as was done in 1940. In 1940 German forces had passed through the Ardennes in three days before engaging the enemy, but the 1944 plan called for battle in the forest itself. The main forces were to advance westward to
567-509: Is the correct term in Allied military language, the official Ardennes-Alsace campaign reached beyond the Ardennes battle region, and the most popular description in English speaking countries remains simply 'Battle of the Bulge'. There is a popular impression that the chief trouble in the Ardennes is the lack of good roads. As anyone on the ground will agree, the Ardennes has a fairly good road system. It
630-577: The Battle of Aachen and fighting in the Hürtgen Forest , the strategic situation in the west had changed little. The Allies were slowly pushing towards Germany , but no decisive breakthrough was achieved. There were 96 Allied divisions at or near the front, with an estimated ten more divisions on the way from the United Kingdom. Additional Allied airborne units remained in England. The Germans could field
693-761: The Battle of the Caucasus ) to approach the Don and Volga rivers, with particular goals at the Soviet cities of Stalingrad and Astrakhan . After the forward formations of the army group got themselves entangled in the Battle of Stalingrad , a Soviet counterthrust (" Operation Uranus ") left the German 6th Army encircled inside the city, on the Volga west bank. Several major formations (German 6th Army, Romanian 4th Army , German 4th Panzer Army ) were transferred away from Army Group B and attached to
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#1732851544328756-656: The Eastern Front , the Soviets' Operation Bagration during the summer had destroyed much of Germany's Army Group Center ( Heeresgruppe Mitte ). By November, it was clear that Soviet forces were preparing for a winter offensive. Meanwhile, the Allied air offensive of early 1944 had effectively grounded the Luftwaffe , leaving the German Army with little battlefield intelligence and no way to interdict Allied supplies. The converse
819-578: The Meuse between Liège and Dinant by the third day, and seize Antwerp and the western bank of the Scheldt estuary by the fourth day. Hitler initially promised his generals a total of 18 infantry and 12 armored or mechanized divisions "for planning purposes." The plan was to pull 13 infantry divisions, two parachute divisions and six armored divisions from the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht strategic reserve. On
882-711: The Allied forces and compel the Americans and British to settle for a separate peace, independent of the Soviet Union. Success in the west would give the Germans time to design and produce more advanced weapons (such as jet aircraft , new U-boat designs and super-heavy tanks ) and permit the concentration of forces in the east. After the war ended, this assessment was generally viewed as unrealistic, given Allied air superiority throughout Europe and their ability to continually disrupt German offensive operations. Hitler's plan called for
945-517: The Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy each of the four Allied armies and force the western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers ' favour. The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans elsewhere and poor aerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. American forces were using this region primarily as
1008-542: The Allied supply situation stretched further than before. In October, the First Canadian Army fought the Battle of the Scheldt , opening the port of Antwerp to shipping. As a result, by the end of October, the supply situation had eased somewhat. Despite a lull along the front after the Scheldt battles, the German situation remained dire. While operations continued in the autumn, notably the Lorraine Campaign ,
1071-419: The Allies had suspended major offensives to improve their supply lines and supply availability at the front. Montgomery and Bradley both pressed for priority delivery of supplies to their respective armies so they could continue their individual lines of advance and maintain pressure on the Germans, while Eisenhower preferred a broad-front strategy. He gave some priority to Montgomery's northern forces. This had
1134-618: The Allies were about to retake the country, but Arthur Seyss-Inquart , the Reichskommissar in charge of the Netherlands during its occupation, was able to greatly limit the scope to which the order was executed. The order's most pertinent section reads as follows: It is a mistake to think that transport and communication facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, which have not been destroyed, or have only been temporarily put out of action, can be used again for our own ends when
1197-570: The Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group , over whether Montgomery or Lieutenant General Omar Bradley , commanding the U.S. 12th Army Group , in the south would get priority access to supplies. German forces remained in control of several major ports on the English Channel coast into the autumn, while Dunkirk remained under siege until the end of the war in May 1945. The Allies' efforts to destroy
1260-567: The Bulge , also known as the Ardennes Offensive , was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during the Second World War which took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg . The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split
1323-486: The French railway system prior to D-Day were successful. This destruction hampered the German response to the invasion, but it proved equally hampering to the Allies, as it took time to repair the rail network's tracks and bridges. A trucking system nicknamed the Red Ball Express brought supplies to front-line troops, but used up five times as much fuel to reach the front line near the Belgian border. By early October,
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#17328515443281386-539: The German Army Command in the West ( OB West ), were put in charge of carrying out the operation. The positions of the Allied armies stretched from southern France all the way north to the Netherlands. German planning for the counteroffensive rested on the premise that a successful strike against thinly manned stretches of the line would halt Allied advances on the entire Western Front. The Wehrmacht's code name for
1449-525: The German people as having failed him, unworthy of their great mission in history and thus deserving to die alongside his regime. This was not the first time Hitler had tried to destroy infrastructure before it could be taken. Shortly before the Liberation of Paris , Hitler ordered explosives to be placed around important landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower , and key transportation hubs. If the Allies came near
1512-549: The Meuse River, then turn northwest for Antwerp and Brussels . The close terrain of the Ardennes would make rapid movement difficult, though open ground beyond the Meuse offered the prospect of a successful dash to the coast. Four armies were selected for the operation. Adolf Hitler personally selected for the counter-offensive on the northern shoulder of the western front the best troops available and officers he trusted. The lead role in
1575-481: The anticipated start of the Russian winter offensive . The disputes between Montgomery and Bradley were well known, and Hitler hoped he could exploit this disunity. If the attack were to succeed in capturing Antwerp, four complete armies would be trapped without supplies behind German lines. Several senior German military officers, including Generalfeldmarschalls Model and von Rundstedt, expressed concern as to whether
1638-641: The army group initially remained on occupation duty in German-occupied France , but was redeployed to German-occupied Poland starting on 16 August 1940, where it took charge of German forces in East Prussia and the General Government , in proximity to the demarcation line with the Soviet Union . On the day Germany invaded the Soviet Union (" Operation Barbarossa "), 22 June 1941, Army Group B
1701-450: The attack was given to the 6th Panzer Army , commanded by SS Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich . It included the most experienced formation of the Waffen-SS : the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler . It also contained the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend . They were given priority for supply and equipment and assigned the shortest route to the primary objective of
1764-429: The city, the military governor, General Dietrich von Choltitz was to detonate these bombs, leaving Paris "lying in complete debris". Von Choltitz, however, did not carry out the order and surrendered to the Allies, later alleging that this was the moment he realised that "Hitler was insane". Similarly, Hitler had issued orders to enact a scorched earth policy upon the Netherlands in late 1944, when it became obvious that
1827-547: The destruction of the German 6th Army trapped in the city. Army Group B was organizationally weakened by the creation of Army Group Don , which was inserted into the line between Army Groups A and B to alleviate the crisis at Stalingrad. After additional pressure was applied to the army group by the Soviet Voronezh–Kharkov offensive (January – March 1943), the army group was dissolved on 9 February 1943 and its subordinate formations divided between Army Group Center and
1890-404: The effectiveness of Allied Ultra intercepts. Nevertheless, some 40–50 messages per day were decrypted by Ultra. They recorded the quadrupling of German fighter forces, and a term used in an intercepted Luftwaffe message ( Jägeraufmarsch , literally, 'Hunter Deployment') implied preparation for an offensive operation. Ultra also picked up communiqués regarding extensive rail and road movements in
1953-574: The end of July 1944 and the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced towards Germany more quickly than anticipated. The speed of the advance of the Allies caused several military logistics issues: By December 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower (the Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front ) and his staff decided to hold the Ardennes region primarily as
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2016-504: The ends of the Tunisian campaign ). Rommel on the same 19 July became the commander of Army Group B. The army group was deployed to northern Italy, where much of its staff was restructured into Army Group C ("Supreme Commander South West") on 26 November 1943. On the same day that the staff of Army Group B was dissolved in Italy (26 November 1943), an army group high command by the same name
2079-517: The foreseeable future for the prosecution of the war, will be destroyed. The decree was in vain. The responsibility for carrying it out fell to Albert Speer , Hitler's Minister of Armaments and War Production . According to him, Speer was appalled by the order and lost faith in the Führer . Just as von Choltitz had several months earlier, Speer deliberately failed to carry out the order. Upon receiving it, he requested to be given exclusive power to implement
2142-522: The former Army Group North ) and fought in the Battle of France on the northern flank. It was responsible for a part of the German invasion of Belgium and the majority of the German invasion of the Netherlands . In the later stage of that campaign (" Case Red "), it again advanced on the German right flank towards the Somme river , the city of Paris and the Franco-Spanish border . After 16 August 1940, it
2205-679: The goals of the offensive could be realized. Model and von Rundstedt both believed aiming for Antwerp was too ambitious, given Germany's scarce resources in late 1944. At the same time, they felt that maintaining a purely defensive posture (as had been the case since Normandy) would only delay defeat, not avert it. They thus developed alternative, less ambitious plans that did not aim to cross the Meuse River (in German and Dutch: Maas); Model's being Unternehmen Herbstnebel ('Operation Autumn Mist') and von Rundstedt's Fall Martin ('Plan Martin'). The two field marshals combined their plans to present
2268-523: The harbor before it could be taken. It took many months to rebuild its cargo-handling capability. The Allies captured the port of Antwerp intact in the first days of September, but it was not operational until 28 November. The estuary of the Schelde river that controlled access to the port had to be cleared of both German troops and naval mines . These limitations led to differences between General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery , commander of
2331-736: The lead element of Patton's U.S. Third Army reached Bastogne from the south ending the siege. Although the offensive was effectively broken by 27 December, when the trapped units of 2nd Panzer Division made two break-out attempts with only partial success, the battle continued for another month before the front line was effectively restored to its position prior to the attack. The Germans committed over 410,000 men, just over 1,400 tanks and armored fighting vehicles , 2,600 artillery pieces, and over 1,000 combat aircraft. Between 63,000 and 104,000 of these men were killed , missing , wounded in action , or captured . The battle severely depleted Germany's armored forces, which remained largely unreplaced throughout
2394-457: The lost territory has been recovered. The enemy will leave us nothing but scorched earth when he withdraws, without paying the slightest regard to the population. I therefore order: 1) All military transport and communication facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, as well as anything else of value within Reich territory, which could in any way be used by the enemy immediately or within
2457-927: The newly-formed Army Group Don in November 1942. After another Soviet breakthrough on the Don river on 14 January 1943 ( Voronezh–Kharkov offensive ), Army Group B was pulled out of the line on 9 February 1943. Its remnant subordinate formations were distributed either to the Army Group Center or to the new Army Group South (previously Army Group Don). After Army Group B was pulled out of the Eastern Front, its remaining staff elements were combined on 19 July 1943 with another staff, Task Force Rommel (German: Arbeitsstab Rommel ), named after its leading officer Erwin Rommel (whose Army Group Afrika had recently been decisively defeated with
2520-401: The newly-reestablished Army Group South (formerly Army Group Don). The third Army Group B was formed on 19 July 1943 using former Army Group B personnel as well as Task Force Rommel (German: Arbeitsstab Rommel ) and deployed to northern Italy. Here, the staff was used on 26 November 1943 to create OB Südwest ("Army Group C"). On the same day, 26 November 1943, another Army Group B command
2583-502: The northern flank of the German 1942 summer offensive towards the Volga river and the Caucasian oilfields. Its most famous operational target was the major city of Stalingrad . Beginning on 21 November 1942, the army group had its lines repeatedly pierced by Red Army counterattacks (" Operation Uranus "), developing into the encirclement crisis during the Battle of Stalingrad that ended with
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2646-516: The northwest and west which they had counted on for success. This congestion and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops. The farthest west the offensive reached was the village of Foy-Nôtre-Dame, south east of Dinant , being stopped by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division on 24 December 1944. Improved weather conditions from around 24 December permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines . On 26 December
2709-554: The offensive was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ('Operation Watch on the Rhine'), after the German patriotic hymn Die Wacht am Rhein , a name that deceptively implied the Germans would be adopting a defensive posture along the Western Front. The Germans also referred to it as Ardennenoffensive ('Ardennes Offensive') and Rundstedt-Offensive, both names being generally used nowadays in modern Germany. The French (and Belgian) name for
2772-488: The offensive, Antwerp, starting from the northernmost point on the intended battlefront, nearest the important road network hub of Monschau . The Fifth Panzer Army under General Hasso von Manteuffel was assigned to the middle sector with the objective of capturing Brussels. The Seventh Army , under General Erich Brandenberger , was assigned to the southernmost sector, near the Luxembourgish city of Echternach , with
2835-543: The operation is Bataille des Ardennes , 'Battle of the Ardennes'. The battle was militarily defined by the Allies as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, which included the German drive and the American effort to contain and later defeat it. The phrase 'Battle of the Bulge' was coined by contemporary press to describe the way the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps. While the Ardennes Counteroffensive
2898-811: The order. Shortly afterwards, on 7 May 1945, General Alfred Jodl signed the German military surrender , and on 23 May Speer was arrested on the orders of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower , together with the rest of the provisional German government led by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz , Hitler's successor as head of state. Battle of the Bulge [REDACTED] 12th Army Group : [REDACTED] 21st Army Group [REDACTED] Army Group B : 24 December: 2 January: 16 January: 24 December: 2 January: 16 January: [REDACTED] British: (U.S. Estimate: 103,900 casualties) Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns The Battle of
2961-687: The plan, instead using his power to convince the generals and Gauleiters to ignore the order. Hitler apparently remained unaware of this until the very end of the war. Speer would later claim that during his last ever meeting with Hitler on 22 April in the Berlin Führerbunker , he admitted to having deliberately disobeyed his instructions. Hitler was allegedly angry with Speer, but allowed him to leave nonetheless. However, Speer's recollection has been disputed by some historians, with Richard J. Evans describing it as "pure invention." Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945 , forty-two days after issuing
3024-535: The rate of their advance coupled with the initial lack of deep-water ports. Over-the-beach supply operations using the Normandy landing areas, and direct landing ships on the beaches, were unable to meet operational needs. The only deep-water port the Allies had captured was Cherbourg on the northern shore of the Cotentin peninsula and west of the original invasion beaches, but the Germans had thoroughly wrecked and mined
3087-526: The region, as well as orders that movements should be made on time. Hitler felt that his mobile reserves allowed him to mount one major offensive. Although he realized nothing significant could be accomplished in the Eastern Front, he still believed an offensive against the Western Allies, whom he considered militarily inferior to the Red Army, would have some chances of success. Hitler believed he could split
3150-544: The remainder of the war. German Luftwaffe personnel, and later also Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement ) also sustained heavy losses. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were effectively out of men and equipment, and the survivors retreated to the Siegfried Line . Allied forces eventually came to more than 700,000 men; from these there were from 77,000 to more than 83,000 casualties, including at least 8,600 killed. The "Bulge"
3213-520: The short-term goal of opening the urgently needed port of Antwerp and the long-term goal of capturing the Ruhr area , the biggest industrial area of Germany. With the Allies stalled, German Generalfeldmarschall ('Field Marshal') Gerd von Rundstedt was able to reorganize the disrupted German armies into a coherent defensive force. Field Marshal Montgomery's Operation Market Garden had achieved only some of its objectives, while its territorial gains left
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#17328515443283276-523: The south. It is notable on the Western Front as the army group to oversee the German Ardennes Offensive (" Battle of the Bulge "). Eventually, Army Group B surrendered on 17 April 1945 in the Ruhr pocket . Army Group B was initially created on 12 October 1939, when the former Army Group North , which had participated in the Invasion of Poland , was renamed. The initial commander of the army group
3339-476: The task of protecting the flank. This Army was made up of only four infantry divisions, with no large-scale armored formations to use as a spearhead unit. As a result, they made little progress throughout the battle. In an indirect, secondary role, the Fifteenth Army , under General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen , recently brought back up to strength and re-equipped after heavy fighting during Operation Market Garden,
3402-820: Was Fedor von Bock , who had already held the command over Army Group North during the campaign in Poland. Army Group B was assembled during the period of the Phoney War in the Lower Rhine area, along the German-Dutch border and the German-Belgian border . In the initial OKH draft for the attack against France, Army Group B was assigned the Schwerpunkt role, but the intervention by senior officers (notably Erich von Manstein ) from its southern neighbor, Army Group A, resulted in
3465-590: Was created at the coast of the English Channel in German-occupied France . After the Allied Normandy landings in June 1944, Army Group B initially commanded the northern wing of the new Western Front . After Army Group H was created in the German-occupied Netherlands in November 1944, Army Group B instead took the center of the Western Front, located between Army Group H to the north and Army Group G to
3528-527: Was created in German-occupied France. After the Western Allies' Normandy landings (6 June 1944), Army Group B became the northern army group in the German line on the Western Front . Günther von Kluge assumed command of the army group on 19 July 1944, but was soon replaced by Walter Model on 17 August. Moving to the Low Countries , Model with his HQ located at Oosterbeek close to Arnhem,
3591-406: Was deployed to East Prussia and to the General Government in German-occupied Poland . When Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, Army Group B was renamed on the same day to become " Army Group Center ". The second Army Group B came into existence on 9 July 1942, when Army Group South was split into two army groups, named Army Group A and Army Group B. Army Group B was responsible for
3654-401: Was equally damaging; daytime movement of German forces was rapidly noticed, and interdiction of supplies combined with the bombing of the Romanian oil fields starved Germany of oil and gasoline. This fuel shortage intensified after the Soviets overran those fields in the course of their August 1944 Jassy-Kishinev Offensive . One of the few advantages held by the German forces in November 1944
3717-406: Was located just north of the Ardennes battlefield and tasked with holding U.S. forces in place, with the possibility of launching its own attack given favorable conditions. Army Group B Army Group B ( German : Heeresgruppe B ) was the name of four distinct German army group commands that saw action during World War II . The first Army Group B was created on 12 October 1939 (from
3780-495: Was renamed " Army Group Center ". On 9 July 1942, the previous Army Group South was split in two, resulting in the creation of a new Army Group A as well as the creation of a new Army Group B. Whereas Army Group A was led by a new army group command that had been covertly prepared behind the lines (as "Staff Anton"), Army Group B remained in charge of the previous Army Group South's command formation. Army Group B advanced northeastwards (whereas Army Group A moved south into
3843-418: Was significantly weaker at three each. The army group participated in the German invasion of the Netherlands and the German invasion of Belgium . In the second part of that campaign (" Case Red "), Army Group B again found itself on the right-hand flank of the German forces and advanced towards the Somme river and to the French Atlantic coast. After the successful conclusion of the Western campaign,
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#17328515443283906-415: Was that they were no longer defending all of Western Europe. Their front lines in the west had been considerably shortened by the Allied offensive and were much closer to the German heartland. This drastically reduced their supply problems despite Allied control of the air. Additionally, their extensive telephone and telegraph network meant that radios were no longer necessary for communications, which lessened
3969-410: Was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history . It was one of the most important battles of the war, as it marked the last major offensive attempted by the Axis powers on the Western front. After this defeat, Nazi forces could only retreat for the remainder of the war. After the breakout from Normandy at
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