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OCR Page 1 of 81954
DECLASSITIED
DOD DIR. 5200.9, Supt
NE by BSR
Date 10/5/70
SHAEF Main, 7 January - Seventeen days after the blow in the ARDENNES, where the opposing
armies were still locked in a tortuous and conclusive grapple, the enemy struck again, this
time in the SAAR, with smaller forces and less ambitious objectives: limited advances were
made and the Allies were induced to make further withdrawals without pressure.
In the ARDENNES, the enemy made up his mind that BASTOGNE must be eliminated. At the end
of several days spent in regrouping, ten divisions had been mustered for the attack - or
defense, whichever is correct, as our own troops also were attacking. While this was tak-
ing place, our troops enlarged the salient and made some progress on the EAST and WEST of
it, opening the neck, but by the end of the week the enemy was in a position to attack with
considerable power and regain some of the ground lost.
Meantime the Northern flank of the salient was committed entirely to infantry, which was
left to fight off our anticipated counter-offensive with only one panzer division in re-
serve. When the Allies did attack in force towards the end of the week, the enemy was
pushed back over considerable distance and the main lateral road from LAROCHE to VIELSALM
was threatened, however the Hun seemed unwilling to withdraw from BASTOGNE - instead he
began to put in infantry from the BULLINGEN corner and beyond. Bad weather eased his
problems considerably.
In the snout of the salient, very fierce fighting occurred at several key points, from
which the enemy seemed surprisingly unwilling to withdraw, though in other places contact
was light. Piecemeal, however, troops were drawn off to bolster up the two major battles,
and an eventual withdrawal to the OURTHE River became a distinct possibility; supply prob-
lems too were naturally more acute in this sector.
In the saar, the enemy opened his offensive with preparatory attacks all along the line
from West of SAARBRUECKEN to East of PIRMASENS, using six Volksgrenadier and two SS divi-
sions. On the right he failed in several attempts, with considerable losses, to secure
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