Forward to the Meuse
By Arnold Blumberg
The Plan
On 10 December 1944, Lt. Gen. Fritz Hermann Michael Bayerlein was called to a meeting at Kyllburg, Germany, to participate in a map exercise involving an advance from the present front in the Ardennes sector to the Meuse River. Among the other officers present were Gen. of Armored Troops Hasso von Manteuffel, commander of Fifth Panzer Army, along with several other high ranking commanders.
Bayerlein, at the time commander of Panzer Lehr Division, was specifically asked if he could take the Belgium crossroads town of Bastogne. He replied that, unless the place could be captured by surprise, “only a thoroughly prepared attack could take it.”
It was apparent to him an offensive in the west was in the offing, but when it would take place he did not yet know. e answer to that question came two days later.
On 12 December he was summoned to appear at Armed Forces High Command (OKW) headquarters in Ziegenberg. There he found assembled all the army, corps and division commanders serving on the western front. A half-hour bus ride took that entire group to a face-to-face meeting with Hitler.
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