Word: rundstedt
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Measure of Failure. In destruction aground these were totals to stagger even an air enthusiast's imagination of air power on the make. But they were also a measure of the power Rundstedt had thrown into the offensive, of the reserves he had massed to keep his drive going. The German power, assembled under the handicap of air inferiority, was also a measure of the failure by the Allied command and by Vandenberg's Ninth (the biggest air force on the Continent) to use air tactics to prevent such an offensive...
...there were other tasks that might have been tackled back of the 50-mile sector through which Rundstedt struck. There bridges were intact, roads were unharmed. A rail line operated from the Rhine nearly to the Allied line opposite Trier...
Quick Change. The Rundstedt assault changed the picture in a hurry. Air power got back in tactical stride. The slighted jobs took a lot of doing in a hurry. But by this week General Vandenberg could report on Principle 1: his Ninth had destroyed 457 German aircraft, probably knocked out 59 more, damaged 169. The Ninth's loss was 202 aircraft...
German boldness in this sector was obviously due to Allied preoccupation in the Ardennes. There were no military objectives in the region worth a really major effort, even if Rundstedt could spare the reserves to make one. It seemed more probable that the German was trying to draw off more strength from the Third Army's front between the Luxembourg border and Saarbrücken...
...points, established one bridgehead north of Venlo (later wiped out by British counterattack), another near Geertruidenberg. The Germans claimed they had recaptured a town between the Waal and the Lek rivers northeast of Nijmegen. These northern sectors would probably now be flaring with all-out activity if Rundstedt's Ardennes offensive had kept on rolling beyond the Meuse...