Word: rundstedts
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...When Rundstedt launched his counteroffensive in December, the Allies had to pay for their mistake. But, with their eyes open at last, they set out to pay a rock-bottom price. By quick and brilliant action, they stopped the German drive and shoved it back...
...this moment, Russia finally came through in southern Poland with what the Germans called "the greatest offensive of all time" (see below). Instantly the slack in the ring around Germany snapped taut; instantly the eastern front became a magnet pulling on German reserves, including those with which Rundstedt was still toying in the west. Much was hoped for from this new Red assault, both as a military contribution and as a balm for inter-Allied political tensions...
Fine Weather. It was fine weather for a withdrawal, and canny Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt made the most of it. Volksgrenadiere in trenches took up the fight, while armor and SS infantry pulled out. In some sectors, the punching, pushing Allies encountered aggressive "counter-reconnaissance screening forces"-in others, only mines in the snow, unguarded roadblocks and the eternal booby traps. Around Bastogne, Rundstedt counterattacked persistently to shield the swelling stream of German tanks and transport flowing east through Houffalize and Saint-Vith...
...Rundstedt had to hold apart the Allied pincers north and south of Houffalize-and he did. But in the "box position" which jutted southeast of Bastogne, the Germans were mauled. The area had been shelled by heavy Allied field guns 24 hours a day ever since Dec. 27. Finally, General Patton attacked the box simultaneously from west and south, trapped a sizable enemy force, captured 3,400, killed other thousands, chased the rest into the woods...
...smash the enemy columns on the roads. It was good hunting, though probably too late to inflict more than superficial wounds. Even when the Yanks cut the main highway between Houffalize and Saint-Vith, the Germans still had a net of secondary roads to move on. Rundstedt seemed in good shape to hold a more easterly defense line, or to go all the way back to the concrete fastnesses of the Westwall...