Failure Of German Logistics During The German Ardennes Offensive Of 1944

Major James L. Kennedy Jr.

• Publisher: Lucknow Books
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781786250568
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

This study investigates the role that logistics played in the failure of the German Offensive in the Ardennes in 1944. The thesis explains that despite the incredible build-up of forces and supplies, the inability of the German strategic and operational logistics systems to properly equip, fuel, arm, and move forces caused the failure of the Ardennes Offensive.
The concept of this thesis starts with the overall strategic military and political situation of Germany in the fall of 1944 that Hitler used to base his decision to conduct the offensive in December 1944.
The study then examines in detail the strategic capabilities during the build-up of supplies and the operational level organization and planning for the offensive. An analysis of the details on the impact of terrain, climate, allied air interdiction, and Operation Point Blank is included in this chapter.
Then it examines the first weeks of the offensive and looks at the failure of the fuel and arm and move tactical logistics functions. An analysis of the impact of logistics on supporting operations is included in this chapter.

CHAPTER 1 — OVERVIEW OF THE GERMAN STRATEGIC SITUATION

On 16 December 1944, Hitler launched a massive attack through the Ardennes with three armies and twenty-five divisions. This attack quickly stalled and failed to meet any of the objectives set forth for success. Historians have cited many reasons for the failure of the offensive: a staunch defense by American individuals and units, Lieutenant General George Patton’s rapid northward movement of the Third US Army to attack the southern flank of the German forces, Allied airpower, weather and terrain, and Allied leadership. However, the foundation of the failure started months before the 16 December surprise attack. Since that fateful day, historians have tended to overshadow the critical role of logistics in influencing the outcome of one of World War Two’s greatest battles. The intent of this thesis is to show the critical and decisive role that the failures in German logistics played in their defeat in the Ardennes. This thesis will illustrate that the failure of the German strategic and operational logistics system to properly equip, arm, fuel, and move German forces had the most direct influence on the failure of the 1944 Ardennes Offensive.

Section 1. German Military and Political Situation

By the fall of 1944, Hitler’s five-year military grip on Europe was in a significantly different situation that it was at the beginning of the year. Since the start of the year, Germany had suffered many military defeats and political setbacks. On the Western Front, the Americans and British army’s had landed in June at Normandy and established a beachhead in “Fortress Europe.” Meanwhile, Rome fell to the Allies and the Germans had fallen back to the Gothic Line in Italy. By the end of July the Americans had broken through at Avaranches and throughout August, Germans were retreating across France toward Germany. Allied forces all but destroyed the best German units on the Western Front in the Falaise Pocket. Also in July, German industrial production began to decline as a result of the Allied strategic bombing campaign. In August, the Allies had invaded Southern France and were rapidly advancing up the Rhone Valley. Additionally, over 230,000 Germans were surrounded in the West.{1} These forces were mainly located in the ports of coastal France and either surrendered or was captured by the end of the year. Paris fell on 25 August, and the northern and southern elements of the Allied forces in France were rapidly advancing to link-up at Dijon, France. In September, American troops had entered German territory south of Aachen. Total losses by the Germans in France (excluding Southern France where losses were light) from 6 June to 11 September were 224,000 killed, captured, wounded, or missing—an amount equal to one-half the German casualties in the west.{2} In force strength, the Americans and British totaled ninety-six divisions along the Western Front opposed by fifty-five German divisions.{3} To compare the size of forces, American, British, and German infantry divisions were all organized with approximately 17,000 soldiers. Armored divisions varied slightly between countries with the British out manning the others by approximately 3,000 soldiers.{4} Despite the similar organizations, the Allied divisions were in a much better state of readiness than the German divisions. German infantry and armored divisions, disorganized during the retreat, were in various states of readiness.

On the Eastern Front, the situation was even worse. The Soviet summer offensive had run its course by the end of July and the results were devastating for Germany. Operation Bagration decimated two German Armies—forcing one-third of the German forces to retreat and causing the loss of over 350,000 German troops and 900 tanks.{5} The Soviets had pushed German troops out of Russia and established footholds near Warsaw, the Vistula, and on the Baltic Sea. In August, the Soviets occupied Rumania where the valuable Ploesti oil fields were located. In September, the Soviets had 555 division-sized units attacking Germans along the entire Eastern Front.{6} While 555 divisions seems significant when compared to the number of divisions the Americans and British had on the Western Front, a comparison shows a Soviet division equivalent unit had approximately 4,000 to 5,000 troops,{7} Finally, two armies of the German Army Group Ukraine were trapped and virtually destroyed in Rumania. In Finland, nine German divisions were unable to depart Finland and return to Germany and could only remain and guard the Petsamo nickel mines from capture by Russia.{8} In contrast to the Western Front, Stalin halted his strategic bombing of Germany’s war production in July. Stalin had two reasons for this decision. First, he was anticipating a confrontation with America and Britain after Germany’s defeat and would need a mobilized and militarized Germany as an ally. Secondly, he was concerned with the cost of rebuilding Germany after the war.{9}

In contrast to the overall military situation, Germany’s manpower was in a better condition. From 1938 through 1943, the Wehrmacht mobilized over eleven million men. Losses for the same period totaled over six million killed, captured, wounded, or missing{10} Specifically, Hitler was concerned with the recent losses between June and August 1944 of over one million soldiers killed, wounded, missing, or captured. {11} Although Germany’s population was considerably militarized, significant military manpower was still available by the fall of 1944. The available manpower was spread over several sources of personnel. For example, despite using women in some roles, Germany never mobilized women in any meaningful amount. There were about two and one-half-million workers clearing bombed facilities and other areas of debris from Allied bombing. Meanwhile, over three and one-half-million public administrators and one-half-million men were deferred for occupational reasons. These personnel resources amounted to an impressive reserve available for mobilization to support the war effort. Furthermore, Germany was using approximately seven million foreign workers and prisoners of war in many aspects of war production and civilian industry.{12}

In September 1944, Germany’s military totaled 327 divisions and separate brigades including thirty-one armored divisions and armored separate brigades spread over both fronts. While this is an impressive number of divisions, many of these units did not exist but were still on the official records. Other units were so decimated they were essentially combated ineffective. The total manpower was over ten million officers and men in the Wehrmacht at the beginning of September.{13}

Despite the large number of divisions reported, the low strength of troops in these units concerned Hitler. To resolve the personnel readiness problems, Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler as Chief of the Replacement Army. Himmler developed programs to purge staff offices, consolidate combat ineffective units, and transfer troops from the Luftwaffe and Navy. Some other measures Himmler implemented were activating soldiers who were deferred for medical reasons and placing them in special units to man the Siegfried Line. He also took these newly activated soldiers and used them in jobs that were not directly combat related to allowable combat troops to be sent to front line units. Finally, the age limit for volunteers dropped from age eighteen to age sixteen while the oldest age increased from fifty-eight to sixty. To promote party unity and make the plan acceptable to the public, Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels announced new mobilization measures. Goebbels closed schools and theaters, increased the work week from forty to sixty hours, temporarily abolished holidays, closed small shops of many types, and denuded the staffs of government bureaus. All of these measures enabled Himmler to create eighteen new divisions, ten separate brigades and nearly one-hundred separate battalions.{14} These new units were fielded to fronts as necessary. The low manpower situation in divisions was upgraded by taking soldiers from low-strength divisions and sending them to another division while maintaining the hollow division on the books.

Germany’s political situation was also bleak. In Scandinavia, Finland negotiated a separate peace with Stalin in August. Norway was virtually isolated from Germany by the Allied naval blockade in the Baltic and North Sea. In September, Turkey and Bulgaria broke away from the Axis. In the south, Italy was lost except for the northern parts above the Gothic Line that remained under German control, and the Allies had command of the Mediterranean Sea. Except for Hungary and Japan, Germany had no Allies remaining to support her war effort. Even then, Hitler did not trust Hungary, but he maintained the alliance because of her strategic oil and raw materials. Meanwhile, Japan was negotiating with Germany to make peace with Russia while Japan was separately worked toward a peace accord with the Russians.{15}

Therefore, the military and political situation on all fronts was cause for concern. War production was beginning to decline, the Americans and the British were firmly established in France, the Russians were seemingly unstoppable in the East and Germany was losing territory and allies. Furthermore, the military was largely a paper tiger that had many units that were incapable of accomplishing any mission. With this military and political situation in place, it is then important to understand the strategic situation of the German economy at the time the Hitler developed the idea of the Ardennes Offensive in the west.

Section II. German Industrial War Production Situation

Germany’s war economy was not structured for a long war of attrition. The war lasted longer than Hitler had anticipated in 1938. The Nazi party primarily ran the German economy and focused primarily on supporting the military. Despite the difficulties that Germany faced on both the military and political fronts, German industrial production to support the war effort was impressive in most areas. However, there were two significant factors affecting the German industrial production: Allied strategic bombing and the loss of important territory that Germany captured early in the war. The remainder of this section will analyze the German war industry from the beginning of 1944 until the middle of September 1944. Many different areas will be analyzed and related to the influence on the Ardennes Offensive.

The primary factor affecting the German war industry was the Allied strategic bombing campaign. The focus of “Operation Point Blank” changed with the focus of the war. During the first half of 1944, British and American air forces concentrated their efforts on the German aircraft and ball bearing industries believing this to be the bottleneck for the German war machine. To overcome the vulnerability to air attack, Germany rationed production output and dispersed production capabilities in these industries. In May and June, as the Allies attempted to isolate the battlefield in preparation of their invasion at Normandy, they shifted their secondary efforts to German oil and nitrogen (nitrogen is used in the production of explosives) facilities. In the long term, damage to these industries would cause difficulties for the Germans if the Allied landings were successful. Meanwhile, the Allied secondary effort of air attacks continued on transportation, aircraft, and tank production sites. By September, the Allies occupied a significant portion of Northern France. They quickly established airfields in France and focused their air attacks on the German transportation and war production industries and other targets deeper in Germany than they were able to range from Britain.{16}

The Allied air attacks on German war production industries had various results. Germany had three large plants and one small plant that supplied all of the rubber products for the armed forces. Allied bombing attacks on these plants and related synthetic oil plants caused production to drop from a peak of 12,000 tons a month in early 1944 to 6,000 tons in September.{17} Despite this drop, the rubber supply would not affect the war effort or the Ardennes Offensive.

In contrast to the rubber situation, the Allied air campaign against the synthetic oil plants significantly affected the production of explosives. Explosive production fell from 60,000 tons in early 1944 to 20,000 tons in September. To put this drop in production in perspective, explosive consumption in September for the armed forces totaled 70,000 tons. The difference between consumption and production caused dramatic reduction in reserves resulting in rationing orders.{18} Explosive production continued to fall below actual consumption and hence caused some difficulties in supplying the required ammunition for the offensive.

The next industry to be attacked was steel production. Prior to and during the war, Germany had the largest steel production industry in Europe. However, there were two weaknesses that could disrupt production. One was the dependence on foreign raw materials. (Appendix lists the raw materials Germany received from areas outside of Germany.) The other was a vulnerability to air interdiction. Despite these vulnerabilities, Germany produced two and one-half million tons in July 1944. Approximately 70 percent of this production was from the Ruhr district. The Ruhr district was critical to Germany’s war industry and was located just inside Germany’s border with Belgium and France. It would be a primary target for Allied attacks to damage the war effort once they entered Germany. Additionally, due to the loss of occupied countries (Russia, Sweden, France, and Yugoslavia) and access to raw materials located in these countries, the production of steel in the fall of 1944 was one-million tons a month. Reserve stocks of raw materials and steel absorbed much of the loss of production.{19} Steel production would not be a significant factoring providing combat vehicles or ammunition shells to the Ardennes Offensive.

Next, combat munitions production was relatively unaffected by the bombing campaign and actually reached an all-time high during the third quarter of 1944. Shell and casing production was unaffected except for special items that required the raw materials from lost territories. Production of ammunition at the nearly 5,000 plants had tripled by the fall of 1944 over the production average of the past three years; weapons production increased four times.{20} Production of shells would not affect the support of the Ardennes, but the required explosives to fill the shells would restrict sufficient supplies of ammunition.

The wheeled vehicle industry was unaffected by the air campai...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• ABSTRACT
• CHAPTER 1 - OVERVIEW OF THE GERMAN STRATEGIC SITUATION
• CHAPTER 2 - PREPARATIONS AND BUILD-UP FOR THE OFFENSIVE
• CHAPTER 3 - TACTICAL LOGISTICS DURING THE OFFENSIVE
• CHAPTER 4 - FINAL ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION
• APPENDIX A - LIST OF RAW MATERIAL SOURCES
• APPENDIX B - REORGANIZATION INFORMATION
• APPENDIX C - TIME LINE FOR MOVEMENT OF UNITS INTO THE ARDENNES AREA
• APPENDIX D - EVALUATION OF THE UNITS ATTACHED TO THE SEVENTH ARMY
• APPENDIX E - CAPABILITIES OF GERMAN BRIDGING UNITS
• APPENDIX F - WEATHER AND ALLIED BATTLEFIELD AIR DURING ARDENNES OFFENSIVE
• GLOSSARY
• SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY