Meanwhile…
In underground German factories, that had somehow eluded the relentless bombing of the American Air Corps, production continued and even escalated. Hitler was not defeated, he was planning to launch the largest German artillery attack of the war. A final vicious death spasm, devised by Hitler, himself.
He was constructing an attack that, he hoped, would render the Alliance confused and divided. He ordered complete concentration and devotion throughout his entire army, in building up to this event. Between October and December 1944, German war production reached its highest.
As a result of the war he'd started, Hitler was responsible for the deaths of four million Germans. But Hitler was an arrogant man, with preconceived notions that he was a military genius and the destined leader of a superior Germany. What he saw, was not a failing army but soldiers who had not properly followed his directions. He was living in a state of megalomaniac euphoria. With most of his army dead and weak, he promised and built a new army—The People's Infantry. In reality, it was little more than a collection of cripples, convicts, children and grandfathers. None the less, Hitler combined his new army with his most powerful of forces, the S.S.
Hitler spent endless hours poring over maps in his bunker. He had secluded himself from even his highest officers. Nearing insanity and consumed with pride and paranoia; he was convinced that inside spies were leaking his orders to the Allies. Thus, he ordered complete radio silence as he planned his largest strike!
His plan was to attack at the 80 mile wide Ardennes Forest; which runs from Southern Belgium to Ettelbruck, Luxembourg . His massive army would cut right through the American and English forces, dividing them and disrupting the supply line. Hitler's ultimate goal was to hit the Allies hard enough to create dissention and quarrels within the Alliance: America, England and Russia. Once divided, Hitler hoped that favorable peace terms might be made.
On December 16, 1944—with a quarter million troops waiting at the border—the weather turned to dense fog and clouds. Just the conditions Hitler needed to keep the American bombers off his back. To the 5th Panzer division he sent word, "Soldiers of the West front, your great hour has come!"
