Osprey Order of Battle 4 : The Ardennes Offensive : VI Panzer Armee : Northern Sector

It was remarkable strategic effrontery to consider a major offensive even as the German Army was in the midst of its most punishing losses in five years of war. Yet Hitler insisted on the original, ambitious magnitude of his plan to stop the advance of the Allies, and strike a destructive counter-blow. Under the overall command of Feldmarschall Walter Model's Heeresgruppe B, Josef Dietrich's Panzer Armee was to spearhead the attack in the Ardennes' Northern Sector, together with the Volksgrenadiers. The stakes were high: Dietrich knew it was an offensive that would prove decisive in the course of the war. 'All [Hitler] wanted me to do was cross a river, capture Brussels, then go on and take Antwerp! And all this in the worst time of the year through the Ardennes where the snow is waist deep and there isn't room to deploy four tanks abreast let alone Panzer divisions. Where it doesn't get light until eight and it's dark again at four!', The vehement words of Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich, commander of the 6 Panzer Armee said it all. It was remarkable strategic effrontery to consider a major offensive even as the German Army was in the midst of its most punishing losses in five years of war. Yet Hitler insisted on the original, ambitious magnitude of his plan to stop the advance of the Allies, and strike a destructive counter-blow. Under the overall command of Feldmarschall Walter Model's Heeresgruppe B, Dietrich's Panzer Armee was to spearhead the attack in the Northern Sector, together with the Volksgrenadiers. The stakes were high, Dietrich knew it was an offensive that would prove decisive in the course of the war. Text by Bruce Quarrie.