Smashing Hitler’s Panzers: The Defeat of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division during the Battle of the Bulge by Mr. Steven Zaloga
Late in January 1945, through the snowy forests and farms of the Ardennes, the cream of Hitler’s remaining army struggled through a muddy retreat, defeated in the final offensive the Wehrmacht attempted during World War II. The stubborn American victory over Hitler’s “Autumn Mist” attack was by no means a foregone conclusion when the German command launched the attack a month earlier. Actions by the U. S. Army’s 1st, 2nd, and 99th divisions from the very start of the offensive stymied the push of the 12th SS Panzer Division on the roads to the essential port of Antwerp. On March 27th, 2019, the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, hosted author and scholar Mr. Steven Zaloga, as he presented a talk based on his newest book, Smashing Hitler’s Panzers: The Defeat of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division during the Battle of The Bulge. Mr. Zaloga argued that the defeat of the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Division in the opening hours and days of the offensive were essential to the over-all failure of the German Ardennes Campaign.
Mr. Steven Zaloga outlined his argument that the German offensive through the Ardennes Forest, known as the “Battle of the Bulge,” hinged on the first days of the attack. The only Americans to hold their section of the line capitalized on German planning mistakes pushing back one of the primary components of the attack, the 12th SS Panzer Division. The failure of the 12th in the battles of Krinkelterwald, Krinkelter-Rocherath, and Dom Butenbach against portions of three U.S. Army infantry divisions was essential to the German defeat, well before the fighting at Bastogne.
