“ACHTUNG!”
The officers snapped to attention, and the door of the conference room opened. The stooped, hobbling figure of Adolf Hitler materialized out of the darkness of the corridor and advanced unsteadily toward the map table. His complexion was ashen, and his eyes looked bleary and bloodshot. His lips and left arm trembled, and his head had sunk so low he resembled a hunchback.
“Stand at ease!” Hitler croaked as he staggered to the map table.
Generals and field marshals stepped out of his way. Junior officers stared at him with fascination. Although their Führer had become old and sick, they believed he was still the soul of Germany, and only he could lead the Reich to victory.
Hitler reached the table and gazed at the map of Belgium. While many of the older officers studied him beneath hooded eyes, astonished by the extent to which he’d deteriorated in the few weeks since they’d seen him last.
“Begin!” Hitler said.
General Alfred Jodl, Hitler’s chief of staff, summarized recent events in the Ardennes sector of Belgium, where Hitler had unleashed his Wacht am Rhein offensive against the Americans only eleven days before. Jodl was a tall, bald man with a long face and jug ears, and he spoke in a steady matter-of-fact voice that offered no insight into his feelings about the calamities he described.
The Second Panzer division had made the deepest penetration into the American position but had been decimated near Celles. Kampfgruppe Peiper, another spearhead unit, had been destroyed in the Meuse Valley. The Americans on the crucial Elsenborn Ridge were beating back every German attack. The 116th Panzer had been stopped cold near Verdenne. Patton’s Third Army had broken through to embattled Bastogne, the key road and rail center in the Ardennes, after the Germans had surrounded and tried to take it for nearly a week.
General Jodl finished his briefing, and the room became silent. Hitler took a new white handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped his nose, as his eyes roved over the map, noting troop dispositions throughout the bulge that the German Army had made into Belgium.
He turned to Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt, the commander in chief of the western front. “What do you have to say?”
At seventy, von Runstedt was the grand old man of the German Army. His face was deeply lined, and his eyes were weary, but he stood erect and faced his Führer.
“I think we must begin,” he said, “by examining the situation objectively. The offensive has not gone according to plan. We have not achieved our goals, and it is unlikely that we shall do so in the foreseeable future. I recommend, therefore, that the Fifth and Sixth Panzer Armies withdraw to a defensive line east of Bastogne, and we hold there until large scale operations can be mounted again.”
Hitler’s upper lip curled in contempt. “Withdrawal is quite out of the question,” he said in a low, tremulous voice. “Only an offensive will enable us to win the war in the west. Moreover, you speak as if Wacht am Rhein has failed. I say to you all that it has not failed. Although we have not crossed the Meuse and captured Antwerp, we must admit there has been a tremendous easing of our situation in the west. The Americans have had to abandon their plans for a winter attack. They have been forced to withdraw fifty percent of their forces from other sectors, and they have suffered immense casualties. Victory in the Ardennes will belong to the side which has the courage to reach for it.” Hitler looked at his officers and smiled faintly, showing the ends of his rotting teeth. “Now listen closely as I tell you how victory can be accomplished. First, I want three new divisions and at least twenty-five thousand fresh replacements rushed to the Ardennes from other sectors. Second, Field Marshal von Runstedt will consolidate his holdings and reorganize for a new attempt to force the Meuse. And third, we must make a final, powerful assault on Bastogne.” Hitler pointed his boney finger at the part of the map that showed the city. “Bastogne is the key to the Ardennes. If we’d captured it when we were supposed to, we wouldn’t be having the problems that are bedeviling us now. I want all our forces in the Ardennes concentrated on Bastogne. Above all, we must have Bastogne!”