Nuts!

On December 20th, 1944, Americans and Germans clashed in the city of Bastogne, leading to the complete envelopment of the Americans by the Germans. The Siege of Bastogne was originally only a small aspect of the German plan of incapacitating the Allies, but it ended up being a defining point in the war.

After the successful invasion of Normandy and the subsequent push into France, the valuable but small port city of Antwerp, had been captured by the Allied forces. Since the Americans were constantly launching offensive attacks, their supplies were running low. Without Antwerp, the American assaults against Germany would have immediately stopped. Knowing that Antwerp was crucial to the Americans, Adolf Hitler soon laid out a plan that would send 25 divisions on a blitzkrieg through the Ardennes and recapture Antwerp. If their blitzkrieg succeeded, the Germans would cut off supplies to the Americans, which would force the Allied powers into signing a peace treaty favoring the Axis powers.

And so it started. On December 15th, the Germans started their offensive movement, bombarding American positions, knocking down telephone poles and advancing towards Bastogne. Despite several signs that the Germans were going to launch an attack against the Allies, many attacks the Germans performed along the way such as the Ardennes Offensive achieved almost complete surprise. Since the Ardennes were sparsely populated by American soldiers, American forces within the Ardennes were completely obliterated, making the route to Bastogne easy for the Germans.

On December 18th, Germans had already encircled the city of Bastogne, trapping the 101st infantry. Most of the senior leadership was elsewhere, and it would take Paton almost a week to arrive, so the task of holding ground lay entirely on the troops. Surprisingly, their defensive strategies allowed them hold onto Bastogne for the next four days.

Then, on December 22nd, General von Lüttwitz, the German commander, submitted a demand to American Commander McAuliffe saying, “There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town.” Still half asleep and unwilling to surrender, McAuliffe responded with one word: Nuts!

Both confused and angry at the American response to their demand of surrender, the Germans ramped up their offensive and put in all of their efforts into capturing Bastogne. The Germans knew that American troops were already severely weakened, and they thought that a final push would allow them to recapture Antwerp, putting the Axis powers in a position to win the war.

However, on December 23rd, the tide turned in favor of the Americans. The 101st infantry finally received their long awaited supplies and some reinforcements arrived, such as the American P-47 Thunderbolts that relieved the artillery who had almost run out of ammo. Three days later, Paton arrived, finally breaking the Germans’ Ardennes Offensive, allowing the Americans to continue advancing towards Berlin.

So what was the result of the Ardennes Offensive? To put it in simple terms, the Germans were put out of contention to win the war. They spent most of their reserves in trying to capture Bastogne and lost thousands of experienced troops and equipment that they couldn’t possibly launch another major offensive. Facing adverse situations, the outcome of the Siege of Bastogne for the Americans was truly nuts.


https://www.army.mil/article/92856/the_story_of_the_nuts_reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe#%22NUTS!%22
https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/101st-screaming-eagles-siege-bastogne
https://www.archivesfoundation.org/documents/surrender-nuts-gen-anthony-mcauliffes-1944-christmas-message-troops/