The Key to the Bulge

Major Rusiecki tells the story of a pitched and decisive battle that unhinged the German plan for a swift and successful counteroffensive in December 1944 (a battle that was the key to the counteroffensive later called the Battle of the Bulge). A lone regiment of the 99th U.S. Infantry Division, the 394th, successfully defended a critical road intersection, the Losheimergraben Crossroads, for 36 hours from 16 to 17 December 1944. This valiant defense incurred a delay from which the 6th SS Panzer Army, the main effort of Hitler's Wacht am Rhein counteroffensive, could never recover. When the 394th finally withdrew on 17 December, the Germans already had to shift their focus farther south, to St. Vith and Bastogne, a move that sealed their eventual defeat. The battle for Losheimergraben is, in fact, the most significant action that occurred in the early hours of the Battle of the Bulge.