Download Free Operation Nordwind Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Operation Nordwind and write the review.

History of the 6th SS Mountain Division "Nord" (6. SS-Gebirgs-Division "Nord") in the battle for Wingen-sur-Moder from 1-7 Jan. 1945 against the U.S. Army.
Operation Nordwind was the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. It began on 31 December 1944 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Alsace and Lorraine in southwestern Germany and northeastern France, and ended on 25 January 1945. Normally overshadowed by the Battle of the Bulge, Nordwind battles were just as intense and the troops involved faced the same bitter weather conditions and battle conditions their fellow units did to the north. The goal of the offensive was to break through the lines of the U.S. Seventh Army and French 1st Army in the Upper Vosges mountains and the Alsatian Plain, and destroy them, as well as the seizure of Strasbourg, which Himmler, who had been placed in charge, had promised would be captured by 30 January. The campaign also showcased the difficulties of inter-Allied cooperation between the Americans and the French. The U.S. VI Corps—which bore the brunt of the German attacks—was fighting on three sides by 15 January. By 15 January at least 17 German divisions (including units in the Colmar Pocket) from Army Group G and Army Group Oberrhein, including the 6th SS Mountain, 17th SS Panzergrenadier, 21st Panzer, and 25th Panzergrenadier Divisions were engaged in the fighting. Another smaller attack was made against the French positions south of Strasbourg, but it was finally stopped. Vicious battles at Hatten and Rittershoffen, Gambsheim and Herrlisheim took place and while the Germans could not employ near the same amount as armor as they did in the Ardennes, the armor engagements were nonetheless ruthless. The American 12th Armored Division lost almost an entire tank battalion in the battles in and around Herrlisheim. Action would engulf the entire front and areas like Strasbourg, Wingen, the Colmar Pocket and Haguenau would be engrained in the minds of the troops that fought in these battles.
The last great assault by the German Army in the West. Operation Nordwind is one of the lesser known campaigns of World War II yet one of the more intriguing. Largely overshadowed by the Battle of the Bulge further north, Nordwind was the last great operation by the Waffen-SS Panzer divisions in the west, and the last time the Wehrmacht was on the offensive in the West. The campaign also highlights the difficulties of inter-Allied cooperation between the Americans and the French. Though extensively treated in German and French accounts, the campaign has not been well covered in English until now. Alongside detailed illustrations and maps, Steven J. Zaloga unpacks the story of one of Hitler's final battles.
Merriam Press Military Monograph 79. Fourth Edition (August 2012). This is the story of the battle of Wingen-sur-Moder, an important village leading to the Alsatian Plain. If German forces had captured this town in the early days of Operation Nordwind, and had been able to release their reserve Panzer divisions into the plain, the war might have been lengthened. Colonel Cheves commanded the US forces involved in the battle. 2nd Bn of the 274th, along with troops from the 276th and supporting elements, defeated two battalions of the battle-hardened 6th SS Mountain Division (Nord). Operation Nordwind, launched December 31, 1944, was Hitler's last major offensive. Its' objective: take Alsace Lorraine, split the U.S. Seventh and Third Armies, link up with the Germans in the Colmar Pocket and continue south, routing the French Army. The 2nd Bn, 274th Infantry, was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its' actions in Wingen—almost unheard of for a unit in its initial combat. 15 photos, 5 illustrations, 6 maps, 2 tables.
Wingen-sur-Moder was an important village in France leading to the Alsatian Plain. If German forces had captured it during Operation Nordwind in January 1945, and had been able to release their reserve Panzer divisions into the plain, the war might have been lengthened. Cheves commanded the U.S. forces involved: 2nd Battalion, 274th Regiment, along with troops from the 276th and supporting elements, defeated two battalions of the 6th SS Mountain Division (Nord). 15 photos, 5 illustrations, 6 maps, 2 tables, footnotes.
The last great assault by the German Army in the West. Operation Nordwind is one of the lesser known campaigns of World War II yet one of the more intriguing. Largely overshadowed by the Battle of the Bulge further north, Nordwind was the last great operation by the Waffen-SS Panzer divisions in the west, and the last time the Wehrmacht was on the offensive in the West. The campaign also highlights the difficulties of inter-Allied cooperation between the Americans and the French. Though extensively treated in German and French accounts, the campaign has not been well covered in English until now. Alongside detailed illustrations and maps, Steven J. Zaloga unpacks the story of one of Hitler's final battles.
This is the story of the Allied forces--the U.S. 6th Army Group and French 1st Army--that landed in southern France on August 15th, 1944. The book follows the action from the French beaches to the Vosges Mountains, where the first Allied penetration along the entire Western front reached the Rhine River. First to the Rhine covers the vicious fighting during the German Nordwind counteroffensive in January 1945 and the French-American offensive to clear the Colmar Pocket. It then pursues the forces of the Third Reich across the Rhine to their ultimate destruction. Unlike the forces landing in Normandy, these American divisions were hard-bitten veterans of the war in Italy, and, in the case of the 3d Infantry Division, North Africa. The French units included many veterans of the Italian campaign and comprised Frenchmen and Africans in almost equal numbers. As the campaign went on, the French ranks were swelled by tens of thousands of Free French Forces of the Interior, the famous maquis. The German forces arrayed against the Allies included the famed 11th Panzer Division, an Eastern front veteran known as the "Ghost Division," which would hit the Allied advance time and again only to slip away before it could be pinned and destroyed. This is the harrowing story First to the Rhine tells, from the strategic plane-down through the corps, division, and regimental levels to the personal experience of the men in combat, including the likes of Audie Murphy, Americas most decorated infantryman of the war. The book features little-known battles, including one at Montelimar, when an ad hoc American armored command and the 36th Infantry Division came within a hairs breadth and several days of hard fighting of cutting off the entire German 19th Army. This is the first popular work in English to explore the French role in the fighting and the relationship between the U.S. Army and the French forces fighting under American command.
Conceived in desperation after the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945, Germany's Operation Nordwind culminated in the frozen Alsatian fields surrounding the Zorn River. In what was expected to be an easy offensive, the German 10th Waffen SS Panzer Division attacked the American 12th Armored Division near the villages of Herrlisheim and Weyersheim. Neither army foresaw the savage violence that ensued. Combining the vivid eyewitness accounts of veterans from both sides of the conflict with information gleaned from a variety of long-unavailable print sources, this richly detailed history casts a fascinating light on a little-known but crucial battle in the Second World War. Common stalwart German and American soldiers carried out near-impossible orders.
A complete examination of Patton's campaign to take the fortified city of Metz. General George Patton's most controversial campaign was the series of battles in autumn 1944 battles along the German frontier which centered on the fortified city of Metz. In part, the problem was logistics. As was the case with the rest of the Allied forces in the European Theatre, supplies were limited until the port of Antwerp could finally be cleared. Also problematic was the weather. The autumn of 1944 was one of the wettest on record, and hardly conducive to the type of mechanized warfare for which Patton was so famous. However at the heart of the problem was the accretion of sophisticated fortifications. Metz had been fortified since ancient times, heavily rebuilt by France in the post-Napoleonic period, modernized by Germany in 1870–1914, and modernized by France during the Maginot effort in 1935–40. The Germans hoped to hold Metz with a thin screen of second-rate troops, counting on the impregnable fortifications. This book covers the entire campaign from beginning to end, offering an unbiased assessment of the success and failures of both the Allied and Axis efforts.