Operation Northwind (German: Unternehmen Nordwind) was the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. Northwind was launched to support the German Ardennes offensive campaign in the Battle of the Bulge, which by late December 1944 had decisively turned against the German forces. It began on 31 December 1944 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Alsace and Lorraine in southwestern Germany and northeastern France, and ended on 25 January 1945. The German offensive was an operational failure, with its main objectives not achieved, clearing the way for the Allied invasion of Germany.
Objectives
By 21 December 1944, the German momentum during the Battle of the Bulge had begun to dissipate, and it was evident that the operation was on the brink of failure.
The German high command aimed to relieve pressure on German forces in the Ardennes by attacking the 7th US Army further south, which had extended its lines and taken on a defensive posture after the 3rd US Army had left to fight the German breakthrough in the north.
In a briefing at his military command complex at Adlerhorst, Adolf Hitler declared to his division commanders on 28 December 1944 (three days before the Operation),
The goal was to break through the lines of the U.S. Seventh Army and the French 1st Army in the Upper Vosges Mountains and the Alsatian Plain and destroy them, as well as seize the city of Strasbourg, which Himmler had promised would be captured by 30 January. This would pave the way for Operation Dentist (Unternehmen Zahnarzt), a planned killing thrust into the rear of the U.S. Third Army.
Offensive
On 31 December 1944, German Army Group G (commanded by Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz) and Army Group Upper Rhine (commanded by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler) launched a major offensive against the thinly stretched 110-kilometre-long (68 mi) front line held by the U.S. 7th Army. Operation Nordwind hit effectively against the overextended 7th Army, as U.S. General Eisenhower had recently sent some of its troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the Ardennes in the Battle of the Bulge.
Simultaneously, Operation Bodenplatte sent almost 1,000 Luftwaffe aircraft in supporting attacks against the Allied air forces in the region, but failed to meet any of its objectives.
The initial Nordwind attack was conducted by three corps of the German 1st Army of Army Group G, and by 9 January, the 39th Panzer Corps was heavily engaged as well. By 15 January at least 17 German divisions from Army Group G and Army Group Oberrhein were fighting, including units in the Colmar Pocket in Operation Solstice, and the 6th SS Mountain, 17th SS Panzergrenadier, 21st Panzer, and 25th Panzergrenadier Divisions. Another smaller attack was made against the French positions south of Strasbourg, but it was finally stopped. The U.S. VI Corps—which bore the brunt of the German attacks—was fighting on three sides by 15 January.
The 125th Regiment of the 21st Panzer Division under Colonel Hans von Luck aimed to sever the American supply line to Strasbourg by cutting across the eastern foothills of the Vosges at the northwest base of a natural salient in a bend of the River Rhine. Here the Maginot Line, running east–west, was used by Allied forces, and "showed what a superb fortification it was". On January 7 Luck approached the line south of Wissembourg at the villages of Rittershoffen and Hatten. Heavy American fire came from the 79th Infantry Division, the 14th Armored Division, plus elements of the 42nd Infantry Division. On January 10 Luck reached the villages. Two weeks of heavy fighting followed, Germans and Americans each occupying parts of the villages while civilians sheltered in cellars. Luck later said that the fighting around Rittershoffen had been "one of the hardest and most costly battles that ever raged".
Eisenhower, fearing the outright destruction of the U.S. 7th Army, had rushed already battered divisions from the Ardennes southeast over 100 km (62 mi), to reinforce the 7th Army. But their arrival was delayed, and on 21 January with supplies and ammunition short, Seventh Army ordered the much-depleted 79th Infantry and 14th Armored Divisions to retreat from Rittershoffen and fall back to the south bank of the Moder River.
On 25 January the German offensive was halted near Haguenau by the U.S. 222nd Infantry Regiment, earning the Presidential Unit Citation. The same day reinforcements began to arrive from the Ardennes. Although the Allies had successfully defended Strasbourg, the Colmar Pocket was still in German hands.