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The death throes of the Third Reich were not pretty and took many lives. Key Point: Berlin was doomed, yet they continued to resist. Here is how Nazi Germany finally came to its brutal end. In January 12, 1945, Hitler received the news he had been dreading—the Soviet Red Army had launched its winter offensive. He wasted no time. Within four days Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, commander in chief West, received the following order: “CinC West is to withdraw the following formations from operations [they were still involved in the Battle of the Bulge] immediately and refit them: I SS Panz...

Operation Stösser was launched during Germany’s last gamble:  Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine), Hitler’s offensive in the West which Americans know as the Battle of the Bulge, had as its ultimate objective the Belgian port of Antwerp. Recently captured, it was under repair to be reopened as a deep-water port. When Antwerp was serviceable, the Allies would be able to bring supplies and reinforcements quickly to the front lines instead of transporting them across France from the Channel ports. To reach Antwerp, the German Army would push through the Ardennes Forest. An armo...

World War II: Was Justice Served After the Malmedy Massacre? The SS soldiers responsible for the Malmedy Massacre were to be hung, including Joachim Peiper. But none were sent to the gallows. Here's What You Need to Know: Peiper, Dietrich, and several other former SS men who played roles in the massacre were released from prison after serving 13 years. It was a dismal day, Sunday, December 17, 1944, just hours after the Germans had broken through the thinly held American lines in the Ardennes Forest along rugged terrain of the Western Front. The thunderclap of Operation Wacht am Rhein (Wat...

Hitler thought he knew better than the generals. Here's What You Need to Remember: In the final analysis, Hitler would have done well to heed Guderian’s advice to commit the Sixth Panzer Army to the defense of the Oder line to slow the Russian advance on Berlin. Georg Maier, deputy chief of staff for operations for the Sixth Panzer Army, offered a fitting summation of the failed offensive. “Time, pressure, poor weather, extremely difficult terrain conditions, [and] Hitler’s impatience joined forces with the well-prepared enemy defense to form a combined front,” he wrote. Even in the ...