Failure would hasten the war’s end by lowering German resistance in the face of the Allied advance on Berlin. They believed the writing was on the wall for the German army, and the massive assault was doomed to fail. Many of the senior German Army staff advised against the attack. By the end of the second day, Army Group B would reach the Meuse between Liège and Dinant by the end of the third day and to seize Antwerp as well as the western bank of the Scheldt estuary by the fourth day. He expected Army Group B to be through the Ardennes Forrest by the end of the first day. Hitler had ambitious goals for the offensive. His stated goal was to pierce the thinly held First Army, VIII Corps line between Monschau and Wasserbillig with Army Group B, commanded by Field Marshall Model. This temporary pause gave the German army time to complete their planning and preparation for a massive counter attack code named “Wacht am Rhein” or Watch on the Rhine, an operation that that was Hitler’s brainchild. December 1944 was one of the coldest winters Europe had seen in nearly 20 years, one of many factors slowing the Allied armies in their drive across the continent.
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