Operation Nordwind was launched by German ground forces on 31 December 1944 against U.S. and French ground forces in the Rhineland-Palatinate and the Alsace and Lorraine regions of southwestern Germany and northeastern France as part of the European Theatre in World War II. It ended on 25 January 1945.
Allied Forces
Sixth Army Group[1]
Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers
Forces deployed North to South:
US Seventh Army[2]
Lieutenant General Alexander McC. Patch
Major General Wade H. Haislip
103rd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Charles Haffner)
44th Infantry Division (Brig. Gen. William F. Dean)
100th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Withers A. Burress)
63rd Infantry Division (Brig. Gen. Frederick Harris)
Major General Edward H. Brooks
45th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Robert Frederick)
70th Infantry Division (Brig. Gen. Thomas Herren)
42nd Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Henry Linden)
79th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Ira Wyche)
French 2nd Armored Division (Gen. Div. Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque)
Axis Forces
Army Group G[3]
Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz
First Army
Generalleutnant Hans von Obstfelder
25th Panzergrenadier Division (Oberst Arnold Burmeister)
21st Panzer Division (Generalleutnant Edgar Feuchtinger)
6th SS Mountain Division Nord (SS-Gruppenführer Karl-Heinrich Brenner)
SS-Obergruppenführer Max Simon
19th Volksgrenadier Division (Generalleutnant Walter Wißmath)
36th Volksgrenadier Division (Generalmajor Helmut Kleikamp)
17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen (SS-Standartenführer Hans Lingner)
General der Flieger Erich Petersen
559th Volksgrenadier Division (Generalleutnant Kurt Freiherr von Mühlen)
257th Volksgrenadier Division (Generalmajor Erich Seidel)
General der Infanterie Gustav Höhne
361st Volksgrenadier Division (Generalmajor Alfred Philippi)
245th Infantry Division (Generalleutnant Edwin Sander)
256th Volksgrenadier Division (Generalmajor Gerhard Franz)
Allied Forces
Sixth Army Group (cont.)
Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers
Forces deployed North to South:
French First Army[4]
Lieutenant General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
Géneral Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert
1st Armored Division (Gén. Aimé Sudré)
9th Colonial Infantry Division (Gén. Joseph Magnan)
2nd Moroccan Infantry Division (Gén. Marcel Carpentier)
4th Moroccan Mountain Division (Gén. Réne de Hesdin)
5th Armored Division (Gén. Henri de Vernejoul)
10th Infantry Division (Gén. Pierre Billotte)
Major General Frank W. Milburn
12th Armored Division (Maj. Gen. Roderick R. Allen)
14th Armored Division (Maj. Gen. Albert Smith)
36th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. John Dahlquist)
Géneral Antoine Béthouart
1st Infantry March Division (Gén. Diego Brosset)
3rd Algerian Infantry Division (Gén. Augustin Guillaume)
Axis Forces
Army Group Upper Rhine[5]
Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler
Nineteenth Army
General der Infanterie Siegfried Rasp
10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg (SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel)
General der Infanterie Helmut Thumm
189th Infantry Division (Generalmajor Eduard Zorn)
198th Infantry Division (Generalmajor Otto Schiel)
708th Volksgrenadier Division (Generalmajor Wilhelm Bleckwenn)
General der Infanterie Erich Abraham
338th Infantry Division (Generalmajor Konrad Barde)
159th Infantry Division (Generalmajor Heinrich Bürky)
716th Infantry Division (Generalmajor Wolf Ewert)
269th Infantry Division (Generalleutnant Hans Wagner)
SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski
553rd Volksgrenadier-Division (Generalmajor Gerhard Hüther)
10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg (from 15 January) (SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel)
Book: Beevor , Antony . Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge . Penguin . 2015 . New York . 978-0-1431098-6-0.
Book: Cirillo , Roger . The Ardennes-Alsace . The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II . . CMH Pub 72-26 . 2010-12-14 . 2008-12-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081206183021/http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/ardennes/aral.htm . dead.
Book: Clarke . Jeffrey J. . Ross Smith . Robert . Riviera to the Rhine . U.S. Army Center of Military History . 1993 . Washington, DC . 10 March 2016.
Book: Engler , Richard . The Final Crisis: Combat in Northern Alsace, January 1945 . Aberjona Press . 1999 . 978-0-9666389-1-2.
Book: Zaloga , Steven . Operation Nordwind 1945 . Osprey . 2010 . Oxford . 978-1-84603-683-5.
Web site: US 44th Infantry Division - Nordwind . https://web.archive.org/web/20050306042820/http://efour4ever.com/44thdivision/nordwind.html . dead . 2005-03-06 . [Battle History of the United States 44th Infantry Division, ETO 1944 - 1945] .
14th Armored Division Combat History
The NORDWIND Offensive (January 1945) on the website of the 100th Infantry Division Association contains a list of German primary sources on the operation.