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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.
On 31 December, the Germans launched a major offensive in north-eastern France, called Operation Nordwind, and managed to gain ground against the Seventh United States Army, and the First French Army. In order to cut off the American held town of Haguenau, the Wehrmacht needed to encircle the position in a pincer move.
This was the last offensive action by the Nord Division before the end of Operation Nordwind, and it failed despite making initial advances. By the end of the operation, the infantry regiments had taken 50% losses, although the other divisional units were intact. The losses were replaced by poorly trained conscripts and volunteers in February 1945.
The German Army called the 12th Armored Division the "Suicide Division" [1] for its fierce defensive actions during Operation Nordwind in France, and they were nicknamed the "Mystery Division" [2] when they were temporarily transferred to the command of the Third Army under General George S. Patton Jr., to cross the Rhine River.
This offensive, known as Unternehmen Nordwind (Operation North Wind), and separate from the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive of the war on the Western Front. The weakened Seventh Army had, at Eisenhower's orders, sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes, and the offensive ...
After being rebuilt, in January 1945 it participated in Operation Nordwind, the southern counterpart of the German offensive that became known as the Battle of the Bulge. It captured a bridgehead on the Rhine and elements of the 553rd took part in destroying two American battalions from the U.S. 12th Armored Division at the village of ...
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.
On New Year's Day 1945, the Germans launched Unternehmen Nordwind (Operation "North Wind"), one objective of which was the recapture of Strasbourg. German troops of the 198th Infantry Division and the 106th Panzer Brigade attacked north out of the Colmar Pocket from 7–13 January.