Original subtitles

December, 1944.

When Nazi forces launch a surprise offensive into Luxembourg

American troops get trapped by a German tank crew calling for their surrender.

Americans, Americans!

The American NCO considers his options.

step outside of cover and try and snap off a shot with a bazooka.

surrender.

Not liking those choices...

Showman chooses Door Number Three...

Go, go, go. Out. Retreat.

The Back Door.

On June 6th, 1944

Allied forces finally land troops in Normandy to open the western front.

But Nazi fanatics and diehards

continue to fight ruthlessly for survival.

D-Day was a battle.

The Allies still need to win the war.

December 15th, 1944.

The Ardennes Forest, Luxembourg.

Two German soldiers sneak into the town of Clervaux.

The streets are quiet.

Clervaux is a beautiful, charming Luxembourg town that's held

by the Americans.

It had been for about a couple of months by December 1944.

It's maybe about six, seven miles from the advance outpost front lines.

American soldiers are on leave here.

Have a good night?

The town had not been destroyed in any fighting to liberate it.

So, it was a good place for GI's to go and, uh, have a little R&R

and just kind of enjoy themselves for a couple days.

The German soldiers make their way through town,

and pick the lock of a pharmacy.

They are forward artillery observers.

Forward artillery observers are highly trained soldiers,

so what they do is they position themselves

as close to or inside the enemy front lines.

They then have to pass to on their artillery batteries

the coordinates of the main enemy targets.

Once inside, they set up a radio in a back room.

The Germans now have an artillery observation position

well behind the American line

and not far from the command post of US 110th infantry regiment.

The presence of German forward artillery observers inside Clervaux

is of course an ominous sign.

It means that trouble is brewing in the east.

Trouble that will catch the Allies woefully off guard.

Since D-Day, combined Allied forces

have pushed the German army out of most of France,

Belgium and Luxembourg back to within Germany's borders.

As part of the US 28th infantry division,

the 110th infantry regiment now guards a portion of the front

in the Ardennes Forest between Luxembourg and Germany.

Normally, an American division would hold a front of four or five miles.

What happens in the Ardennes is that

the units are very badly stretched out

so for example a 28th was stretched out almost 30 miles wide

and worse than that it was three regiments up front.

This means that in case of German attack,

there's not a full regiment in reserve.

So, it was not only stretched very thinly

it had no back up force behind it.

This is because Americans consider this stretch

a "ghost" or "quiet" sector.

The senior US commanders are under the impression

that the Germans are massing their forces waiting for the US to attack.

They don't think that anybody would be crazy enough

to attack through the Ardennes.

But the Allies mistake Hitler's ambitions.

Instead of digging in for the winter, he prepares a massive operation

called Wacht am Rhein.

The German objective for Wacht am Rhein is to re-seize Antwerp

and cut the Allies off from their most important supply line.

To drive a wedge between the Americans and the British.

Both in the military sense, and in a political sense.

If successful, Hitler believes he can repeat history.

Because the ultimate objective of the battle of the Ardennes

is the second Dunkirk.

What they're trying to do is separate the US Army from the British Army,

force the British Army to abandon Europe.

He expects the western Allies to sue for peace

and Germany can focus exclusively on the eastern front

to defeat the Soviet Union.

More than 200,000 German soldiers

and hundreds of tanks move secretly into position.

General Major Meinrad von Lauchert will lead Hitler's charge from Dasburg

seven-miles east of Clervaux.

Freshly recalled from regimental command in Russia,

von Lauchert takes control of 2nd Panzer Division.

Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert is a very experienced officer.

But he is put in command of the 2nd Panzer Division

only the day before the counter offensive kicks off.

So, he has not been involved

in the planning of the operation in any way.

Indeed, he hasn't had time to consult even with his regimental commanders.

Von Lauchert's forces of nearly 13,000 men,

will smash through the American line quickly

to capture and control the local roads.

The Germans need hard surfaced roads for their tanks.

Seven of those hard surfaced roads come together

in that crucial town of Bastogne.

The Germans will then use those roads to swing north,

to recapture Antwerp.

Operation Watch on the Rhine in English.

The ambitious plan is predicated on speed, surprise,

and Hitler's belief that the undermanned American line will crumble

in the face of adversity.

Hitler still underestimates the Americans.

They've shown in the past couple of months that they are quite good

in fighting an offensive war.

But defensively they are weak, yeah? They are just not stable enough.

They don't understand what this war is about.

Early on December 16th, 1944.

The first of Colonel von Lauchert's infantry troops cross the Our River

in boats to slip unseen, through the enemy line.

In the American sector of the Ardennes, Private Leroy Scheller

joins B Company's nighttime patrol.

The 110th Infantry of course had just been through the Hurtgen Forest battle,

had been decimated there.

It's working at anywhere between 50 to 66% strength or so

and hopefully upward from there, so man power's a bit of at a premium.

The patrol leaves their assigned strongpoint of Marnach,

less than five miles from the front.

In the eerie quiet of the night,

they halt as they hear footsteps...

And scramble for cover.

A German platoon passes in the darkness.

Instead of depending on the artillery before the battle starts,

when it's still dark,

these guys are going to go sneaking through the forest

because they know that the American defenses are very thin.

Schaller and his patrol stay hidden in the cold.

Schaller's patrol as I understand it was not a combat patrol.

You know, basically looking for action.

It was a recon patrol just to kind of sweep around

and see what was going on. So you, saw what was going on,

there's some Germans out there

and you could then live to report that to your superiors.

When the threat passes,

they return to Marnach to warn the others.

Back in Clervaux,

the German artillery observers remain undiscovered by American forces there.

Earlier they scouted the town and identified key targets

for the coming barrage.

Forward artillery observers will be looking for main targets

troop strongholds, uh, tank positions.

They want to bring artillery down on targets very nearby,

but they don't want to be blown up themselves.

As Private Schaller and the others stumble into Marnach...

They find one of B Company's officers to report on their patrol.

Combined with other observations, it seems like the Germans are mobilizing.

As the minutes pass,

the German artillery observers break radio silence

to relay key coordinates to German headquarters.

At around 0530,

members of B Company in Marnach hear a distant boom...

and a torrent of artillery streams overhead.

The German attack has begun.

December 16th, 1944. Luxembourg.

The German army launches the opening salvos

of what would come to be known as the Battle of the Bulge.

American Sergeant JJ Kuhn watches as artillery streams overhead.

Kuhn's 110th infantry regiment protects a ten mile stretch of highway

directly across the Our River.

Short of men, they cannot defend the entire line.

Instead they position companies at key crossroads along the highway,

Marnach, held by Company B,

protects one of the only paved roads to Bastogne.

The Germans are trying to launch a fast-mechanized attack,

to penetrate through the American lines

so they can race to the Meuse River and then on to Antwerp.

Time is of the essence and in order to move fast they need good roads.

Days before, Sergeant Kuhn

had noticed signs of a buildup of Nazi forces

which he tries to share with his commanding officer,

Colonel Hurley Fuller.

Does he appreciate the bigger picture of how massive this is

and Hitler's thinking? No, of course not.

But he does understand

that something is different on the German side of the hill

and that this is going to have consequences for his B-company

and that's what matters to him,

and so like any good NCO,

he wants to make sure he has the attention of those above him.

Copy that, sir.

Kuhn's concerns were dismissed.

Now Colonel Fuller,

based two miles west in Clervaux,

awakens to the sound of German artillery striking near his command post.

He races downstairs to contact his company commanders.

Come on, boys, I need some reports.

But artillery has knocked out his phone lines

and radio frequencies are jammed.

Any word here?

Cut off... Nothing, we're not getting through.

...Fuller has no way of knowing the scale of the attack

nor can he call divisional command for reinforcements.

The communication chain has been severed up and down.

Fuller desperately needs information to organize his defenses,

so he sends runners

to establish contact with his company commanders.

Meanwhile, northeast of Fuller's sector

Sergeant Frank Olsen of the neighboring 112th infantry regiment,

heads into the woods to check in with his men on guard duty.

Well, the Ardennes is very dark.

Not only woods, but also the time of year,

and of course the fact that it's a warfront.

It's incredibly dark.

As he moves between foxholes gunfire breaks out around him.

We got an ambush on our hands!

The forest is full of German soldiers.

Right!

Olsen must act and get word to headquarters.

Stay low! Stay low!

He takes his helmet off because the helmet would silhouette him

as an American even in the dark.

With his helmet tucked under his arm,

he sprints back to his command post.

And encounters even more Germans as he runs.

He's bumping into these guys, one of them even curses at him,

but doesn't notice that he's an American

but he and several others are able to get out of there,

just by that kind of clumsy stealth.

Incoming!

Olsen breaks free from the tangle

and reaches the farmhouse command post.

Let's go! Move forward!

Keep firing! Let 'em have it!

When suddenly the forest is bathed in light.

December 16th, 1944.

Near the Luxembourg-German border.

In the opening hours of what would become the Battle of the Bulge,

American Sergeant Frank Olsen,

breaks away from a fire fight with German soldiers outside his command post,

when the night sky turns bright.

The Germans project powerful searchlights

onto low hanging clouds so this is a kind of artificial moonlight.

It helps illuminate enemy targets.

The light bouncing off the cloud is supposed to make objects

visible to German soldiers.

But, there's a problem.

The same applies to the Americans

and so what they now do is use this same German

artificial moonlight to take down waves and waves of German attackers.

Olsen and his men pick them off with ease.

Keep firing!

Further south, back in the 110th's portion of the line,

Sergeant JJ Kuhn coordinates B Company for the defense of Marnach.

In anticipation of a full scale attack,

they place an artillery observer up high with a view on the action.

Sergeant Kuhn's best weapons are his artillery observers.

He controls so much of the firepower that's going to cause casualties.

He's the guy with the big guns.

On the outskirts,

Sergeant Stanley Showman leads his platoon past burning buildings.

Okay, I need five more guys on this left side.

Only 19 years old, he has fought with 110th since Normandy.

OK, go! Now!

Stanley Showman is a guy who's been in combat.

He is an excellent NCO.

When he hears that kind of artillery barrage,

he knows an attack has to be coming.

They're not just doing this for the fun of it.

So he is starting to get ready

for whatever might be coming toward him and his unit.

They dig in at the edge of town.

Smoke and fog make visibility poor.

All of a sudden here come these apparitions,

these Germans out of the woods because the woods border Marnach.

Showman and his platoon open fire.

Let 'em have it.

Initially, the attack is just a blood bath for the Germans.

As showman engages the German infantry along the road,

another group emerges out of the forest on the north edge of town.

Incoming!

Keep firing!

In response, Sergeant Kuhn, requests artillery support

from regimental headquarters.

Fire!

As the American shots land,

his artillery observer can call in corrections

to better target the attacking Germans.

What people don't realize most casualties in World War II

are inflicted by artillery.

Everyone thinks it's rifles and machine guns and all that, it's not.

The pinpoint fire devastates the enemy column...

But more German soldiers continue to appear.

Kuhn described it as tragedy, as an epic waste.

Here were hundreds of Germans just getting, mowed down.

And why they were attacking in that fashion,

from a human standpoint, he thought it was tragic.

The first wave of German soldiers cannot capture Marnach alone.

Despite the best efforts of the German infantry,

GIs, small groups of GIs, are holed up in villages on key roads.

So they need more fire power.

The firepower of tanks to break through and gain speed again.

But Colonel von Lauchert's tanks

have still not crossed the Our River.

They had not completed a key bridge.

And poor planning compounds the problem.

That road is blocked by the Germans

in the form of a metallic gate.

There is an unlocking device to move the gate out of the way

but unfortunately the engineers can't find the keys in time.

In order to preserve the element of surprise,

they delay blowing up the barrier, until after the barrage begins.

Finally, German engineers clear and repair the bridge

but it takes much longer than expected,

and the tanks only begin to cross in the afternoon.

Keep up the line of fire!

In Marnach, B Company continues to pick off the German infantry advance.

Although some German soldiers engage the American strong point,

others begin to push around the village to the north and south.

They continue toward Clervaux

and the 110th infantry command post, only two miles away.

Colonel Hurley Fuller is alarmed, as reports and runners trickle in,

it appears that the whole front is under attack.

With communication unreliable,

Fuller sends his executive officer,

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Strickler

to divisional headquarters to speak with General Norman Cota.

Strickler reports the attacks across the 110th's front.

General Cota also sends a message in return.

The 110th must hold the line.

December 16, 1944.

The Ardennes Forest, Luxembourg.

Let 'em have it!

An entire division

of German Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert's foot soldiers

surrounds the village of Marnach.

Some attack, while others push past,

towards the town of Clervaux.

Although the Americans are heavily outnumbered...

there will be no retreat or surrender.

Fire!

They are to hold at all costs.

That's the kind of thing you might tend to breeze past

when you look at it an after-action report or a book or whatever.

As front line soldiers, totally embattled with the enemy around us,

surrounding us, trying to go through us, now we're being told,

"You will hold at all costs."

Despite the odds,

B Company of the 110th defies the German infantry

at a crossroads in Marnach.

When shrapnel strikes their commanding officer,

he requires surgery and must be evacuated.

Sergeant JJ Kuhn assumes command duties at B Company headquarters.

Despite his rank as an NCO.

As the German onslaught continues,

members of C Company approach from the south to provide reinforcement.

But while the Germans have been unable to break Marnach,

they surround it.

Get down!

And C Company is driven back.

Frustrated and desperate,

B Company puts out a distress call to US troops in the area

as they run low on mortars.

An officer from D Company two miles north of their position,

answers the call.

Lieutenant Glen Vannatta,

has a jeep loaded with mortar ammo and races towards B Company.

They pause on a hill just outside of town,

to assess the German and American hotspots.

Then his driver takes off at full speed to dodge the German artillery

and small arms fire.

...Your choice.

They break through and deliver the mortars to B Company.

You are absolute God send, Sir.

Then beat a hasty retreat.

With the support of American artillery and fresh supplies...

Sergeant Kuhn and his men continue to hold off

the German soldiers trying to capture Marnach.

But as night falls,

German armor, half tracks and tanks creep through the darkness

and into town.

The Americans are unprepared.

They basically have foot soldiers.

They've got small arms. They've got the odd bazooka.

And they have artillery observation in Marnach.

B Company is not well equipped to deal with any kind of real,

you know, powerful tank attack.

Tank!

The momentum shifts.

Nazi forces begin to overrun American machine gun nests and outer defenses.

Move it. Move!

Sergeant Stanley Showman

and his squad retreat from their forward position.

And withdraw to a stone building in town.

They watch as a German half track stops outside.

When the German soldiers dismount,

the Americans use their cover to open fire.

The Germans are cut down and the half track retreats.

But before long, a German tank rumbles down the street.

It stops 20 feet away and fixes its gun, directly at the Americans.

Americans, Americans!

A German voice calls for their surrender.

Americans, come out!

Showman's options are limited.

Step outside of cover and try and snap off a shot with a bazooka.

Surrender.

Showman chooses Door Number Three...

Go, go, go. Out. Retreat.

...the back door.

Showman and his squad make it into the woods

as the village of Marnach burns.

The Americans were not crumbling as German leaders had predicted.

The German command had planned to be in control of Bastogne

by noon of the second day.

Now as the first day turns into night

we see that the Germans are still battling for the small village of Marnach,

which is 19 miles east of Bastogne.

The Germans have made it barely five miles from their own lines.

Marnach should've been taken by the German infantry.

The fact that they did depend on the panzers

to finally take those defenses meant that the plan was failing.

But US forces there cannot hold out much longer.

The American forward observer continues to call down

artillery on German positions.

Okay. I need an artillery strike.

His final words on the line

reveal the desperate situation in Marnach.

The last message of this unknown artillery spotter is,

"Hurry and fire they're coming up the steps."

The Observer was taking literally the idea of holding at all costs,

and he did exactly that.

Von Lauchert leaves men to finish the capture of Marnach,

and spurs the remainder of 2nd Panzer

Clervaux.

In Clervaux, American Colonel Hurley Fuller

receives reports of tanks in Marnach,

he tries again to send reinforcements to relieve B Company.

I think Fuller's getting an appreciation how the scope and scale

of the German offensive and how hard pressed his regiment is going to be.

Back at Willtz... Cota, he's not quite there yet.

American reinforcements march toward Marnach.

They hope to ambush the Germans outside of town,

but as they leave Clervaux in the early morning,

German troops and tanks already close in.

The Americans are the ones about to be ambushed.

December 17th, 1944.

Near Clervaux, Luxembourg.

Nazi forces begin the second day of a daring offensive

to end the war on the western front.

In response,

Colonel Hurley Fuller of the US 110th sends two infantry companies

a company of Stuart tanks

to relieve Americans trapped in the nearby village of Marnach.

But they do not get very far

before the they come under attack themselves.

Let's go! Let's go!

Their efforts fail.

It's like an economy car smashing with a Mack truck.

They're just overwhelmed

by the power of the German military forces at this stage.

At company headquarters in Marnach,

Sergeant JJ Kuhn and the dwindling forces of B Company and its wounded,

still hold out for rescue or reinforcement.

When a German tank rams the front door...

German soldiers rush in...

and force Kuhn and the last of B Company into surrender.

With the fall of Marnach,

Fuller readies Clervaux for an imminent attack.

Clervaux has now begun to transition, a very unhappy transition,

from a rear area headquarters and R&R town to now the epicenter of the battle.

From his command post at the Claravallis hotel,

he positions men in the castle

which overlooks the southern approaches to Clervaux.

German artillery continues to fall on the Americans.

Fuller still does not realize that it is being controlled from nearby.

Even as the Americans move into new defensive positions,

the two German forward observers can call artillery down in response.

As Fuller's men scramble,

Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert arrives on the outskirts of town with tanks

and targets the American-occupied castle.

But the thick walls hold as they had for centuries.

Von Lauchert is frustrated.

In order to get back on schedule, he must take Clervaux quickly

to secure the roads needed for the German advance.

But, he does not want to send his tanks into town.

Von Lauchert is an experienced officer.

He knows that an urban environment

will negate the tanks maneuverability and speed

what is worse behind every corner there can be an Allied tank.

Von Lauchert sends his infantry troops into the town instead.

They are to scout ahead for American tanks and clear resistance.

As German soldiers move into Clervaux,

American snipers in the castle take aim.

The Germans try to disrupt the sniper fire,

but the shells do little damage.

However, with their overwhelming numbers,

German troops bypass the fortress

and fight their way toward the command post in the Claravallis hotel.

Fuller's 110th has delayed the German push towards Bastogne for two days.

But his men have paid a heavy price.

Well, the numbers are the numbers.

Most of these American formations are outnumbered anywhere from about 2 to 1

to 10 to 1 depending on where we're talking about.

We get help in three hours or something we might hold out for that,

but that's not really the situation here.

Colonel Fuller knows he cannot delay much longer.

He calls general Cota and asks for reinforcements...

or permission to fall back to set up a new defensive line.

Both requests are denied.

Cota is unequivocal, "Hold at all costs".

Nobody comes back.

Fuller throws in his final tanks against the German attack.

They navigate the narrow roads towards the castle.

The lead tank rounds a corner,

and heads down a side street.

When the American tanks erupt in flames, it is the last of Fuller's reserves.

And gives von Lauchert's men free reign to advance.

The German armor column can move deeper into Clervaux.

Inexorably closer to, ah, Fuller's Command Post at the Claravallis Hotel.

Across town,

the command post is already under pressure from German infantry attacks.

You have guards outside who are now under fire

and have been driven inside.

You have people trying to figure out the next course of action,

get out of there or burn papers.

Or round up a new crew to go and fight this group of Germans we just spotted

or deal with this tank, scrounge up any weapons you can get.

Get General Cota on the line!

Fuller radios General Cota an update

and prepares to give his men the order to withdraw.

Reinforcements now!

Abruptly, a shell rips through the hotel's first floor,

knocking out the power.

Fuller and what is left of his 110th are trapped and out of time.

December 17th, 1944.

Clervaux, Luxembourg.

2nd Panzer Division,

led by Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert

has breached the American-held town of Clervaux,

seven miles into the American line.

Von Lauchert traps Colonel Fuller and his men in a hotel,

which serves as their command post.

German soldiers storm in,

and fire fights break out in the lobby and ground floor hallways.

He's had, what is now

kind of a famous conversation with the 28 Division Chief of Staff,

Colonel Gibney.

And Fuller compares himself to Colonel Travis at the Alamo saying,

"We're about to be overrun."

Fuller does not feel the chief of staff and General Cota

appreciate the gravity of the situation.

He returns to the crisis at hand...

when an explosion rips into the room, injuring several men.

Now he's got wounded people

so Fuller becomes this sort of impromptu medic trying to staunch the bleeding.

He bandages the eyes of a man blinded by the blast...

...but others are too far gone.

Gunfire and fighting continue on the ground floor,

when a member of staff finds a way out.

There's like a fire escape type ladder that'll lead from one of the top floors

all the way to the ridgeline provided you don't fall from that ladder

to the street below.

Fuller inches along, 50 feet above the ground below.

Here's this 50-year-old man trying to hang on

and get across this horizontal ladder, basically crawl across it

while this wounded blind guy is behind him trying to hang on.

Fuller and a small group of soldiers make it across and away.

Let's go!

As they escape into the woods,

the 110th command post falls.

Across town, about 100 US Soldiers

holdout in the ramparts of the medieval castle.

The Germans pummel the walls and gate...

but cannot break through.

They decide on another approach.

They figure out maybe we ought to fire incendiary rounds

to set the roof of the castle on fire

and maybe that'll flush the defenders out.

Incoming!

It works. Fires break out across the castle.

The American commander,

not willing to risk the lives of the civilians hidden in the cellar,

surrenders.

When Clearvaux falls, the road to Bastogne opens,

and the Germans hurry forward,

only to be slowed again, at each cross road.

All along the front, makeshift resistance continues to harass their advance.

The Germans fight for four days to reach Bastogne

and create the bulge in the Allied line that gave a name to the infamous battle.

But the critical delay means Bastogne can be reinforced

and defended by the Allies.

The battle will rage for five more weeks,

but by failing to take Bastogne early,

the German operation is doomed almost from the start.

Within a month, the Allies once again force the Germans

to retreat back to the border.

Of the 3,200 members of the 110th, only one in seven is not killed,

wounded or captured.

The 110th basically fought to extinction in the Bastogne corridor.

And in about a three-day period the regiment was shattered.

Its records, to a great extent, were lost.

Their sacrifice was not acknowledged.

No medals were awarded and no regimental honors bestowed.

Later on, when the army hierarchy

was considering presidential unit citations and whatever

there really wasn't anybody in house to speak up for the 110th infantry.

Colonel Hurly Fuller, Sergeant JJ Kuhn,

and Sergeant Stanley Showman are all captured by the Germans

and serve the rest of the war in POW camps.

They are liberated in 1945, and return to the United States.

Once released, Colonel Fuller advocates for the American 110th.

But he just does not have the influence.

He does not have the pull, uh, to get the recognition for his regiment

that he otherwise would've hoped for

and also the fact that he himself had become a POW

was always going to be a bit of a sticking point in that regard.

Reasonable or not.

Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert pushed farther into Allied lines

than almost any other German commander.

Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert will continue to fight

the Allied troops tooth and nail with his 2nd Panzer Division

and he will continue to do so until March, 1945

when he is with his back against Rhine River.

But by that time nothing much remains of his crack unit.

Operation Watch on the Rhine,

or Battle of the Bulge proves costly for both sides.

The German army suffers about 120,000 casualties.

In the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans lose their last reserves.

And when the Soviets attack in a major offensive, in mid-January 1945,

the German front and the east collapse very quickly.

So, two weeks later, the Soviets are only 50 miles away from Berlin.

So, the real winner of the Battle of the Bulge is-- are not the Americans,

it's the Soviets and Stalin.

The western Allies will need to regroup and resupply

before advancing into Germany.

But, the Germans will now fight on home turf

and the war in Europe will continue for four more months.

Captioned by Visual Data Media Services