 On the western front, things had been going well for the Allies as the year 1944 drew towards its end. Ostend, Haavre, Boulin, Kalle had all been taken in September. The capture of Nijmegen in Holland by airborne troops was followed by the epic defense of Arnhem. Beginning of November, saw the British and Canadians successfully drive the Germans from the Sheltestuary and Antwerp's Great Port was opened for incoming Allied war supplies. By the first week in December, the whole line of the Mass River was firmly held, while the Americans were probing into Germany itself. The bag of Nazi prisoners on this front had grown to pretty sizable proportions. Townsfolk and peasants living along this troublous frontier relief had come, relief from German bondage. Back they flocked to their shattered homes to start life anew with the help of their Allied friends in the fighting forces. In the second week of December, the beginning of the German counter-offensive through Belgium and Luxembourg. On the 16th of December, with cries of Paris by Christmas, the Germans broke through the Allied line. Von Rundstedt's Great Gamble was on. N was seen, the heartbreaking spectacle of refugees fleeing from the homes to which they had so lately returned. The Germans were coming back. The German attack had developed into a full-scale offensive along an extended front. The Americans took the main weight of the initial German thrust, estimated as at least 13 divisions. They were forced back. But their bitterly fought-delaying actions considerably slowed Von Rundstedt's armies in the first 10 days. Glareforce did sterling work during these anxious days, but consistently bad flying weather severely restricted operations from the air. It almost 60 miles into Allied territory from a base 35 miles wide, the German offensive was fully stretched. Von Rundstedt had picked the time for his attack to coincide with a run of appalling weather. The weather conditions under which the advance began can be seen in these pictures captured from the Germans. On December 16th, Von Rundstedt had told his men, your great hour has struck. Everything is at stake. It was indeed a desperate bid. A German victory was urgently needed to bolster falling morale inside German. Von Rundstedt's first objective was to relieve Allied pressure threatening the vital war industries at the Saar Valley. Then would come the splitting of the Allied armies in the north to be quickly followed by the recapture of Antwerp, Liege, Sidan, and Verdun. Such were the plans of the German commander as his troops surged forward triumphantly behind the massed weight of armor and mobile artillery. While isolated pockets of American troops left behind in the German advance were fighting desperate delaying actions. To keep them supplied, Allied aircraft braved the weather to drop food and ammunition. Their ignorance of the Allied forces soon to be flung against them, the Germans continued to press forward. The weather eased somewhat, and the Allied tactical Air Force was at last able to go into action against enemy fighting columns and communications. It's captured were now turned against them. Us, since Von Rundstedt's desperate blow to stave off inevitable defeat, had been launched. Four weeks, and the German offensive had been thrown into reverse gear. The German bulge was steadily shrinking before the advancing Allied forces. Field Marshal Montgomery, given command of the fighting in the Ardennes, had rushed the British 21st Army group to the aid of the Americans. Their combined weight proved too much for Von Rundstedt's men. The efficiency of British American teamwork in the field began to pay dividends. The end of January, the bulge had been straightened out. The German gamble had failed, and at a heavy price, the loss of over 120,000 men killed, wounded, or captured. The initiative is again with the Allies, although the coming of heavy snow storms has slowed down their advance against retreating Germans. But snow drifts and blocked roads are no deterrent to Allied activity in the air. The German offensive was a desperate reaction forced upon the Nazis by the Allies through their swift and vigorous conduct of operations. The great Nazi drive has ended, with Herr Goebbels' doltful plait that the Allies in the West are tying our hands in Germany at a moment when we are building dams against the onrushing flood from the Russian steppes.