of the NUMBER_TOKENst the town was almost entirely surrounded despite resistance and delays the germans were confident one cheerful leutenant wrote to his wife you cannot imagine what glorious hours and days we are experiencing now it looks as if the americans cannot withstand our important push on the NUMBER_TOKENnd the german commander lutvids sent the americans a demand to surrender general anthony mcauliffe in charge of bastogne's garrison simply sent the words nuts in return yet the demand was a bluff lutwitz lacked the strength to annihilate the defenders preferring instead to wait for reinforcements or else starve the besieged men out the latter was a distinct possibility as the americans lacked resupply and had been constantly shelled if they didn't starve they may well have just broken the snow had returned too causing poor visibility with americans and germans frequently crossing each other's lines in the murk meanwhile another attack on soviet drove away the last of the american defenders there although traffic jams faced by the germans the following day would give the us army time to regroup and pull back to form a new line the next day marked a turning point the weather finally cleared the skies were suddenly filled with allied aircraft allowing transport planes to conduct a massive supply drop of ammunition fuel rations and medical supplies all around pestone meanwhile fighter bomber attacks proved extremely effective at breaking up german attacks as they were assembling however general patton struggled to punch through to bastogne and was repeatedly stymied by ruined bridges that had been blown up by american engineers earlier in the battle on the NUMBER_TOKENth acting chief of the general staff heinz guderian visited hitler to argue that the ardenne offensive had clearly failed to achieve its goals and was not worth continuing calling instead for renewed attention on the eastern front hitler however refused to withdraw he would have been cheered by an apparent german triumph early that morning when forward elements of the second panzer division reached cell this would be the furthest west the germans would reach during the battle but it would only be a fleeting victory ammunition and fuel were running dangerously low to the point that even a complete withdrawal from their positions had become impossible food too was short and by the time the allied troops had entered cell the following afternoon they encountered only famished and exhausted panzer troops that night was roonsted's turn to inform hitler the offensive had failed but still the fuhrer refused to order a withdrawal angrily dismissing him on the NUMBER_TOKENth patton finally relieved bastogne true to form patton arrived via a reckless charge straight through the asenwa and north into bastogne covered by artillery fire and air-dropped napalm it succeeded in driving a hole through german lines allowing troops and tanks from the NUMBER_TOKENth armored division to rush in and relieve the town by this point hitler no longer made any mention of antwerp instead bastogne was to become his symbol of victory and he wanted no effort spared in capturing it refusing to listen to the protestations of his commanders hitler ordered the creation of army group lutvitz out of the remains of his forces to crush the town's
NO_SEGMENT_TOKEN