Operation Stösser Operation Stösser ( English : Operation Auk ) was a paratroop drop into the American rear in the High Fens area during the Battle of the Bulge . Their objective was to take and hold the " Baraque Michel " crossroads until the arrival of the 12th SS Panzer Division . The operation was led by Oberst Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte . He was given only 8 days to prepare the mission . The majority of the paratroopers and pilots assigned to the operation were untrained and inexperienced . The mission was a complete failure . It was the German paratroopers ' only nighttime drop during World War II . Background . Oberst Freiherr Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte , hero of the legendary if ill - fated airborne assault on Crete , was summoned on December 8 and told to prepare for a mission , but not given any details . Von der Heydte was given only eight days to prepare . He wanted to use his own regiment , but this was forbidden because their movement might alert the Allies to the impending counterattack . Instead , he was provided with a Kampfgruppe of 800 men . The II Parachute Corps was tasked with contributing 100 men from each of its regiments . Instead of contributing their best men as ordered , the regiments sent their misfits and troublemakers . Von der Heydte could not afford to resist too strongly . A cousin of Claus von Stauffenberg , a central figure in the July 20 , 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler , von der Heydte was under scrutiny . In loyalty to their command , 150 men from von der Heydte ' s own unit , the 6th Parachute Regiment , went against orders and joined him . To avoid alerting the Allies , the Germans planned to conduct the drop without prior reconnaissance or current aerial photographs . Lack of training . The men had little time to establish any unit cohesion or train together . Many of the men assigned to von der Heydte had never jumped out of an airplane before . Von der Heydte later commented , " Never in my entire career had I been in command of a unit with less fighting spirit . " On December 13 , von der Heydte visited the headquarters of Army Group B near Münstereifel to complain that the resources allocated to him for the operation were wholly inadequate . Field Marshal Walter Model , who had tried to persuade Hitler to attempt a less ambitious counterattack , replied that he gave the entire Ardennes Offensive less than a 10 % chance of succeeding . Model told him it was necessary to make the attempt . " It must be done because this offensive is the last chance to conclude the war favorably . " Assault delay and mis - drops . The drop was delayed for a day when the assigned aircraft did not show up . The new drop time was set for 03 : 00 on 17 December ; the drop zone was north of Malmedy . Their objective was to seize the crossroads and hold it for approximately twenty - four hours until relieved by the 12th SS Panzer Division , hampering the Allied flow of reinforcements and supplies into the area . Just after midnight on 17 December , 112 Ju 52 transport planes with around 1 , 300 " Fallschirmjäger " took off during a powerful snowstorm with strong winds and considerable low cloud cover . The Luftwaffe was very short of experienced pilots . Many of the Ju 52 transport pilots had never flown them before , half had never flown in combat , nor were they trained to conduct drops at night or to fly in formation . Pathfinders from the Nachtschlachtgruppe 20 were supposed to lead the way , but the pilots were so inexperienced that they flew with their navigation lights on . Many planes went off course . Two hundred and fifty men were dropped near Bonn , from the intended drop zone . Some landed with their troops still on board . Strong winds deflected many paratroopers whose planes were relatively close to the intended drop zone and made their landings far rougher . Only a fraction of the force landed near the intended drop zone . Since many of the German paratroopers were very inexperienced , some were crippled upon impact and died where they fell . Some were found the following spring when the snow melted . Confusion among Americans . Because of the extensive dispersal of the drop , " Fallschirmjäger " were reported all over the Ardennes , and the Allies believed a major division - sized jump had taken place , causing the Americans much confusion and convincing them to allocate men to secure the rear instead of facing the main German thrust at the front . An entire U . S . infantry regiment of 3000 men ( U . S . 18th Infantry ) along with an armored combat command of 300 tanks and 2 , 000 men searched several days for the German force . The 12th SS Panzer Division , unable to defeat the Americans at Elsenborn Ridge , never arrived . By noon on 17 December , von der Heydte ' s unit had scouted the woods and rounded up a total of around 300 troops . With only enough ammunition for a single fight , the force was too small to take the crossroads on its own . Oberst von der Heydte first planned to wait for the arrival of the 12th SS Panzer Division when they would suddenly seize the crossroads just before their arrival . After three days of waiting , he abandoned these revised plans and instead converted his mission to reconnaissance . General Model had scoffed at von der Heydte ' s request for carrier pigeons , and none of the unit ' s radios survived the drop , so he was unable to report the detailed information he gathered . Withdrawal to Germany . With only a single day ' s food supply and limited water , on 19 December von der Heydte withdrew his forces towards the German lines . He used their limited ammunition to attack the rear of the American lines . Only about one - third of his weary men reached the German rear . Oberst von der Heydte , wounded , frostbitten , suffering from pneumonia , and exhausted , knocked on doors in Monschau until he found a friendly German family . The next morning he sent a boy with a surrender note to the Allies .