Battle of the Bulge: What took them so long?

Remember, the West Wall defenses continuted to help the Wehrmacht hold the "shoulders" of the bulge and prevent allied forces from cutting the head off the snake. The Hurtgen Rhur forrest in the north and the Alsace-Lorraine in the south made for some serious terrain obstacles. In the north the 1st, 2nd, 99th and 82nd divisions were all on the line from Monschau southwest having gone from the post Hurtgen offensives towards the Rhur Dams into a defensive stance. The wall of Ardennes forrest along the Lux-Belgian border also prevented any rapid armor push, even Patton's 4AD had to move up the only available LOCs leading from Lux to Bastogne. Once forces were commited to containing the Bulge and in contact, that is where they fought. Remember also that the German Army's sizeable forces remained in the south and allowed Operation Norwind against the Alsace-Lorraine region a few weeks later. I feel there just was no quick victory option in early January 1944. Again disengaging forces for a push in the north or south of the Bulge in late December or early January would have been a gamble even greater than Market Garden.

 

Thought some of the American contingent on here might like this photo.

In Nois Bras a patrol of Cameron Highlanders met up with elements of the American 347th Infantry, company 1. Among the Camerons were; Sgt. R. Hayworth, Sgt. L Toogood, Cpl. T. Goodall, Pte. J. Lavery, Pte. R. French, and Pte. R. Moore.among the Americans were; Lt. R. E. Miles of Richmond, Virginia and Sgt. E. S. Dudley from Norfolk, Virginia.

regards Sonofacameron
5th battalion Queens Own Cameron Highlanders. Keep-em-Moving

 

The Germans had launched a last operation during the closure of the Battle of Bulge, therefore, the Allied forces were slowed by this final attempt.

 

Thanks to the recommendations in this old thread, I've just acquired a copy via Amazon and I'm about to start it......

 

Thought you might like to see this.
The attached Blazer badge was presented to British & American veterans who attended the 60th anniversary celebrations of the meeting of the Camerons and the Americans.
There were 2 American and 2 ex Camerons from that photo in attendance. Actual size and enlarged.

 

The big problem was not so much terrain or lack of supplies (the Germans were much shorter on gasoline by 22 December) as the fact that Patton's three initial divisions had the enemy to their front and right flank. Patton noted in his diary that the 4th Armored lost 10 tanks on Christmas Eve due to counterattacks. As he wrote, "This was probably my fault, because I had been insisting on day and night attacks. This is all right on the first or second day of the battle and when we had surprised the enemy, but after that the men get too tired."

Of course, on 19 December no one knew how long Bastogne or the shoulders would hold out, so it made sense to attack as soon as feasible--and the attack worked, for without the Bastogne road net, the Germans had a harder time pushing men and tanks west. This may have been a case of "a good plan today is better than a perfect plan next week."