"Battle of the Bulge Question" Topic

Most of the information I have access to concentrates on the first half of the Bulge. I am interested in what was going on during the second half.
Specifically, what was the operational strength (men, operational AFV, etc.) of the Fuhrer Begleit Brigade at the end of the 1st week of January?
And the Panzer Lehr around mid January?

Snow and Steel by Peter Caddick Adams. I read it a month ago but have returned it to the library so I can't easily get the info. He goes from start to finish if major combat ops and discusses losses in virtually every formation.

All that Caddick-Adams has to say about the FBB is that by 1 January it possessed 51 armoured vehicles. He makes no mention of Panzer Lehr in mid January.

Have you read either – the huge "Battle of the Bulge, Then and Now publication by After the Battle? Or Danny S. Parker`s volume? Both have timelines and some orbat info which cover your period of interest as they cover the whole campaign from early December through to January.

Yes, I have Parker's book. But not the 1st one you mention.
Parker's book is what brought up the question.
My dad's outfit (17th airborne at this time) apparently went up against FBB & PL, with some of the regiments being roughly handled. Just wondering what they were up against.

After the Battle are the gold standard for well researched book – expensive, but I believe worth the cost. Not sure about 17th Airborne being involved the Bulge, I must have missed that, but my wargames interest has always focussed more on 26th Infantry Division during the first few days anyway, sorry.

Nice wrap up of the 17th in the Battle of the Bulge
link

Richard
The 17th Airborne was flown from England to France on Christmas Eve. They were attached to Patton and participated in the relief of Bastogne – coming in west of town in early January.
They fought all through January and into early February when they were removed from line to prepare for Operation Varsity.

Marc
Am familiar with that web page.
If you look in right spot – you'll see a picture of my pops.

The best source I've found is Trevor Dupuy's book Hitler's Last Gamble. He lists basic numbers of tanks, guns, etc. for all units on Dec 16th, Dec 24th, Jan 2nd and Jan 16th. That may give you what you want.

He lists FBB as having 6 tanks 37 AG. 11 AC. 50 APC 25 ATG and 9 Guns on Jan 2nd. Panzer Lehr had 28 tanks and 47 AG. Sadly he doesn't specify types, but a mix of types is probably correct.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Lee!

Yes, the 17th ABN was at the Bulge as noted. They just don't get the "headlines" like the 101 or even the 82d in that battle.

I looked this up on-line, briefly.

I didn't find a lot of info on PL, but did see at the Battle of the Bulge, they were directly in the path of the US rescue for Bastogne, and apparently suffered significant losses during the American assault to break the siege. The commentary said that the limited forces of PL were swept aside relatively easily, since they were spread pretty thin.

On Dec. 15th, PL had a couple of companies of Panzer IVs and a couple of Panthers. Sorry, can't recall the exact numbers, but basicailly they had about 40+ vehicles in total, or roughly a battalion's worth of tanks. To supplement that, they got essentially another battalion of "assault guns". Since that term is frequently used fairly loosely, I'm not sure if those were StuGs or Jagdpanzers.

Also, Knowing that most, if not all of the German armor ran out of steam in their Bulge attacks, and that many/most ran out of fuel and had to abandon their armor, I suspect PL would not have had much in the way of operational and fueled armor, by mid-January. I suspect the same for FBB.

Note, the above is strictly my conjecture, based upon my general knowledge of the forces involved in the Battle of the Bulge, but once the skies cleared, Patton's tanks got to Bastogne, and the allied fighter-bombers were let loose, the Germans were generally in retreat with very little in the way of armor after the new year.

Here's a link to detailed info on the FBB:

link

Korvessa that is too cool. I love when members here chip in with things like that, it really both personalizes and humanizes the history for me. Thanks for that.