Chapter 4: Happy New Year, Eisenhower
December 27th, 1944 - January 9th, 1945
At the meeting with his staff Führer said that Allied counter attack must be stopped at all costs. If we manage to stop it than it is just a matter of time before their front collaps and we enter France once again. Also, Führer and his staff made a plan of an attack on 22 enircled Allied divisions. The attack will begin on New Year. Happy New Year, general Eisenhower to you and your divisions!
Day after he ordered some German units to move to Koenigsberg to defend the city, Alfred Jodl issued a new order - he ordered to abandon the city because if we defend the city we will just lose more man and the city will be lost because it is hard to believe that 9 German divisions can stop Soviet armies. He ordered them to retreat to Danzig.
On December 29th, Führer ordered an attack on Brussels because it is defended only by 1 division and if we conquer Brussels there is a possibility to reach Bruges and then another group of Allied divisions would be encircled. Also, V2 rockets were launched and sent to attack infrastructure of Antwerpen.
In the north, the offensive stoped. Our forces secured our position in Norway so there is no interest in continuing the offensive. Under the influence of Guderian, Führer ordered Field Marshal Keitel to stay in Norway and organize defense of north Norway. Guderian wants Keitel far from Führer because he is the only one who could betray Guderian and tell the Führer who ordered a German retreat from Warsaw.
In Croatia, most of the Croatian and German soldiers retreated to the line Bjelovar-Zagreb-Karlovac. After the meeting with Siegfried Kasche, an ambassador of the German Reich to the Independent State of Croatia, Pavelić ordered that troops that are still in Bosnia must be transported by railway to planned defense line. On December 30th, Pavelić gave a speech. Pavelić said that this is hard time for Croatia, but Croats must resist to so called liberators - Tito's partisans. He said that "Zvonimirova linija"(Bjelovar-Zagreb-Karlovac) is the last line of defence against communism in this part of Europe. He also said that this is not the first time Croatia is in danger. He said: "When Turks conquered most of Croatia, we had
reliquiae reliquiarum olim inclyti regni Croatiae but Croatia rised from that ruins and it will again rise! ZA DOM SPREMNI!".
Day after he ordered an attack on Brussels, Führer stoped the attack because 4 Allied divisions came to help Brussels defenders and more divisions were on their way. While those divisions were on the road to Brussels, our troops attacked Eindhowen. Also, a breakthrough was achieved in southern France. Our troops won the battle Chambery. This victory increased chance of encirclment of Allied troops in Nice and Grenoble.
Although, our High Command orginally planned to attack encircled Allied divisions on New Year, Führer ordered an attack to begin on New Year's Eve because the whole pocket attack our positions in Maastricht. Alongside that, Führer order an attack on Strasbourg. It was done to support offensive in Belgium. Führer expects the attack on Strasbourg to be success and everything but victory will dissappoint him.
In the east, our forces are in their positions on so called Jodl Line. They are ready to defend the Fatherland to the last men. The front will be reinforced with evacuated troops from Courland pocket. When Wehmarch enter France, about 20 divisions will be transported to Eastern Front but until that we must hold on with these divisions!
On January 4th, the Communist attack on Bjelovar began. From the start it was obvious that Ustahe and small German forces there are no match for communists. But our High Command was surprised how inefficient they are. General de Angelis met with Siegfried Kasche and Alexander Löhr. De Angelis said that something must be done or the entire front would collapse because of Ustahe. Löhr said that Pavelić can say whatever he wants but it is obvious that Tito's partisans have support from the people. Ustahe lost the support in 1941 when Treaties of Rome were signed. Kasche said that he still sees a potential in Ustashe. On January 6th it was ordered to units in Bjelovar to retreat to Maribor. LXXVI. Panzerkorps from Italy was sent to Maribor to reinforce the front.
On January 4th our forces entered Eupen. After that an attack on Liege began. 22 Allied divisions were without hope. After few days of fighting 18 divisions surrendered, but 4 divisions kept fighting on and on and on. And on January 8th we lost the battle of Arlon. Our troops tryed to reconquer it with counter attack but it didn't help. Hitler was angry when he heard the news but then he said that we must be patient. He ordered Guderian to conquer Liege and then turn his tanks to Arlon.
. Thank you, once again 
