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The American generals felt that their achievements in Operation Cobra, and the breakout all the way to the Seine led by Patton’s Third Army, should give them the priority.
Hitler had selected the Ardennes as the sector for the breakthrough because it was so thinly held by American troops. He was certainly conscious of the success of the 1940 attack on that sector, and wanted to repeat it.
Hitler’s obsession with secrecy never slackened. No troops were to be briefed until the evening before the attack. Even regimental commanders would know nothing until the day before.
Hitler reminded the assembled generals that some of them had feared taking the offensive against France in 1940. He claimed that the Americans had ‘lost about 240,000 men in just three weeks’ and ‘the enemy might have more tanks, but with our newest types, ours are better’. Germany was facing a fight that had been inevitable, which had to come sooner or later. The attack had to be carried through with the greatest brutality.
