Operation Nordwind

Operation North Wind (Unternehmen Nordwind) was the last major German offensive of the Second World War on the Western Front.

It began on 1 January 1945 in Alsace and Lorraine in north-eastern France, and it ended on 25 January.

On 1 January 1945, German Army Group G (Heeresgruppe G) commanded by Colonel General (Generaloberst) Johannes Blaskowitz and Army Group Upper Rhine (Heeresgruppe Oberrhein) commanded by Heinrich Himmler launched a major offensive against the thinly stretched, 110 km line of the U.S. 7th Army. Operation North Wind soon had the understrength U.S. 7th Army in dire straits. The 7th Army, at the orders of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, had sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes involved in the "Battle of the Bulge."

On the same day that the German Army launched Operation North Wind, the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) committed almost one-thousand aircraft in support. This attempt to cripple the Allied air forces based in northwestern Europe was known as Operation Baseplate (Unternehmen Bodenplatte).

The initial attack was conducted by three Corps of the German 1st Army of Army Group G, and by 9 January, the XXXIX Panzer Corps was heavily engaged as well. By 15 January, at least seventeen German divisions (including units in the Colmar Pocket) were engaged from Army Group G and Army Group Upper Rhine, including the 10th SS Panzer, 7th Parachute, 21st Panzer, and 25th Panzer Grenadier divisions. Another attack, smaller, was against the French positions south of Strasbourg but it was finally stopped.

U.S. VI Corps, which bore the brunt of the German attacks, was fighting on three sides by 13 January. With casualties mounting, and running severely short on replacements, tanks, ammunition, and supplies, Eisenhower, fearing the outright destruction of the U.S. 7th Army, rushed already battered divisions hurriedly relieved from the Ardennes, southeast over 100 km, to reinforce the 7th Army. Their arrival was delayed, and the Americans were forced to withdraw to defensive positions on the south bank of the Moder River on 21 January. The German offensive finally drew to a close on 25 January, the same day that the reinforcements began to arrive from the Ardennes. Strasbourg was saved but the Colmar pocket was a danger which had to be eliminated.