Скачать или смотреть Why German Commanders Mocked Patton’s Army… Then Woke Up Surrounded in 72 Hours

Why German Commanders Mocked Patton’s Army… Then Woke Up Surrounded in 72 Hours
In December 1944, as snow buried the Ardennes and Allied lines buckled under Hitler’s last great gamble, German commanders believed they had finally neutralized America’s most aggressive general. George S. Patton’s Third Army, they assumed, was exhausted, short of fuel, and locked in place after months of relentless fighting. Intelligence reports reinforced the illusion: Patton faced east, roads were frozen, and winter made rapid movement impossible. The German high command dismissed him as a non-factor.

They were wrong.

While German officers congratulated themselves on the success of their surprise offensive, Patton had already anticipated the crisis. Behind the scenes, contingency plans were pulled from drawers, orders were issued without hesitation, and an entire army began a near-impossible winter pivot. In blinding snow and sub-zero temperatures, three U.S. corps turned north with astonishing speed.

What followed stunned the Wehrmacht. Units that believed themselves safe suddenly faced American armor on their flanks. Supply routes vanished. Encirclement loomed. Within seventy-two hours, the army the Germans mocked emerged from the storm, slamming into the Ardennes and racing toward Bastogne.

This is the story of how arrogance met preparation—and how Patton transformed disbelief into one of the most shocking operational reversals of World War II.

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