<P> Hitler's plan called for a classic Blitzkrieg attack through the weakly defended Ardennes, mirroring the successful German offensive there during the Battle of France in 1940--aimed at splitting the armies along the U.S.--British lines and capturing Antwerp . The plan banked on unfavorable weather, including heavy fog and low - lying clouds, which would minimize the Allied air advantage . Hitler originally set the offensive for late November, before the anticipated start of the Russian winter offensive . The disputes between Montgomery and Bradley were well known, and Hitler hoped he could exploit this disunity . If the attack were to succeed in capturing Antwerp, four complete armies would be trapped without supplies behind German lines . </P> <P> Several senior German military officers, including Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model and Gerd von Rundstedt, expressed concern as to whether the goals of the offensive could be realized . Model and von Rundstedt both believed aiming for Antwerp was too ambitious, given Germany's scarce resources in late 1944 . At the same time, they felt that maintaining a purely defensive posture (as had been the case since Normandy) would only delay defeat, not avert it . They thus developed alternative, less ambitious plans that did not aim to cross the Meuse River (in German and Dutch: Maas); Model's being Unternehmen Herbstnebel (Operation Autumn Mist) and von Rundstedt's Fall Martin ("Plan Martin"). The two field marshals combined their plans to present a joint "small solution" to Hitler . When they offered their alternative plans, Hitler would not listen . Rundstedt later testified that while he recognized the merit of Hitler's operational plan, he saw from the very first that "all, absolutely all conditions for the possible success of such an offensive were lacking ." </P> <P> Model, commander of German Army Group B (Heeresgruppe B), and von Rundstedt, overall commander of the German Army Command in the West (OB West), were put in charge of carrying out the operation . </P> <P> In the west supply problems began significantly to impede Allied operations, even though the opening of the port of Antwerp in late November improved the situation somewhat . The positions of the Allied armies stretched from southern France all the way north to the Netherlands . German planning for the counteroffensive rested on the premise that a successful strike against thinly manned stretches of the line would halt Allied advances on the entire Western Front . </P>

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