Operation Northwind (1944)

Operation Northwind
Part of the Western Front of World War II
Date31 December 1944 – 25 January 1945 (1944-12-31 – 1945-01-25)
Location
Alsace and Lorraine, France and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Result German operational failure
Belligerents
 Germany
Commanders and leaders
Units involved

United States Seventh Army

Provisional Government of the French Republic First Army

Strength
230,000
(average strength)[1]
Unknown
Casualties and losses
 United States:
11,609[2][3]
killed and wounded, captured or missing[4]
 France:
7,000[5]
killed and wounded
23,000 killed, wounded, or captured[6]

Operation Northwind (German: Unternehmen Nordwind) was the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. Northwind was launched to support the German Ardennes offensive campaign in the Battle of the Bulge, which by late December 1944 had decisively turned against the German forces. It began on 31 December 1944 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Alsace and Lorraine in southwestern Germany and northeastern France, and ended on 25 January 1945. The German offensive was an operational failure, with its main objectives not achieved.

  1. ^ Cirillo 2003, Retrieved 16 August 2018
  2. ^ Cirillo 2003, Retrieved 16 August 2018
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Riviera was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Smith, Clark: Riviera To The Rhine. P. 527
  5. ^ Grandes Unités Françaises, Vol. V-III, p. 801
  6. ^ Clarke, Jeffrey (1993). U.S. Army in World War II European Theater of Operations: Riviera to the Rhine. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. p. 527.

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