JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

This leaflet was dropped on German forces by the R.A.F. and the U.S.A.A.F. soon after the breakout of the Battle of the Bulge/Ardennes in the end of January 1945, which is one of the two failures that this propaganda sheet screamed about. It is a little odd though that in the map it would show the German offensive at its worst for the U.S. troops, with the bulge extending far west and Bastogne being surrounded. Yet the leaflet told of the German losses of its failed offensive (“Operation Watch on the Rhine”) though it did not show the progress of the month-long battle on the map, which should have shown the battle line back to its more-or-less original position by 25 January.  In describing the catastrophe of the German position in the east (leading with the loss of “380,000 soldiers”) the date of 24 January is mentioned, which supports the late January estimate for a printing date. This was of course the Vistula-Oder Offensive. which saw the Soviet Army advance more than 300 miles in a month, right to the Oder, only 40-odd miles from Berlin.  In that campaign the German Army Group A was just about killed–of the 450,000 soldiers in retreat along this long and disastrous front during the month of January, the overwhelming majority were casualties, including nearly 300,000 killed. The wounded and other survivors became POWs.  The bottom line of course was that the winter of 1945 for the German soldier was bitter and deadly, and was leading nowhere except defeat–there was no doubt what lay ahead after seeing that map of the Eastern Front.