American Military History, Volume 2 by Richard W. Stewart

As early as the preceding August, Adolf Hitler had been contemplating a counterof- fensive to regain the initiative in the west. Over the protests of his generals, who thought the plan too ambitious, he ordered an attack by twenty-five divisions, carefully conserved and secretly assembled, to hit thinly manned U.S. positions in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg, cross the Meuse River, then push on northwestward to An- twerp. In taking Antwerp, Hitler expected to cut off and destroy the British 21st Army Group and the First and Ninth U.S. Armies and thereby turn around the whole course of the war.

American Infantrymen of the 290th Regiment Fighting in Belgium in January 1945