The Ardennes Offensive, code-named the 'Die Wacht am Rhein'- the Watch on the Rhine, was Adolph Hitler's last ditch offensive to regain important ground lost in Europe since the Allied Invasion of Normandy. After an assassination attempt by one of his officers, Hitler regrouped. His tightened his inner circle and planned a campaign that was to throw the Allies into chaos. There were 2 main objectives:
1). Re-capture the railroads along the Meuse River.
2). Re-capture Antwerp; a major port city in Belgium.
Once both objectives were obtained, the Nazis would hammer the combined American and British forces in a circle and with their supply lines severed, slowly strangle them off unto surrender. In order to achieve this success, the Germans had to drive the Allies out of Bastogne and the surrounding region. Driving out the American troops from Bastogne would give the Nazis access to the key routes North to Antwerp.
Hitler did succeed in throwing the Allies forces into chaos. Along with catching the American troops off guard, as it was believed that an unofficial truce would go into effect with the upcoming Christmas holidays, the Nazis committed some serious sabotage. The Fuhrer had built into his plans for several Nazi squads of paratroopers, dressed as Americans, to drop behind enemy lines. They soon began to cut telegraph and telephone wires, mine roads, switch directional markers and straight up lead American forces on wild goose chases throughout the Ardennes.
The sabotage portion of Hitler's plan was perhaps the most successful part of 'Die Wacht am Rhein'. It took the Allies several days to figure out what was going on. By Christmas, 1944, 10 days after the campaign began, the Allies had eliminated most of the mischief makers. Unfortunately, the Allies became their own worst enemies. Several American bomber expeditions were marred by terrible navigation errors. One mistake in particular put the Americans 60 kilometers into Allied controlled territory ravaging the town of Malmedy. Huge mistakes such as this led to American GIs to refer to the Army's 9th Air Corps as the' American Luftwaffe'.
It wouldn't be until after the New Year that a major counter-offensive was launched. With a massive show of air superiority by the British, Hitler began to throw his biggest guns into the campaign, launching massive V-II rockets, super-sonic precursors to jets and super-sized tanks filled with untrained crew into the mix. By January 9th, victory for the Allies was all but certain. Hitler finally gave the order for his army to retreat; needing to re-fortify Berlin against the encroaching Russian forces coming from the East.
On January 28th, the attack commenced. The victors crowned this final test of Nazi might as the Battle of the Bulge after the shape of the Allied lines that were pushed to the West by the Nazis. Generals George Patton and Anthony McAuliffe stand as major players in the Allied victory. Patton, leading the third Army, had an amazing clairvoyance, seemingly always one step ahead of his Nazi counterparts. McAuliffe, as acting Commander of the 101st Airborne exhibited tenacity as well as true-blue American stubbornness when he simply responded 'Nuts!' to a Nazi demand for surrender while defending Bastogne.
His reply is the inspiration for this book's title.
Nuts: The Battle of the Bulge was painstakingly crafted completely by Willy Harold Vassaux. Born in Belgium, Vassaux's father was an American aviator, who fought in World War II. He too became a pilot, serving in the Belgium armed forces as a reservist. His own experiences as well as his father's service in the war gave Vassaux an amazing eye for not just detail, but field manual accuracy for his historical comics. He featured periods of history included the Iraq War, the early days of the Tour de France and the Knights Templar. In 2008, Vassaux was commissioned by the IOC to create the first ever official Olympics comic book for the Beijing games.
The Ardennes Offensive is Vasaux favorite subject, having created 3 different graphic novels about the Battle of the Bulge. Nuts! was his first work about the campaign. It was originally published in 1984 by the Belgian comic book publisher Lombard. The first edition was released in English and was 64 pages long. A French edition, along with an English revision debuted in 1994 for the book's 10th anniversary. When B.H.P. Editions reissued the book in 1999, the page count for the book ballooned to an impressive 95 pages. Editions of Nuts! has been released in several languages, including German, in which the cover shows Nazis soldiers in action instead of Allied Troops.
Completing this review completes Task #18 (A Work of Nonfiction) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
