Battle of the Bulge

December, 1944.

British and American armies

were on the threshold of victory.

Stretched across half of Europe,

the Allies gathered themselves...

...for the final assault on Germany.

To the north

stood Montgomery's Eighth Army...

...to the south, Patton's Third.

In the center, along an 88-mile front...

...a few battle-weary American divisions

rested in a quiet sector.

To them, the war seemed already won.

This is their story.

We've been flying over these woods

all week.

There's nothing but trees.

Let's turn back.

- Getting hungry, Joe?

- The war is over.

I hear GHQ is cutting orders

to ship us home for Christmas.

The German army still has

6 million men carrying arms.

I haven't heard they're going home

for Christmas.

Hey, there it is...

...the German army.

Let's go down and have a look.

- Buzz him again. I wanna get a picture.

- Okay.

This time, gun your engine.

Make him look up.

It worked.

Swing around.

I wanna get another one.

Conrad.

I am ashamed of you.

Get up.

They could have killed us, sir.

If you'd taken the pains

to have looked carefully...

...you would have observed it was

an unarmed reconnaissance plane.

You would stay in the car if it were

a fighter plane shooting at us.

I did not lose a war to die

in the back seat of a car.

Does the colonel think any of us

has a choice where we will die?

I know where you'll die, Conrad,

at home, in your own bed.

Is the colonel trying to get rid of me?

I think that the world is going

to get rid of both of us.

Pick up your cap! Put it on.

Try to look like a soldier!

What good is a soldier anyhow?

He wins, he loses.

What's he good for anyhow?

Conrad, I've told you before...

...never leave the motor running.

Petrol is blood.

I'm sorry, sir.

It won't happen again.

Looks like something on the ground

at 10 o'clock. Let's take a look.

Nothing.

Let's go home.

Herr Oberst Hessler is here.

- Colonel Hessler, sir.

- Yes.

Well, Hessler.

It has been a long time.

How good it is to see you again.

You look the same.

Little...

Little leaner perhaps.

The Russian front does not put meat

on a man's bones, general.

Ah, yes. War is hard on all of us.

- Central heating.

- Yeah.

Crystal chandeliers.

You have a nice cellar.

Field Marshal Goring

gave me that painting.

Lovely, isn't it?

I imagine he found a bargain

in Paris last year.

My corporal's waiting.

He's had a hard drive.

Do you suppose there's somewhere

in these ruins he can find a bed?

Sit down, Hessler.

You have too little faith

in the genius of the German people.

A few stones

have been knocked down...

...but our country's strong,

united, determined...

...and more productive than ever.

The Allies think that their constant

air raids have undermined our morale.

- This they'll never do.

- Why have you sent for me, general?

You are our finest

panzer commander, Hessler.

You will lead us to victory.

Our Germany is now like an iceberg.

Only a fraction of it

can be seen on the surface.

Let me show you some of the results...

...of what Germany

has produced underground.

You will discover a new Germany...

...and will take a new pride

in being a German.

Our latest airplane.

A jet.

It flies at more than 900 kilometers

per hour.

Within six months,

we will have enough jet fighters...

...to shoot down every

Allied plane in the air.

Our V-1 rocket destroyed

20 percent of London.

The V-2 will utterly smash the city.

The new 70-ton King Tiger tank.

It has two-and-a-half times

the firepower...

...and double the armor

of the American tanks.

Our Germany is far

from finished, Hessler.

It's a very beautiful model, general.

It proves that the Germans

are still the world's best toy makers.

The toys we are making these days

are not for children.

Let me show them to you.

Hands up! Get on over.

Hold it! Put them up! Stand against

the wall. Put them up, general.

Well, boys...

...looks like we've caught ourselves

a couple of big fish.

- One nice, fat Kraut trout.

- That's enough, now.

Sorry, general.

We are just rehearsing a commando raid.

Very good.

Not bad, Hessler, huh?

Had you fooled, didn't they?

Completely.

Unfortunately,

I am beyond playing games.

Oh, this is no game.

These are German soldiers, all of them.

Trained German soldiers.

Diepel commands the panzer grenadiers

attached to the 1st Tank Brigade.

These men will work with him.

Major Diepel, kindly explain

Operation Transit to the colonel.

The soldiers will be parachuted

behind the American lines.

Their mission:

To disrupt enemy communications.

We have organized many such teams.

Each will be led by a man who has

actually lived in America.

Schumacher here lived

in Texas for 12 years...

...before returning to the fatherland.

Tell me, lieutenant,

who is your favorite baseball player?

- Lou Gehrig.

- Because he's hit the most home runs?

No, sir. Babe Ruth hit

the most home runs, 60 in 1927.

And what's your opinion

of Adolf Hitler?

As an American, my opinion

would be offensive to these gentlemen.

Come, lieutenant. As an American officer,

you care nothing for German opinion.

Adolf Hitler is a crazy,

Austrian housepainter.

He's a madman who thinks he knows

more than the whole general's staff.

And he's leading Germany

to complete, total destruction.

Perhaps you are going too far.

To carry off this great deception,

even their reflexes must be American.

Your reflexes are to be congratulated,

lieutenant.

Insolent man.

Let him have his fun now.

If he is captured,

he will be shot as a spy.

And if he survives,

he can be shot as a traitor.

You must admit, we are very thorough.

Even a pass won't get you through here.

We will attack

through the Losheim Gap.

It's defended only by a single battalion.

The American division

on the Schnee Eifel will be cut off.

Then the Our River Bridge

will be in our hands.

From there, on to Ambleve,

with its road network.

In four days, we will be across

the River Meuse.

The strategic objective?

Antwerp.

By taking Antwerp, we split

the enemy forces in two.

It will take them 18 months to recover.

By then, we will have air superiority

with our jet engines.

And we will have even more

significant weapons.

Weapons which can destroy

an entire city with a single blast.

You have forgotten

one important detail, general.

With their present control of the air,

the Allies will smash our tanks...

...machine-gun our troops,

bomb the bridges...

...and cut our communications.

Suppose I tell you there will be

no Allied planes.

Another secret weapon?

From Spitzbergen, Norway...

...the northernmost weather station

in the world.

We have been waiting two months

for this report.

"A low-pressure area over northern

Europe, starting December 16th.

Low clouds and fog

which will ground all aircraft."

- How long?

- Long enough...

...if we keep strictly to our timetable.

Unusual clock, isn't it?

It has only one cycle.

Fifty hours.

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