The entire German assault force that was hurled into battle on December 16 1944 during the great Ardennes counter offensive consisted of 286,000 men divided into 25 attacking divisions. The most powerful and infamous of all these divisions was the 1st S.S. Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler.

For the Ardennes Campaign, Leibstandarte was rebuilt and outfitted to enormous proportions. In fact, it was the most powerful division hurled into battle by the Germans during the entire battle. Specifically, this formation contained at least 22,000 men divided into three brigades of three regiments of three battalions apiece. In this manner, Leibstandarte had been rebuilt along the same lines that the old style German units were designed prior to 1940. In addition to its highly impressive force of soldiers, the unit also contained no less than 260 tanks of superb quality, as well as 4,500 armored vehicles of all sorts and types.

Leibstandarte also had a special assault force attached to it. It was called the 150th Panzer Brigade. This was a special commando force commanded by Nazi daredevil pilot and paratrooper. Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny. He was the six foot, four inch tall commando who led the dynamic rescue operation that freed former Italian Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini from the Campo Imperiale Hotel on the Gran Sasso Mountain in the Apennines on September 12 1943.

Skorzeny’s Brigade was organized by German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler personally. It was comprised of 2,000 men, 70 tanks, and 30 captured American jeeps. Additionally, at least 20 of these tanks were captured American Shermans, while all the rest were crudely disguised with sheet metal, painted green with white stars on the sides to resemble even more Shermans.

Remarkably, all members of Skorzeny’s Brigade spoke fluent English, with many company commanders having actually resided in the United States before the outbreak of war. For nearly two solid months, each one of them had attended a special educational program called, “The School For Americans”. Here, the main focus was: American slang, personal habits such as chewing gum and smoking cigarettes, and folktales. Most all of these men wore American Army uniforms, and were specially trained in acts of sabotage.

Without question, the 1st S.S. Panzer Division Leibstandarte of December 1944 was an incredibly powerful striking force. They would serve as the spearpoint of Hitler’s last great gamble of the Second World War; a gamble that would result in the Battle of the Bulge.