The German battle plan for their great Ardennes counter offensive called for three armies to smash through the heavily wooden Ardennes Forest of southern Belgium, cross the Meuse River in just four days time, then race on to capture the vital Allied supply depot of Antwerp. One of the armies earmarked for this desperate and audacious assault was the Seventh Infantry Army.

Of the three German Armies assigned to the Ardennes counter offensive, the German Seventh Army was, by far, the smallest. It was commanded by a very competent and highly decorated officer, General der Panzertruppen, Erich Brandenberger. His army contained six divisions, divided into two separate corps. The LXXX Corps, commanded by General der Infanterie Franz Beyer, contained three of the divisions. They were the 212th Volksgrenadier, the 276th Volksgrenadier, and the 340th Volksgrenadier. In German, the term, Volksgrenadier, is loosely defined as: people’s soldier. Such units as these were raised by the Germans during September of 1944 to bolster morale and foster fighting spirit for the defense of the German fatherland.

The Seventh Army’s other Corps, the LXXXV, commanded by General der Infanterie Baptist Kneiss, contained the remainder of the divisions. They were the 352nd Volksgrenadier, the 79th Infantry, and the 5th Paratroop.

The two best divisions in the German Seventh Army were the 212th Volksgrenadier and the 5th Paratroop. The 212th, for instance, retained many veteran officers who were invaluable when it came to matters of both training and discipline. In addition, this particular unit had been rebuilt with above average recruits who were all eager to join in the fight in defense of the Fatherland. This served to make their training that much smoother. In fact, the 212th would march proudly and storm boldly into battle with almost 13,000 men. Perhaps the unit’s greatest weakness was that it contained a mere four assault guns for fire support, which meant that the average, ordinary  infantryman would bear the brunt of the fighting all on his own.

The 5th Paratroop Division was also a very good unit. Almost entirely wiped out in the fight for Normandy, it was quickly rebuilt with above average recruits much like the 212th was. However, the 5th Paratroop’s main weakness lay in the fact that it was comprised of many inexperienced officers at the regimental level; which is where any division draws its attacking capability from. Despite this drawback, however, the 5th contained a battalion of assault guns for fire support, and numbered a very impressive 16,000 men.

The remainder of the German Seventh Army’s formations were quite poor in both quality and quantity, however. The 276th was probably the worst of all of them, having one of its regiments comprised of sixty year old men with stomach ailments. Now, the 340th possessed many veterans, which is good. However, it had also been decimated in the fight for Aachen, the first German city to surrender to the Allies during the Second World War, and was tremendously under strength, and that was bad. To round everything out, the 352nd, was rebuilt with Luftwaffe and naval personnel, but contained fewer than 50 vehicles for support. Therefore, it, like so many of its brother units, would have to do all of the hard fighting strictly on foot, and most of them would have a tough going during the entire attack.

All told, the German Seventh Army would march into battle on Decmeber 16 1944 with about 56,000 soldiers, 34 assault guns, nearly 50 armored vehicles, and 80 artillery pieces.