bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany > The ETO > Alsace-Lorraine, 1945 > Nordwind Counterattack, © 2024 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 31 Jan 2024.
Operation Northwind, in German Unternehmen Nordwind, was the January 1945 German army counteroffensive into northern Alsace and portions of northern Lorraine.
With much of General Patton's Third Army diverted north to the Ardennes to counter the Wehrmacht advance in the Battle of the Bulge, General Patch's Seventh Army became responsible for most of the Allied line that faced the German Saarland and eastern Palatinate. On 1 January 1945, the Wehrmacht attacked from the north into the thinned American line.

Thus began the little-known Operation Nordwind, the last major German counteroffensive in the ETO. Operation Nordwind was on a much smaller scale than the German Ardennes counteroffensive, and unlike the Battle of the Bulge, US lines yielded rather than being penetrated. However, unlike the Bulge, German forces retained much of their Nordwind gains until mid-March when the Seventh Army moved north during Operation Undertone.
Operation Nordwind
Operation Nordwind, Northern Alsace, January 1945
Scalable Map
The above map shows the limit of the German advance, around 25 January when Operation Nordwind officially ended.​​ By this date, the French and US operation to eliminate the Colmar Pocket to the south had already begun.
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