At 5:00 a.m., German forces launched a massive and intricately coordinated offensive against the First and Ninth American armies. The offensive, spearheaded by the fifth and sixth panzer formations under General Gerd von Rundstedt, was carried out along a 40-mile front in the Ardennes Forest in Luxembourg and Belgium, as German paratroopers landed behind the American forces’ lines and cut communication and supply lines. The American forces, unprepared and taken by surprise, were trapped. The purpose of the offensive was to breach the American front and allow the Germans to advance to Antwerp. The Americans retreated under German pressure. On December 22, the Wehrmacht gave the commander of the 101st Airborne Division of the American Army, Anthony McAuliffe, a summary ultimatum: Surrender with honor or witness the destruction of his formation. McAuliffe delivered the famous one-word reply: "Nuts!" In the meantime, British units were closing in. The American counteroffensive began on December 24 with a brilliant offensive maneuver by Patton; the Germans began to retreat. The stranglehold on the tanks of the Fourth Armored Division was lifted two days later. 
 In this, the last blitzkrieg, 120,000 German soldiers lost their lives, and another 120,000 fell prisoner to the Allies. The Wehrmacht never recovered from this battle and ceased to constitute a substantial threat to the Allies on the Western front.