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Old December 20th, 2003, 02:46 PM
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Yes, there is !

In the excellent book, ' Hitler And His Generals - Military Conferences 1942-1945 ' edited by Helmut Heiber ( Greenhill Books, 2002 ) the full transcript of Hitler's Speech to Divisional Commanders dated 28th December, 1944 from FHQ Adlerhorst is given.

As one would expect, Hitler rambles at considerable length but in the middle of the speech we read the following : -

'...An advance against Antwerp would be catastrophic ( for the Allies ). The advance didn't succeed. But one thing did succeed : now all the essential available forces have been brought together to block off the danger. This is the first positive achievement, now it's about using lots of individual strikes to first destroy the forces lying south of the penetration line'. (p.558 ).

Here Hitler has given up all intention of striking further west : he is introducing the idea of the further attack in Alsace to be followed by others to destroy the Allied forces piecemeal.

To me, it's rather like Monty later claiming Market-Garden to have been '95% successful'.
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