France in the hands of the Allies, in late September Middleton made a leisurely trip east across France to the Ardennes Mountains, stopping en route to visit battlefields where he had served with distinction in 1918 during the Great War. The Germans were now behind a line from west of Metz, France, through Luxembourg, and east of the Belgian cities of Bastogne, Liege and Antwerp. The Allies had outrun their supply lines and had to slow their advance to resupply. Middleton's VIII Corps was assigned a 50-mile front, half of which belonged to the 2nd Division and the other half to the 8th Division. The front extended from Losheim, on the German-Belgian border, to central Luxembourg. On 11 October, the 83rd Division was brought back under VIII Corps control, and another 38 miles of front in Luxembourg was added to the responsibility of the corps. The new 9th Armored Division was added to the lineup on 20 October, but put into corps reserve by Middleton. During October and into November these divisions ran deception maneuvers to confuse the Germans, and also became thoroughly familiar with the terrain so as to be able to absorb a heavy thrust from the enemy should they be attacked. However, from mid-November to early December the three well-prepared infantry divisions were all replaced by two battle-weary divisions and one green division. Both the 28th Infantry Division and the 4th Infantry Division, Middleton's old division from World War I, had taken heavy losses in the Huertgen Forest, and were at less than 75% normal strength. The 106th Infantry Division was just entering the lineup with no combat experience. Middleton now had about 68,000 officers and men in his corps, many weary and many uninitiated, along an 88-mile front facing about 200,000 veteran German troops who were deftly moving into position under the cover of darkness. Battle of the Bulge Striking at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, 16 December, the Germans achieved almost total surprise in breaking through the allied lines, beginning what is commonly called the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans launched their great attack of 1940 through the same region, with Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt in command then as he was once again in this campaign. His goal was to separate the American forces from the British and Canadian forces, and take the important port city of Antwerp. By late afternoon the Germans had 14