Axis: Field Marshal Walter Model's Army Group B; SS Lieutenant General Willi Bittrich's 2nd SS Panzer Corps. Outcome: A failed attempt to prepare for an Allied advance into Germany.

It was an uneasy New Year for Adolf Hitler. Something was rotten in the German Army. The Führer had just relieved Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch from his command (TIME, Dec. 29) and ...