In December 1944, Allied troops after liberating France, pushed on west to liberate the Low countries. The Allies nearly overran the entire length of the Low countries except for the Rhine and southen Netherlands when their attempt to do this failed at the battle of Arnhem in September 1944. By December 1944, the Allied troops were exhausted and decided to hold onto their positons while resting for the final drive towards Berlin. The temperature in he Ardennes forest was so harsh that Allied supplies there were frozen and the Allies did not expect to launch a major counterattack when they are on the brink of defeat. In Decmber 15, Hitler gave the order to launch a large offensive into the Ardennes forest and push north to capture the Allied supply line at Antwerp with 250,000 German troops and 1,000 German tanks. The Allies had only thinly spreaded units in the forest which totalled up to 80,000 men with less than 1,000 tanks. The terrain of the Ardennes forest is very heavy woody and it does favour an attacker. But the Germans had more superior tanks than the Allies like the Tiger and Panther and the troops were highly motivated to defeat the enemy. The offensive began on December 15 but the actual fighting began in December 16. The offensive took the Allies completely by surprise and Allied units were fell back instantly leaving thousands of Allied troops killed, wounded or captured on the first day.