Operation Stösser was launched during Germany’s last gamble:
Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine), Hitler’s offensive in the West which Americans know as the Battle of the Bulge, had as its ultimate objective the Belgian port of Antwerp. Recently captured, it was under repair to be reopened as a deep-water port.
When Antwerp was serviceable, the Allies would be able to bring supplies and reinforcements quickly to the front lines instead of transporting them across France from the Channel ports. To reach Antwerp, the German Army would push through the Ardennes Forest. An armored spearhead would attack in the Eifel plateau region of western Germany, lying between the Rhine and Moselle Rivers and the Luxembourg and Belgian frontiers.