On December 9, Slovik wrote a letter to the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, pleading for clemency.[10] However, desertion had become a systemic problem in France, and the Battle of the Bulge, a surprise German offensive through the Ardennes, began on December 16 with severe U.S. casualties, bypassing and surrounding many units and straining the morale of the infantry to the greatest extent yet seen during the war.