The Battle of the Bulge is the popular name given to the German Ardennes Offensive, Hitler’s last desperate gamble to achieve victory in the West during World War II. The month-long Battle of the Bulge, fought December 16, 1944, through January 16, 1945, ended in Allied victory. However, the German assault made good initial progress toward its objectives of the Meuse River crossings and the seizure of the Belgian port of Antwerp, which would have driven a wedge between Allied armies on the Western Front. The German defeat in the Battle of the Bulge hastened the end of World War II.
Battle of the Bulge
When American soldiers landed in France in June 1944 as part of the great Allied crusade to liberate Europe, they were well trained, fully equipped, and brimming with confidence. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
In the Academy Award-winning film Patton, the setting was all wrong when actor George C. Scott delivered General George S. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
One of the foremost German characters in the Battle of the Bulge was Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Joachim Peiper, the notorious Waffen-SS commander of the strongest armored Kampfgruppe (KG) of the 1st SS Panzer Division, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH). Read more
Battle of the Bulge
On the chilly afternoon of Tuesday, December 26, 1944, a column of mud-caked Sherman tanks, halftracks, scout cars, and tank destroyers of the U.S. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
The captured German pilot was cocky and boastful. He had just parachuted into the American airfield, now lit up by the fires of burning Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, a sprinkling of bright torches amid the gray January gloom and the dirty white snow. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
“This is the shortest day,” General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in Western Europe, wrote in his diary for December 21, 1944. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
From the training grounds to the battlefront, soldiers and Marines usually dined on C and K rations. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
By the autumn of 1944, most of Nazi-occupied Europe had been liberated by Allied forces. The conquering armies now faced the invasion of the German homeland. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
At 12:40 PM on a hot, sultry July 20, 1944, German Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler, 55, was seated on a wicker stool in a conference hut at his principal Eastern Front headquarters at Wolf’s Lair, Rastenburg, East Prussia, for the mid-day wartime map meeting. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
Early on the morning of December 16, 1944, the commander of the U.S. 406th Artillery Group, Colonel George Axelson, had a difficult decision to make. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
By Michael D. Hull
August 1944 saw a rosy mood of optimism and self-deception sweep through the Allied high command in France as a result of the sudden, dramatic end to the campaign in Normandy. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
General of the Army George C. Marshall called it America’s greatest contribution to modern warfare. General Dwight D. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
Great Britain’s military intelligence leaders learned from their experience in World War I that the kinds of minds capable of breaking codes are a rare commodity and are often not likely to blossom in a military atmosphere. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
For the cold and hungry GIs of Company B, 1/401st Glider Infantry Regiment, holding the western approach to Bastogne would push the men to the limits of their endurance. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
“Peiper must be stopped!”
Lieutenant General Courtney M. Hodges, commanding the U.S. First Army, looked up from his maps and saw chaos everywhere. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
The sound of German artillery shells shrieking overhead from across the Siegfried Line was not the wakeup call Technical Sergeant Robert Walter of 3rd Platoon, L Company, 3rd Battalion, 393rd Infantry Regiment expected to receive on the morning of December 16, 1944. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
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. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
By early autumn, he was taking 60 pills a day. They ranged from “speed” to the poison strychnine. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
Malmédy is an attractive and prosperous town situated in eastern Belgium, 15 miles from the German border. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
In one of the most recognized photographs taken by U.S. Army cameramen during World War II, General Dwight D. Read more
