Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge

Colonel Creighton Abrams at the 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

P-47 Thunderbolts at the 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

Clear Skies Over Bastogne: Patton’s Prayers Answered

“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

Hot Chow on the Frontlines

From the training grounds to the battlefront, soldiers and Marines usually dined on C and K rations. Read more

Battle of the Bulge

OSS in Germany

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

“Do You Recognize My Voice?”: The Question That Ended Operation Valkyrie

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

The Proximity Fuse: The Gunner’s Dream Finally Became Realized

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

Red Ball Express: The Legendary Lifeline

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

The Magnificent Jeep

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

The Miracle of Bletchley Park

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

Battle at Crossroads X: Glidermen of Bastogne

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

Daredevil Tankers Turn the Tide at 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

Behind Enemy Lines: Escape at 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: Last Airborne Offensive of the Fallschirmjägers

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

Adolf Hitler: On the Eve of the 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

The Malmédy Massacre and the 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

A 101st Airborne Paratrooper’s Combat Journey

In one of the most recognized photographs taken by U.S. Army cameramen during World War II, General Dwight D. Read more

Battle of the Bulge

Tale of the Biscuit Bomber: The C-47 in WWII

Even though, technically at least, it was not a combat airplane, the performance of the Douglas C-47 transport led General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower to label it as one of the most important weapons of World War II. Read more

Battle of the Bulge

King Company at Bloody Lindern

In November 1944, an American infantry division underwent its baptism of fire in the worst conditions imaginable and acquitted itself with honor beyond anyone’s expectation. Read more

Battle of the Bulge

An Army Combat Engineer’s Story of the D-Day Invasion

Nineteen-year-old army combat engineer Jay Rencher blinked the salt spray from his eyes, filled his lungs, and again plunged beneath the cold, roiling waves. Read more