Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge
Part of World War II
American soldiers of the 290th Infantry Regiment 75th Division photographed in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. {Amonines, Belgium 4 January 1945}
Date 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945 Location The Ardennes, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States United Kingdom Canada	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Dwight D. Eisenhower Omar N. Bradley (12th U.S. Army Group) Courtney Hodges (1st U.S. Army) George S. Patton (3rd U.S Army) Bernard Montgomery	Adolf Hitler Walter Model Gerd von Rundstedt Hasso von Manteuffel Sepp Dietrich Erich Brandenberger
Strength
840,000+ men, 1,300 medium tanks,[1] plus tank destroyers, 394 artillery guns	200,000 – 500,000 men [2][3][4] 1,800 tanks[5] 1,900 artillery guns and Nebelwerfers[6]
Casualties and losses
American: 89,500 (19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded, 23,000 captured or missing) ~800 tanks[7] British: 1,408 (200 killed, 1,200 wounded or missing)	67,200[8] – 100,000 killed, missing/captured, or wounded ~600 tanks and assault guns[7][9]
approximately 3,000 civilians killed[10]

The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German attack near the end of World War II, in Belgium, France and Luxembourg. The attack surprised Allied forces. It was the worst battle in terms of casualties for the United States. It also used up huge amounts of Germany's war-making resources.

The press made up "Battle of the Bulge" to describe the way the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps^[11][a][12] and it became the best known name for the battle.

The German attack was supported by several other operations. Germany's goal was to split the British and American Allied line in half, capture Antwerp, and then encircle and destroy four Allied armies. They hoped this would force the Allies to make a peace treaty with Germany. If they did this, Hitler could focus on the eastern front of the war.

The attack was planned in secret. Germany moved troops and equipment in the dark. United States intelligence staff predicted a major German attack, but this still surprised them. The Allied forces were too confident and too focused on their own attack plans, and they also did not have good aerial reconnaissance.

The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line. They attacked while there was bad weather. This was because the Allies could not use planes if the weather was bad. Violent resistance blocked German access to important roads. The thick forests helped the defenders. This slowed down the German advance and allowed the Allies to add new troops. Better weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces, which led to the failure of the attack.

After the defeat, many experienced German units lacked men and equipment. The battle involved about 610,000 American men,^[13] of whom some 89,000 were casualties,^[14] including 19,000 killed.^[14][15] It was the largest and most deadly battle fought by the United States in World War II.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]}

1. ↑ Steven Zaloga states that US First Army had 1,320 M4 Shermans available (Zaloga 2008, pp. 71–73).
2. ↑ Delaforce 2004, p. 376
3. ↑ Parker 1991, p. 196
4. ↑ Burriss, T. Moffat (2001). Strike and Hold: A Memoir of the 82nd Airborne in World War II. Brassey's. p. 165. ISBN 9781574883480.
5. ↑ Cole 1964, p. 652 states that this number consisted of approximately 250 Tiger I, 775 Panther, 775 Panzer IV and a very few Tiger II; Zaloga 2008, pp. 71–73 states 416 Panther tanks.
6. ↑ Cole 1964, p. 650
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Shaw 2000, p. 168
8. ↑ Cirillo 2003
9. ↑ Shirer 1990, p. 1095
10. ↑ Schrijvers, Peter (2005). The Unknown Dead: Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge. University Press of Kentucky. p. xiv. ISBN 0813123526.
11. ↑ Cirillo 2003, p. 4.
12. ↑ Stanton 2006.
13. ↑ Cirillo 2003, p. 53.
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} Miles 2004.
15. ↑ MacDonald 1998, p. 618.
16. ↑ "A time to remember: Clifford Van Auken remembers Battle of the Bulge, World War II's bloodiest U.S. battle". The Flint Journal. Michigan Live LLC. 16 December 2008. Archived from the original on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
17. ↑ McCullough, David (2005). American Experience – The Battle of the Bulge (Videotape).
18. ↑ Ambrose, Stephen E. (1997), Americans at War, University Press of Mississippi, p. 52, ISBN 978-1-57806-026-9
19. ↑ Miller, Donald L. (2002), The Story of World War II, Simon & Schuster, p. 358, ISBN 978-0-7432-1198-7
20. ↑ Penrose, Jane (2009), The D-Day Companion, Osprey Publishing, p. 267, ISBN 978-1-84176-779-6
21. ↑ Delaforce 2004, p. 211.