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The Battle of the Bulge was Hitler’s final throw of the dice. With Germany in retreat across all fronts and a worsening situation at home, Hitler hoped to force the Western Allies out of the war before turning his full attention to the Soviet Union. Just as they had done in 1940, German tanks were to smash through Allied lines in the Ardennes forest and head for the coast, in this case, the vital Allied port of Antwerp. Germany amassed over 300,000 men, 2,100 tanks and assault guns, and around 1,900 artillery pieces for an attack on just 80,000 unprepared American soldiers.

But it wasn't 1940 anymore and the circumstances surrounding this attack were completely different. Even the men who planned the offensive didn't believe it would work. To succeed it required complete surprise, poor weather, a rapid advance, and the capture of Allied fuel to facilitate it all. Without any one of those things the entire plan could all fall apart.

The attack began at 5:30 am on 16 December 1944, but problems quickly emerged. Dogged American resistance slowed up the German advance allowing Allied reinforcements to flow in. Though there were only 80,000 Allied troops in the Ardennes at the start of the battle, there were over 500,000 by Christmas eve. By then the poor weather had started to clear and the Allies were able to play their trump card, destroying the German forces from the air. German forces did create a bulge in the Allied line, from which the battle gets its name, but by the end of January that bulge was closed.

In the end, the Ardennes Offensive shorted the war and essentially ended Germany’s ability to resist both in both the east and west. When the Soviets launched their winter offensive in January, they swept aside German resistance and advance 300 miles closer to Germany in a matter of weeks. Two months later, the Allies would do the same crossing the Rhine into Germany itself. Soon the war in Europe would be over.

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Creative Commons Attributions:
Sepp Dietrich Image - Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J28625 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Hasso Von Manteuful Image - Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1976-143-21 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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0:00 Introduction
1:02 Germany's situation
2:23 The plan
4:14 Potential problems
8:20 The attack begins
14:18 The aftermath