American tanker troops advance in Belgium
The battle, so named for the ‘bulge’ created in Allied lines by German forces, was fought in December of 1944, as German infantry and tank divisions made a major offensive into the Ardennes in northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, during the Allied push through France following D-Day. Due to heavy overcast weather, and surprise in a ‘quiet’ sector of the line, German forces, led by generals Sepp Dietrich, Hasso von Mantueffel, Erich Brandenberger, and Gustav-Adolf von Zangen were able to make a major breakthrough in American and British lines. This was due to extensive radio silence to prevent Allied radio operators from intercepting plans, low visibility in the harsh winter weather, and the use of English-speaking German soldiers, dressed in American and British uniforms with dog tags taken from POWs and corpses. These special units were used to misdirect traffic, sabotage supplies, capture bridges and river crossings, and generally cause all kinds of havoc for Allied supply and troop movements.
All these measures were due to the increasing sense of desperation among German commanders as the Eastern Front rapidly fell to the Soviets after the turnaround at Stalingrad, while the American-led Allied forces were recapturing much of France and Belgium after the D-Day landings in June. The German offensive was meant to be a ways for Hitler to stabilize the Western Front to secure a peace favoring the Axis powers. Should this be accomplished, he could divert all his forces to stop the Red Army juggernaut from running roughshod over Poland, East Prussia, and Germany itself.
On December 16th, at 5:30 AM, with a massive artillery barrage from Dietrich’s 6th SS Panzer division, the German attack began in earnest. By 8:00, the remaining armies attacked through the gap at the Ardennes. Dietrich’s attacks were stalled by fierce snowstorms covering the area, grounding Allied air and reconnaissance as desired, but also slowing the German advance. Towards the center of the line, the Fifth Panzer Army surrounded the overspread American 28th and 106th divisions and forced the surrender of two of their regiments (the 422nd and the 423rd); as many as 8000 men may have been lost. The American 101st Airborne, backed up by the 9th and 10th Armored divisions, managed to defend the crucial town of Bastogne, with its critical rail and road lines.
General Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, realized along with his generals that by December 17 this was no regional counterattack and sent necessary reinforcements. The 82nd Airborne division, along with and additional 250,000 troops, was sent to halt the German advance. In the early morning of December 17, over 1300 German paratroops jumped to capture the town and of Malmedy and hold it until relieved by the 12th SS Panzers. However, the heavy snow, low cloud over, and high winds drove many planes off course, and caused many paratroops to drift off-course; some landed as far as 12 kilometers off course. While the drop failed to do what was anticipated, the wide dispersal of troops cause the Allies to redivert forces away from the main thrust to counter what they thought was a division-sized attack.
The Germans continued to advance up to St. Vith, but after the failed siege of Bastogne, a corridor was opened up for Allied reinforcement. The Germans then made their farthest westward advance, to within 10 miles of the Meuse River on Christmas Eve. By then, however, the Allied commanders had already begun their main counterattack.
The British XXX Corps were holding the main bridges on the Meuse, and Patton’s Third Army reached and relieved the defenders of Bastogne. The Luftwaffe, the German air force, made a heavy bombing run on Allied airfields, scoring over 450 aircraft damaged. However, a further 250 Luftwaffe planes were downed, due to heavier-than-expected Allied flak batteries and friendly fire from fellow German guns. This loss, while taking a short time for the Allies to recover from, took the Luftwaffe much longer, due to rising pressure from the Soviets in the east and dwindling fuel and raw materials throughout.
On New Year’s Day, German Army Groups G and Upper Rhine launched a desperate counterattack against the thinly stretched American Seventh Army, scoring over 11,000 deaths on the American side of the line, some of the highest casualty percentages of the entire battle. On January 21, 7th Army was forced to withdraw to defensive positions across the Moder River. The Germans were stopped on January 25th, their last advance of the war. Patton and Montgomery planned to counterattack on January 1st and meet up to trap a large portion of German forces between their respective armies, but sub-zero conditions forced Montgomery to wait until January 3, giving the Germans enough time to withdraw most of their infantry, but, due to massive fuel shortages, leaving a good portion of their heavy equipment, such as tanks and artillery pieces, behind. Excluding the two Army groups attacking Seventh Army, Hitler and his generals agreed to withdraw all troops on January 7, thus ending the German offensive operations and the battle proper; The Battle of the Bulge itself did not officially end, however, until January 25th, when the 501st Airborne met up and relieved the 101st Aiborne.
On January 12th, possibly encouraged by weakening German resolve after the Battle, Soviet forces attacked at the Vistula in Poland and East Prussia. America suffered 81,000 killed or injured at the Battle, the greatest of any single engagement in American history. Germany suffered 84,000 casualties, Britain only 1,400. In 1965, a somewhat dramatized movie of the same name about the battle starring Henry Fonda was released by Ken Annakin, to warm critical review and two Golden Globe nominations.
Map of the troop movements in the Bulge. Note the narrow corridor of German advance.
Posted by Sam McAdoo from The Game, period 2.
Sources:
http://www.army.mil/botb/index.html
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_the_bulge.htm
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10006178
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1753.html