Top Photo: American infantrymen of the 290th Regiment fight in fresh snowfall near Amonines, Belgium. January 4, 1945. U.S. Army Photo.

On December 16, 1944, the German army launched a massive offensive in the Ardennes Forest. The Battle of the Bulge would be the largest engagement ever fought by the US Army—and ultimately hasten the end of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

BUILDUP 

By December 1944, Germany was in retreat in both the West and the East. The Allies had liberated Paris months before and had entered Germany itself in September. But Allied troops were exhausted after heavy fighting, and many commanders did not believe the Germans had the capability to launch a large offensive. Yet the Germans still had millions of men and thousands of tanks in the field, and Hitler made one final gamble to win the war in the West: he decided to go on the offensive.

THE PLAN

The German objective was to fight through the dense Ardennes Forest, cross the Meuse River into Belgium, and capture the critical supply center of Antwerp. Hitler believed that this would split the British and American Allies by physically dividing their armies and creating rifts over military strategy. The ultimate goal was to convince the Allies to negotiate with Germany, allowing Hitler to focus his forces on fighting the Soviets on the Eastern Front.  

THE ATTACK

The Germans knew secrecy and surprise were key and managed to assemble their forces without attracting Allied attention. They codenamed the operation Wacht am Rhein (“The Watch on the Rhine”) after a popular song of the era, suggesting that it would be a defensive action. The start of the offensive on December 16 took the Allies by surprise. The Germans deliberately chose to attack in bad weather to neutralize Allied air forces. The plan initially achieved success, and the Germans inflicted heavy casualties as they pushed forward. The Germans created a bulge in the Allied front, giving the battle its iconic name.  

TURNING THE TIDE

The German offensive was initially stalled by acts of Allied heroism. At the town of Bastogne, the 101st Airborne Division kept fighting and refused to surrender despite being surrounded. Units from the VIII Corps put up heroic resistance at the critical village of St. Vith, delaying the German offensive and buying time for the Allies. American units similarly managed to stop the Germans at Elsenborn Ridge and inflicted heavy casualties. Ultimately the Allies contained the offensive. In early January, the Allies counterattacked from the north and south of the bulge, forcing the Germans to retreat at a heavy cost.  

AFTERMATH

The Germans were pushed back to their starting positions by early February 1945, losing thousands of men and hundreds of tanks. Hitler’s final offensive capabilities in the West were depleted. The Allies continued to push the Germans back along a broad front and, in late March, crossed the Rhine.

Hitler’s gamble had resulted in disaster. The war in Europe would end in Allied victory just months later.