Battle of the Bulge

The Ardennes offensive was a last ditch effort by the Germans to achieve an advantage in the war, but it turned out to be an acceleration of GermanyÕs ultimate demise. Previous to the offensive the Allies had managed to achieve a beach head and advance toward Germany from almost every direction. On the eastern front Russia was steadily advancing on Berlin. The western front was around the Belgium and German border. GermanyÕs fate seemed to be determined but Hitler would not let the thought of defeat enter his or his commandÕs mind. He started planning for a massive offensive against the Allies on the western front. He believed that the relationship of the Allies was very unstable and that if he could penetrate through the western front and reach the port of Antwerp that they would bicker among themselves and eventually fall apart.

In the fall of 1944 as General Eisenhower had promised the Allied forces had successfully fought their way through Europe and established a front from the North Sea to Switzerland. The lines were stretched very thin. Only 65 divisions of infantry, armor, and airborne were available to hold the 500 mile long line. Having landed at Normandy in June of the same year Allies

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Even though the advance had been stopped there was a division that had been encircled by the GermanÕs at Bastogne. Most thought that the German army would be best to setup a strong defensive strategy and by stalling have time to implement many of the secret weapons that were in development at the time. The commander of the Allied forces General McAuliffe replied with one word ÒNuts!Ó. Then all of the division would rush to that point to fight. Once the Allies had time to regroup the advance would immediately be stopped and the damage to the German Army would be irreversible. When the action was calm they would return to the middle of the city This occurred at different points in the city and because the Germans only attacked with one group at a time they thought that there were many more Allied forces in the city then there actually were. Although Hitler did not agree with the scaled down plan he did change the codename of the operation to the codename for the ÒSmall SolutionÓ which was Herbstnebel (Autumn Mist). In the US we were building war machines at an astounding rate. This incident created a great hatred for Germans that had not existed earlier.

500,000 Germans, 600,000 Americans, 55,000 British soldiers were involved in the Battle of the Bulge, 100,000 German casualties, 81,000 American casualties, 1,400 British casualties. As far as he was aware Eisenhower was assured that the armored divisions would be able to flank the Germans and be able to hold the line. Ó The 106th was credited with a holding action that used much of the precious time of the German offensive. The war machines that were lost were a much bigger disadvantage for the Germans because unlike the Americans they were not able to reproduce any more.

General Patton one of the most colorful Allied commanders decided after a meeting about the offensive that it was imperative that he rush his 3rd army to Bastogne to relieve the 101st.

Approximate Word count = 1786
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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