Battle Of The Huertgen Forest

The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. It was launched, in the dense forest of Ardennes Wallonia in eastern part of Belgium, northeast France, and Luxembourg. This battle was one of the largest fought by the United States Army, on the Western Front in Europe, during World War II. This fierce battle, was between the German Nazi’s, the American Army, Canadian Army, and the British Army, was one of Hitler’s last attempt to split the Allies driving them towards Germany and destroy their ability to supply themselves. Were the Germans able to stop the Americans and the British from getting their supplies? Was the weather a factor and if so, who did it assist in the battle? Was the American Army able to counter attack in a timely manner and stop the German Nazi’s invasion?

The Battle of the Wilderness was the first battle of the Overland Campaign during the Civil War. Often overlooked because it was indecisive, it is historically significant. It definitively identified Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant as the leading man in the fight for the Union and set the stage for the move to the James River and the taking of Richmond, Virginia, where the Confederate Army ultimately fell in defeat. Grant planned the battle between May 3 and 4 of 1864 and the battle itself occurred on May 5th and 6. This battle, the first between Grant and General Robert E. Lee of the Confederates, was the first major engagement between arguably the two greatest leaders of the Civil War.

“The battle [is also] known by different names. The Germans [called it] ‘Operation Watch on the Rhine’, while the French [called] it ‘Battle of the Ardennes’. [American and Britain] called it the Ardennes Counteroffensive.” The main goal for the Germans for this offensive was to split the British and American forces in half and capture the port city of Antwerp. This would “cause an encirclement of four allied armies and [force] a peace negotiation” (Cirillo). The Germans almost had complete surprise when the offensive was launched on “December 16th, 1944, at 05:30” and the offensive start with “an artillery barrage of over 1,600 artillery pieces.” The assault took place across an “80 mile front [that] the 6th Panzer Army had to cover” (Quarrie 1). “The attack was led by one of the best equipped German divisions on the western front, the 1st SS Panzer Division.” This was the lead unit for the 6th Panzer Army and was the lead division for the assault. The 26th Infantry was covering the part of the front where the push started. They were caught completely by surprise. “Equipped with only 32 M4 tanks, 57 anti-tank guns and thousands of battle-weary men” (MacDonald 1). The initial assault went well for the Germans and they break through the thinly defended American lines. Just “20 hours in [from the start of the assault] German forces are just 55 miles out from their objective”. By this time the casualty rate is below from what the

In the late 1944, during the wake of the Allied forces’ successful D-Day Invasion of Normandy, it seemed as if the Second World War was over. On December sixteenth, with the onset of winter, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler’s favor. The battle that ensued is known historically as the Battle of the Bulge. The courage and fortitude of the American Soldier was tested against

To the western edge of the AEF’s front line, the dense Argonne Forest ran generally north-northwest while twenty miles to the eastern edge of the front line stood the impassable Meuse River running north to south; both reduced the avenues of approach forcing the AEF to advance towards the seemingly impregnable defense. Key terrain offered a wooded landscape along the hills, ridges, and valleys provided the Germans natural concealment. Obstacles such as streams and low ground

This was to be a joint operation between British, French and American forces. Though it was not the actual boundaries, the Meuse River and the Argonne Forrest restricted much of the U.S. 1st Army’s maneuverability between them. This area was comprised of a very dense and thick vegetation with few roads for heavy equipment and supplies to flow forth once the offensive began; therefore this was to be used to the Allied Powers advantage. The Germans would be attacked all along the front from British, French, and American forces simultaneously.

The German ran low on ammunition and gas long before reaching their first major check point in the Meuse River. Slowly but the Allies from the North, the South, and the West closed the Bulge. The First United States of American Army troops from the north met the Third Army troops from the south at Houffalize, Belgium on 16 Jan 1945. The ending date of the Bulge was Jan 25, 1945. Facts state in a series of letters the VBOB "Bulge Bugle" all have noted, there was some positions was not regained until sometime after 25 Jan, 1945.

The battle of the wilderness was the bloodiest battle in the civil war.  Over tens thousand people died, four hundred people burned,  And two hundred people suffercated.  The opening battle of Grant’s, sustained offensive against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia known as the Overland Campaign, was fought at the Wilderness, May 5th thru 7th in1864.

However, the Marines failed to scout the woods. As a consequence, they missed a regiment of German infantry dug in, with a network of machine gun nests and artillery.[7]

This inability saves the Allied from enduring the worst battle of the war, the Battle of the Bulge, where the US alone suffered close to 90,000 causalities. In reality, the German Army surrendered less than two months after Allied Forces captured the Ruhr Valley, severely crippling Germany’s war-making resources. This took place in the spring and not at the onset of winter, but the German Army was finished once the Allies controlled the Ruhr. The dash to Berlin during the winter months would have been slower than it occurred in the spring, but without the Ruhr, the German Army would have limited resources to resist the Allied advance. A defeated German Army in the West would likely have hastened the defeat of the Germans on the Eastern Front but as it stood, the Russians did not take Warsaw until mid-January after the Germans abandoned the city. Success at Arnhem puts the Allies on track to march on Berlin four months before the Russians would

After a month of pure hell for the Allied Forces, victory would finally prevail. The total casualty rate of The Battle of The Bulge for the Allied Forces was 90,000 troops. The Germans suffered 100,000 casualties. The main cause of such high numbers is due to the initial force of numbers. The Allied troops started with only 80,000 compared to the Germans 200,000(Battle of The Bulge, http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-the-bulge).

Nearing the end of World War II and after the successful D-Day invasion by Allied Forces, Adolf Hitler would personally plan a counteroffensive he believed would turn the tied of the war in his favor and prevent his unconditional surrender. Historically known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Ardennes Counteroffensive, from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, would showcase the power of a full-scale German offensive while highlighting the ingenuity and heart of the United States Army as they encountered a seemingly undefeatable foe.

The Germans had deployed the 352nd infantry division in a defensive doctrine on Omaha beach , Normandy. In hopes of

The Normandy Invasion may have been the single most important battle on the Western Front of World War II. Much planning went into the siege of these beaches that ensured a tough, but inevitable victory, as well as other factors, such as the exploitation of the Germans’ ignorance of the attack.

at German lines which scattered the very land that the allies needed to storm with