The Bulge Research Papers

The Germans defeated the Polish and almost all of Western Europe. Although the British had no help when it came to Hitler and his army, the remains of Europe had been overturned already. The Battle of the Bulge also called Battle of the Ardennes as well, which began Dec. 16, 1944 and ended Jan. 16, 1945. This was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II. It was an unsuccessful attempt to push the Allies back from German home territory . Winston Churchill made a promise that he would fight as long as it would take to overcome Hitler. The name Battle of the Bulge was appropriated from Winston Churchill he referred to “the bulge” as the wedge that the Germans drove into the Allied lines.

The Battle of the Bulge also known as “Ardennes Offensive”, started on December 16, 1944. The Battle of the bulge, is significantly known as what ruined the German army and brought about the end of the war. The battle got its name from poorly protected stretch of hilly, woody forest “bulge” that Germans made between its allies. Hitler used this area of 80-mile dense forest, believing that his forces would be able to surround and cut off

     The Battle of the bulge took place on December sixteenth 1944. More than a million men participated in this battle including some 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British which made it

“D-Day”, happened June 6, 1944. More than 160,000 troops fought that day and around 13,000 air crafts and 5,000 ships were there. Around 9,000 allied soldiers died that day.

“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

General Pershing, in command of the U.S. 1st Army, set the rail line near Sedan, France as the main objective. This was a vital supply route for German forces (Stewart, 2005), and the direction of attack to the north of the front line through the Argonne Forest would expose the flank of German forces being attacked by the French from the west. Support for the American forces consisted of over 800 aircraft, nearly 190 tanks, and approximately 2,700 pieces of artillery, and over 600,000 men (Stewart, 2005).

The post D-Day Allied assault that swept through France was halted by Hitler’s unexpected counter-attack through the Ardennes, resulting in a confrontation named the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle of the Bulge is considered the United State Army’s greatest victory as American soldiers withstood the full force of the German War Machine. Allied Forces faced freezing temperatures, fog, threats of espionage and battle tested German units. This victory was not without shortcomings, most notably in intelligence and subpar battlefield performances.

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

This was a major battle during World War II. It all took place in the city of Aachen during the 2nd of October 1944 through the 21st of October 1944. Aachen was a city considered to be held in high regards by Adolph Hitler. This city is the place that is said to be where the First German Reich was founded. It was a plain and simple strategy. Adolph Hitler and the German forces were not going to let the American forces

On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded Normandy to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis that had taken it over in 1942 (Tucker). There were as many as ten thousand Allied troops involved in the operation (Tucker). The Germans expected an invasion, as a result, they protected places where the invasion would take place (Tucker). Hitler built defenses that included forts, tanks, guns, and barricades to keep the Allies from invading France (Tucker). This bloodbath war caused many men to be fatally injured, and many men lost their lives (Tucker). The D-day invasion from the Allies was a significant turning point of WWII because it caused Hitler’s defenses to fall and crumble.

The operation started around dawn on the 17th of September, 1944. German forces continued receiving regular air strikes by allied forces near Eindhoven, Deelen, Ede, and airfields in Holland. Paratroopers of the airborne assault boarded their planes and began travel to their drop sites. The operation used over two thousand aircraft, between troop carriers and assault aircraft, to get the paratroopers close enough to assault into their objectives. By approximately 1400 hours local time on the 17th, an estimate of 20,000 troops landed in vicinity of their planned drop zones. Additionally, this was the first successful airborne operation for dropping artillery into battle. The three assault forces began their movement onto their objectives by evening of the 17th, finding little resistance until they approached Eindhoven. Upon arrival at some of the locations to secure, it was identified the Germans blew up the bridges before allied forces could reach their destinations. For these sites, allied forces successfully secured the locations however failed to have a capable route through. Many of the sites, although some German forces were

When the Germans came within about 20 miles from Paris, the commander of the French army, General Joseph Joffre, formed a new Sixth Army to protect Paris while he was also communicating with his subordinates and planning a counterattack on the Germans with the rest of his armies. This newly recruited army was a great advantage over the exhausted Germans who had been marching and fighting for over 300 miles. Perhaps the defining factor in the Germans’ loss was their armies’ lack of communication. The German chief of staff General Helmuth von Moltke was over 200 miles away in Luxembourg, and his generals did not know what each other were doing. The crucial turning point (in the direction of defeat) for the Germans was on September 6th, when General Michel-Joseph Maunoury and his troops got to the battle front in Parisian buses and taxis, causing General Alexander von Kluck (of Germany) to quickly move southwest to meet the attack, which created a gap between his troops and those of General Karl von Bulow’s Second Army that was northeast of the

On 17 December, 1944, five German divisions were able to push through the VIII Corps’ defensive line 100 miles east of Bastogne nullifying

The German army lead the offensive into Stalingrad using the German 6th Army and their elite 4th Panzer tank Army. The Luftwaffe, the German