The Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge
Part of World War II
American soldiers of the 117th Infantry Regiment, Tennessee National Guard, part of the 30th Infantry Division, move past a destroyed American M5A1 "Stuart" tank on their march to recapture the town of St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge, January 1945.
Date 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945 Location The Ardennes: Belgium, Luxembourg Result Allied victory Western Allied offensive plans delayed by five or six weeks Disastrous offensive in the Ardennes exhausted the resources of Germany on the Western Front. The German collapse opened the way for the Allies ultimately to break the Siegfried Line Soviet offensive in Poland launched on 12 January 1945, eight days earlier than originally intended.
Belligerents
United States  United Kingdom France  Canada  Belgium  Luxembourg	Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
Dwight D. Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (21st Army Group, First U.S. Army, Ninth U.S. Army) Omar Bradley (12th U.S. Army Group) Courtney Hodges (First U.S. Army) George S. Patton (Third U.S. Army) Anthony McAuliffe (101st Airborne Division)	Adolf Hitler Leader and Chancellor Walter Model Army Group B Gerd von Rundstedt OB West Hasso von Manteuffel 5th Panzer Army Sepp Dietrich 6th Panzer Army Erich Brandenberger 7th Army
Strength
16 December 6 infantry divisions 2 armored divisions 16 January 22 infantry divisions 8 armored divisions 2 armored brigades	16 December 13 infantry divisions 7 armored divisions 1 brigade 16 January 16 infantry divisions 8 armored divisions 2 infantry brigades
Casualties and losses
American 89,500 casualties 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded, 23,000 captured or missing 700–800+ tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns destroyed 647 aircraft lost British 1,408 (200 killed, 969 wounded, and 239 missing)	67,459 – 125,000 casualties (includes killed, wounded, missing, captured) 600–800+ tanks and assault guns destroyed ~800 aircraft lost, over 500 in December and 280 during Unternehmen Bodenplatte
Approximately 3,000 civilians killed

Allied victory

The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, on the Western Front, towards the end of World War II, in the European theatre. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armoured forces on the Western Front, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and later, Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement), also sustained heavy losses.

The Germans officially referred to the offensive as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine"), while the Allies designated it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase "Battle of the Bulge" was coined by contemporary press to describe the bulge in German front lines on wartime news maps, and it became the most widely used name for the battle. The German offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy four Allied armies and force the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers' favor. Once that was accomplished, the German dictator Adolf Hitler believed he could fully concentrate on the Soviets on the Eastern Front. The offensive was planned by the German forces with utmost secrecy, with minimal radio traffic and movements of troops and equipment under cover of darkness. Intercepted German communications indicating a substantial German offensive preparation were not acted upon by the Allies.

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