What city was the Battle of the Bulge fought in?

Answer 1

The Battle of the Bulge was just that---the Germans penetrated through the Allied lines and made a bulge in the lines. So the bulge covered a lot of territory. However, the most noted battle was at Bastogne, Belgium, where the Allies were surrounded for several days. Othe notable cities involved are Foy and Noville The Battle of the Bulge was fought in an area of Belgium known as the Ardenne, and fighting took place in several towns and villages. Not in any one particular city.

Rather than a city, the Battle of the Bulge raged mostly across the Ardennes Forest area on the German/Belgium border. The attack was the last large German offensive movement of WW-II, pushing across a front of some 85 miles.

Answer 2

Antwerp, Belgium was the primary goal of the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler wanted to destroy this port which the Allies were using to supply their west European front. It would also split the Allies into two forces with the British on the northern side of the breach and the Americans on the southern side. Hitler believed that this would cause a great deal of turmoil among the British and Americans.

The battle that occurred in eastern Belgium around Malmedy was not desired by Hitler and his generals. This was a major problem for the Germans as they were prevented from driving on to Antwerp.

Answer 3

There were few major cities involved. The German attack came through the Ardennes Forest, a rough and remote region of hills, ravines and woods, with few roads. Many military thinkers believed the Ardennes was impassable to tanks, including the Germans, right up until the Germans adopted a daring plan to invade France by way of the Forest in 1940, which they managed and completely surprised the French and British. Despite this, four years later the Americans were not looking for an attack through the Ardennes either, and the Germans repeated their 1940 movement.

The German plan was one of desperation in 1944. Nothing points this up better than the fact that the German plan depended completely for its success on advancing German forces being able to capture enough Allied gasoline to keep their tanks moving.

In 1944 the ultimate German goal was to reach and capture the Belgian city of Antwerp. Antwerp was and is one of the great ports of the world, and was the port through which Allied supplies were beginning to pour by thousands of tons, for the Allied push into Germany. The Germans never got anywhere close to Antwerp though. First, they would have had to make it all the way through the Forest and continue on westward, and take crossings of the Meuse River, preferably places with bridges remaining intact, before they could push on and try to reach Antwerp. The Germans never even got anywhere near the Meuse.

In the Ardennes Forest itself, since there were few roads, the importance of those that were there was magnified. This made small crossroads villages important objectives, and road junctions places of vital importance. Perhaps the most famous town associated with the Battle of the Bulge, as the German Ardennes Offensive is generally known, was the Belgian town of Bastogne. Bastogne was a junction of several roads, and the US 101st Airborne Division and other units beat the Germans there, and held out for about a week, though surrounded, against very determined Germans efforts to destroy them and seize the town. Even today Bastogne has only about 4000 citizens.

Another Belgian town that became famous was Malmedy, where advancing SS troopers of Colonel Peiper's command murdered nearly 200 US troops they had taken prisoner.

Staumont and Stavelot were other towns that saw much fighting. St Vith, of the old nursery rhyme, saw fighting, because it was a road junction, as were Houffalize and the City of Luxembourg. The German attack passed to the north of the City of Luxembourg, though.

Answer 4

Bastogne... the 101st arborne division went there to defend it and then the 3rd Patton army stopped the siege...