Battle of the Bulge

Bastogne, Belgium

It was a last German effort to stop the advance of the American and British forces.

The final battle took place, Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium. It was a
decisive coalition victory by a British-led Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

World War Two. European theater against Germany

During the Vietnam War, the 17th parallel was the dividing line that separated one nation from another (North & South Vietnam); it hasn't existed since 1975.

The Germans had been fighting on the defense since the Allies landed on Normandy. The Germans wanted to launch an offensive attack that would demoralize the Americans and hopefully convince them to negotiate for peace. At the same time, the attack might push far enough into Belgium to capture a fuel supply dump that the Germans desperately needed. The Germans launched the attack at the weakest part of the Allied line. The US 106th Infantry Division was new to the battlefield and they were placed in the line right where the German thrust was aimed. The 106 Division had come almost directly from the Unite States, without significant retraining in England, and was just beginning to sort itself out in the quiet Ardennes. As a sideline, the Germans launched a small offensive in Italy against the 92nd Infantry Division, in the Serchio Valley on 26 December 1944. This attack was named Operation WINTERGEWITTER and involved only a division-size task force. It caused the break-up of the 92nd Division and complete routing of 1 regiment, resulting in a total of 529 killed, wounded and missing. The Americans were able to recover from the German attack and eventually pushed the "bulge" back to where the front line was before it started. The Germans did not gain anything from the attack except it made the Allies more cautious about the Germans.

165th Combat Engineers landed in St Germain 27JUL44 and served in Germany as Engineers for the 2nd Free French Infantry in the Liberation Of Strassburg 24-30NOV44, among so many other duties. Please look for website dedicated to this forgotten unit in the near future. My grandfather was a SSGT in this unit and I am still trying to transcibe all his notes, and the unit also has a book that was printed called "IS THIS IT" by Richard Ross Reibert. I also have a unit map and alot of pictures. The unit was born at Camp Dorn on 5May43, and was commanded by LTC Charles Schilling. For more information please email 165thcombatengww2@gmail.com

Commanders and leaders

United States Dwight Eisenhower
(Supreme Allied Commander)
United States Anthony McAuliffe (101st Airborne Division)
United States Omar N. Bradley (12th U.S. Army Group)
United States Courtney Hodges (1st U.S. Army)
United States George S. Patton (3rd U.S. Army)
United Kingdom Bernard Montgomery (21st Army Group)

The German attack fell mostly on the US First Army. The US Ninth Army was north of the First, and the British were north of the Ninth Army. Because the German breakthrough appeared as though it were going to reach a small Belgian town through which the landlines strung by Signal Corps troops for telephone communications ran, Eisenhower made the decision to place the troops north of the German breakthrough temporarily under the command of the 21st Army Group, commanded by Montgomery, until the troops north and south could cut through the Bulge and reunite - about eight or nine days. This put Montgomery over US troops, and after the battle was stabilized he made some outlandish claims trying to seize credit for having to "rescue" the incompetent Americans. This was par for the course for Montgomery, yet another of his "what a good boy am I" pronouncements, and came very near to causing his relief by Eisenhower. British newspapers took their cue from Montgomery's overstatements and presently Churchill was obliged to remind the House of Commons that "The Americans have engaged thirty or forty men for every one we have engaged, and have lost sixty to eighty men to every one of ours."

The primary role of British troops was in guarding the crossings of the Meuse River, the initial German objective, which freed American troops from that duty to join the battle.

The British troops involved were from the XXX Corps, which included the 6th Airborne Division, the 51st (Highland) Division, the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division, the 29th Armoured Brigade and the 33rd Armoured Brigade. The Corps reserve was the Guards Armoured Division, the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, and the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division !

General McAuliffe i think. Gen McAuliffe was in command of the US troops who were surrounded and defended Bastogne. He was command of the 101st Airborne Division artillery and was the highest ranking general on the scene. There were other commanders both on US and German sides. The Battle of the Bulge was an attack along a large front that involved several US infantry divisions. Then Gen Patton's 3rd Army was sent to relieve Bastogne and turn the Germans back. So there are many commanders.

Probably fuel. The German plan actually called for capturing enough Allied fuel to keep their offensive moving, as the Germans had insufficient fuel of their own. Nothing really gives a better indication of the desperation of the entire plan than this, that for its success, it depended on captured supplies. Individual Americans managed to destroy fuel dumps before they were taken by the Germans. When the Germans withdrew from the Bulge, they left behind dozens of tanks, out of gas.

The Battle Of Hastings happened in the year 1066 on the date 14 October.

It scared the Military commanders. No intelligence assesment had considered that Germany had any of the forces available at this late stage in the war to launch a counter offensive. When it began, the Allies were simply taking a breather until their supply lines had an opportunity to advance and consolidate, the top brass really thought that the war was over.

Lieutenant William T. Fitzsimons is considered the first American officer killed in the war.

The Battle of Ardennes is also referred to as The Battle of the Bulge. The Ardennes Forest is in France and Belgium. It was the last major offensive of the Germans in World War 2.

FDR believed in investing in the people. Giving the working class jobs would create more disposable income for the masses, then they would buy more products and businesses would expand and hire more people.

The Germans did not report casualty totals for the battle, so precise numbers are impossible. Based on the number evacuated to the east during the relevant period, who were probably almost all wounded during the battle, the inference can be drawn that the German casualty totals were approximately equal to the American. The Americans had over 10,000 killed, over 47,000 wounded, and over 23,000 missing or captured.

The Americans and British were in a defensive position at the time. They simply did not want to lose the war in Europe. The Battle of the Bulge was a last ditch German offensive, it was pretty effective and may have succeeded, but they ran out of gasoline and were unable to re-supply across their long supply lines.

Second Bull Run. (Manassas, Virginia)

It was won by the Confederates, led by the Lee-Jackson team, who totally wrong-footed the Union leader John Pope.

After this Confederate victory, last of a long series, the British would probably have started sending military aid to the South. But the Westminster Parliament was in its summer recess, and had agreed to wait till it re-assembled before making its decision.

By that time, the North had scored an unexpected victory at Antietam, Lincoln had been able to announce the Emancipation Proclamation (turning the war officially into a crusade against slavery) and the British were ethically debarred from directly helping the slave-owners.

The Battle of the Bulge, fought against the Germans, in Belgium, during the winter of 1944-45.

The Battle of Stalingrad, occurred from August 1942 until February 1943 in the city of modern day Volgograd, Russia. The battle occurred between German forces of the Wehrmacht and Soviet Union forces. The battle was the first significant defeat of German forces in the Soviet Union since their invasion in June 1941.

It was a surprise German counter attack against US forces through the Ardennes forest in the dead of winter.

It never had any chance of success due to lack of supplies and quality of troops in the German ranks assigned the task. Also the Germans had almost zero air support and were relying on the heavy cloud cover to give them a break from Allied air power. Once the cloud cover went they obviously lost their cover and were massively vulnerable.

It did however catch US forces massively unprepared. The Germans had managed to keep their troop and armour build up a secret by shortened lines of communication (otherwise Enigma might have picked it up) and heavy winter cloud cover.

It took awhile for US forces to bounce back, roughly a month. Some poor US leadership on the Northern flank lead to Eisenhower putting Montgomery in overall command there (it was a contentious decision putting an English General in charge of US troops, but the right one at the time)

The US troops carried out some operations of pure valour and guts (Bastogne, St Vith, amongst others, for which history rightly applauds them)

Hitler`s generals knew the operation was doomed to failure but could not persuade their Fuhrer of that. They wanted to carry out a limited surge whilst the Fuhrer insisted they go for the Belgian coat, so cutting the allied forces in half. Basically at that stage of the war it was just beyond German capability.

The battle took it`s name from the shape it presented on a map.