Venlo

The Ardennes Offensive

also known as the Battle of the Ardennes Valley

also also known as the Battle of the Bulge

or, How the U.S. kicked some serious butt one winter evening: A Children’s Tale

also also also known, to the Nazis, as Operation Watch on the Rhine

Which in German translates to:

Unternehemen Wacht am Rhein

ThesisMuch like Operation Citadel on the Eastern Front the Battle of the Bulge represents the last main counter offensive by the Germans on the Western Front. This defeat leads directly to the fall of Nazi Germany. Since most Germans realized the war has been lost at this point, German military gambles and atrocities are desperate attempts to save the Reich.

The Battle of the Bulge

• Single bloodiest encounter by American forces in WWII in Europe: 800,000 troops engaged, 19,000+ dead

• Represented the one main German counter offensive that mustered a serious challenge after the D-Day attempt by Hitler to neutralize the Western Front

• Allied victory caused Nazis to retreat back to Siegfried Line (border of Germany)

Main players

• Allies: Ike, Patton, Monty, Bradley, McAuliffe• Nazis: Hitler, etc.– This is an example of yet another time Hitler’s generals

tell him not to do something and he does it anyways only to have disaster occur (and then he blames them)

How it went down• December 1944-January 1945• Germans plan counter offensive very secretly

(one of the few times Allies don’t have notice), drop paratroopers behind our lines

• Attack Allied positions in central Belgium near the French border. Sudden attack causes Allied line to bend and not break, creating a Bulge.

• U.S. and RAF planes ground the Luftwaffe• Allies out numbered and attacked form

pockets of resistance. Germans in command.

The response• Allies form pockets of resistance to Germans that

are all separate need to unite to win battle• Most famous at Bastogne (more on this later)• Allies unite, launch counter offensive, kinda

works• Germans launch counter, counter offensive,

kinda works• Allies launch counter, counter, counter offensive

which breaks through once Monty arrives and sends Nazis running to German border

Malmèdy Massacre• Germans capture 90 American paratroopers and,

through some debatable error, open fire on them in a field near Malmèdy, Belgium

• Done under direct orders from the SS—maybe• Lead to the US order: “No SS troops or

paratroopers are to be taken prisoner, they are to be shot on sight”– Is this a war crime??

• Reports similar at other places• Nazis tried post war (Dachau Trials) and

sentenced to death—those sentences were not carried out because torture was used, maybe

Siege of Bastogne

• Occurs outside small Belgian town of Bastogne where Nazis attack

• Nazis encircle McAuliffe and his troops and outnumber them about 3:1

• McAuliffe commits all able men and reserves to the battle placing them in a domino form

• Barely hold off until Patton’s tanks bust through• Last serious offensive for Nazis in WWII