Battle of the Bulge (1944–1945): Hitler's Ardennes Offensive

The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive on the Western Front in the Second World War. On 16 December 1944 German armies struck through the snowbound Ardennes forest of Belgium and Luxembourg against a thinly held American line, aiming to reach the port of Antwerp. After early gains and the dramatic siege of Bastogne, the attack was stopped short of the River Meuse, and by 25 January 1945 the Allies had restored their front. It was the largest and costliest battle fought by the US Army in the war.

Background

After the D-Day landings in June 1944 and the breakout from Normandy, Allied armies swept across France and Belgium. By the autumn, however, their supply lines were stretched, Antwerp’s port was not yet working, and the failure of Operation Market Garden in September had ended hopes of crossing the Rhine that year. In the east the Soviet summer offensive had destroyed a large part of the German army.

Hitler believed that one bold stroke in the west could change the war. In September 1944 he ordered planning for an offensive through the Ardennes, the same wooded hills German armour had crossed in May 1940. The goal was to cross the Meuse, retake Antwerp and split the British and Canadian armies in the north from the Americans further south. He hoped the Western Allies might then accept a negotiated peace. His senior generals, including Field Marshals Gerd von Rundstedt and Walter Model, thought the plan far too ambitious and proposed a smaller attack, but Hitler refused.

Preparation and surprise

Germany gathered its last reserves under strict secrecy. Three armies were assembled: the Sixth Panzer Army under SS General Josef “Sepp” Dietrich in the north, the Fifth Panzer Army under General Hasso von Manteuffel in the centre, and the Seventh Army under General Erich Brandenberger guarding the southern flank. Estimates of the initial force vary, but it was roughly 200,000–250,000 men with around 1,000 tanks and assault guns, growing as reinforcements arrived.

Orders were passed by courier rather than radio, which limited what Allied codebreakers could learn. Allied commanders regarded the Ardennes as a quiet sector, suitable for resting battle-weary divisions and breaking in new ones. About 80,000 American troops held a front of some 140 kilometres (90 miles). Bad weather grounded Allied reconnaissance aircraft, and warning signs that did exist were not read as signs of a major attack.

The German attack

Before dawn on 16 December a heavy artillery bombardment opened the offensive. In the north, the Sixth Panzer Army ran into stubborn resistance from the US 99th and 2nd Infantry Divisions on the Elsenborn Ridge, which blocked the most direct roads westward. Its spearhead, an SS armoured battle group under Joachim Peiper, pushed through gaps but was slowed by blown bridges and fuel shortages, and was eventually trapped and forced to abandon its vehicles at La Gleize.

In the centre, Manteuffel’s Fifth Panzer Army made the deepest advance. Two regiments of the inexperienced US 106th Infantry Division were surrounded on the Schnee Eifel, and some 7,000 men surrendered, one of the largest American surrenders in Europe. The road junction of St. Vith was defended by the US 7th Armored Division and other units until 21 December, a delay that disrupted the German timetable.

Special operations added to the confusion. In Operation Greif, German commandos under Otto Skorzeny, some wearing American uniforms and speaking English, tried to seize bridges and spread disorder. They achieved little militarily, but rumours about them led American troops to stop and question soldiers and even officers at checkpoints.

On 17 December men of Peiper’s battle group captured a convoy of American soldiers at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy and shot them in a field; 84 American prisoners were killed. Belgian civilians were also killed by the same unit in villages such as Stavelot. News of the massacre spread rapidly and hardened American attitudes during the rest of the battle. After the war, SS men including Peiper were tried for the killings by a US military court at Dachau.

The siege of Bastogne

Bastogne, in southern Belgium, was a crucial junction where seven roads met. The US 101st Airborne Division was rushed there by truck on 18–19 December and joined armoured units, including a combat command of the 10th Armored Division. By about 20–21 December the town was surrounded.

On 22 December German officers delivered a written demand for surrender. The acting divisional commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, replied with a single word, “Nuts!”, which the American officer delivering it explained to the Germans as a refusal. The defenders, short of ammunition, medical supplies and winter clothing, held their perimeter against repeated attacks. When the skies cleared on 23 December, transport aircraft dropped supplies and fighter-bombers attacked German columns.

Meanwhile General George S. Patton turned large parts of his US Third Army ninety degrees from the Saar to drive north, a difficult manoeuvre carried out in winter conditions. On 26 December tanks of the 4th Armored Division broke through to Bastogne, opening a corridor into the town, although heavy fighting around it continued into January.

The furthest German advance came around 24 December, when the 2nd Panzer Division reached the area of Celles, a few kilometres from the Meuse near Dinant. Short of fuel and attacked by the US 2nd Armored Division and British units, it was destroyed or driven back. The Germans never crossed the Meuse.

Command arrangements were changed during the crisis. On 20 December Eisenhower placed the American First and Ninth Armies on the northern side of the bulge under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, a decision that made military sense but later caused friction, especially after a press conference in January in which Montgomery appeared to many Americans to claim too much credit.

The Allied counteroffensive

On 1 January 1945 the Luftwaffe launched Operation Bodenplatte, a surprise raid on Allied airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. It destroyed many Allied aircraft on the ground but cost Germany pilots it could not replace. On the same day a separate German offensive, Operation Nordwind, began in Alsace.

The Allies attacked the bulge from north and south in early January in deep snow and severe cold. American First and Third Army troops met at Houffalize on 16 January, cutting the salient in two. Hitler had already authorised a withdrawal, and many German units moved east to face the Soviet winter offensive that began on 12 January. By 25 January the front was roughly back where it had been in mid-December.

Key people

• Adolf Hitler, who conceived the offensive and overruled his generals.
• Walter Model, commander of German Army Group B, which carried out the attack.
• Hasso von Manteuffel, whose Fifth Panzer Army made the deepest advance.
• George S. Patton, commander of the US Third Army, which relieved Bastogne.
• Anthony McAuliffe, the American commander at Bastogne known for the reply “Nuts!”.

By the numbers

Consequences

The offensive delayed the Allied advance into Germany by about six weeks, but it consumed Germany’s last strategic reserves of men, tanks, fuel and aircraft. These losses weakened the defence of the Rhine in the west and of the Oder in the east, helping the Soviet advance towards Berlin. When the Allies resumed their advance in February and March 1945, Germany had little left to stop them.

The fighting devastated towns and villages across the Ardennes, including Bastogne, Houffalize and St. Vith. Civilians suffered from shelling, bombing and reprisals, and many spent weeks in cellars in freezing conditions.

For the United States the battle became a symbol of endurance. The defence of Bastogne, the cold and the courage of small units cut off in the forest feature in memoirs, films and television, including the series Band of Brothers. The Mardasson Memorial near Bastogne honours the American soldiers, and the Ardennes are dotted with museums and cemeteries such as the Luxembourg American Cemetery, where Patton himself is buried.

Timeline

• 1944, 16 December: The German offensive opens with an artillery barrage across the Ardennes.
• 1944, 17 December: American prisoners are killed at the Baugnez crossroads near Malmedy.
• 1944, 19 December: Two regiments of the US 106th Infantry Division surrender on the Schnee Eifel.
• 1944, 20–21 December: Bastogne is surrounded; St. Vith falls on 21 December.
• 1944, 22 December: McAuliffe rejects the German surrender demand at Bastogne.
• 1944, 23 December: Clear skies allow Allied air supply and air attacks.
• 1944, 26 December: Patton’s 4th Armored Division breaks through to Bastogne.
• 1945, 1 January: The Luftwaffe launches Operation Bodenplatte.
• 1945, 16 January: American forces from north and south meet at Houffalize.
• 1945, 25 January: The Allied line is restored, ending the battle.

Why it matters

The Battle of the Bulge was Hitler’s last gamble in the west. Its failure, and the irreplaceable losses it cost, hastened the end of the war in Europe and the final battles that led to the fall of Berlin in May 1945.