The Battle of the Bulge is the popular name given to the German Ardennes Offensive, Hitler’s last desperate gamble to achieve victory in the West during World War II. The month-long Battle of the Bulge, fought December 16, 1944, through January 16, 1945, ended in Allied victory. However, the German assault made good initial progress toward its objectives of the Meuse River crossings and the seizure of the Belgian port of Antwerp, which would have driven a wedge between Allied armies on the Western Front. The German defeat in the Battle of the Bulge hastened the end of World War II.
Battle of the Bulge
On December 10, 1944, Generalleutnant (equivalent to major general in the U.S. Army during World War II) Fritz Bayerlein was called to a meeting at Kyllburg (Eifel) to participate in a map exercise involving an advance to the Meuse River. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
“You’re crazy to go out there!” a paratrooper shouted to medic Al Mampre as he bolted from a trench outside of the Dutch town of Eindhoven. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
Roy Altenbach, a soldier from a German-speaking family in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, was assigned to the 47th Medium Maintenance Company, 22nd Ordnance Battalion. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
Private Leon Goldberg pulled the trigger on his heavy, water-cooled M-1917 Browning machine gun and fired bursts of .30-caliber rounds into the attacking German infantry. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
The green light lit up the inside of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain’s fuselage, and 20 paratroopers from Easy Company’s Stick 70, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division charged out the door. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
It was a dismal day, Sunday, December 17, 1944, just hours after the Germans had broken through the thinly held American lines in the Ardennes Forest along rugged terrain of the Western Front. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
“Oui.” It was one of the few words 101st Airborne paratrooper Norwood Thomas knew in French, and it served him well on the morning of June 6, 1944. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
The American light tanks, bringing up much needed supplies, were in column as they began to take fire. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
By Elmer Wisherd with Nan Wisherd
Elmer Wisherd was born on December 1, 1920, in North Dakota. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to a farm in Bruce, Wisconsin. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
By Kevin M. Hymel
It was December 19, 1944, one day before the Siege of Bastogne. Shortly after 10:30 am, 26-year-old Major William Desobry picked up his field telephone, called his combat commander, Colonel William Roberts, and asked if he could withdraw from the Belgian village of Noville. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
The German push west came to a violent end.
On December 19, 1944, the Panther and King Tiger tanks of SS Lt. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
In the winter of 1944-1945, within Belgium’s Ardennes Forest, better known as the launching pad of the Battle of the Bulge, two war crimes were committed. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched Operation Wacht am Rhein, or Watch on the Rhine. Popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge, the ensuing offensive was a desperate effort to win a major victory in the West. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
World War II made a disparate trio of allies —British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Marshal Josef Stalin, and American President Franklin D. Read more
Battle of the Bulge
To Colonel Edson Raff, jumping out of a plane was “like getting out of the bed in the morning.” Read more
