Battle of the Bulge
16 December 1944 - 25 January 1945
The Battle of the Bulge began on December 16th, 1944. This was the final effort the Nazis made at winning WWII. Hitler scrapped together as many troops as he could from any front they were originally located at. The plan was to split the US and British forces in Northern France in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and end up in Antwerp, Belgium. They chose a day with unusually bad weather so that the American Air force was not a factor. They also were relying on capturing American gasoline resources to help advance their equipment. It was a last minute attack, which made it poorly planned, and the supply resources were inadequate. When the attack initially began, it caught the Americans by surprise and they attacked in a thinly defended sector. The first day, Germany had some success however many of their objectives were not achieved. In the following days, it became more and more apparent that their supplies and resources would be a serious impediment to their success. General Patton, in charge of the third army group to the south of the attack, quickly sent massive reinforcements into the area of the attack and had a huge impact on slowing down the Germans. The Germans were on the verge of advancing about 50 miles prior to being slowed down by large numbers of American forces. Two weeks after the initial attack, the Germans were completely repulsed and many of the attacking forces were destroyed. This was Germany’s final offensive attack of the war in the Western front and had expended critical resources for no gain.