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16 December 1944 – 7 February 1945 The Battle of the Bulge |
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Ever since the Allied breakout from Normandy Hitler
had been trying to develop a plan for a counterattack, and in October he decided to launch an offensive
through the Ardennes, a hilly forest region in southern Belgium. The goal was to drive a wedge
between the Allied forces in the Low Countries and those in France, and eventually to capture the
port city of Antwerp, which had become a critical source of supply for the Allies.
The Germans launched the Ardennes offensive in mid-December, and in a matter of days they managed to penetrate deep into Allied territory, creating a massive bulge in center of the American lines. Meanwhile a sizeable U.S. force remained cut off and surrounded in the town of Bastogne. The attack had come as a complete surprise, as the Allies had been convinced that the Germans were no longer capable of offensive action; moreover, they were denied air support, since the winter weather had prevented U.S. and British aircraft from flying. To deal with the attack, Eisenhower temporarily called a halt to the advance toward the Rhine. Patton’s Third Army rushed northward from the Saar Valley, and by December 22 the skies over Belgium had cleared sufficiently for Allied aircraft to take to the skies once more. At this point it was the Germans who were in danger of being cut off, so, after suffering heavy casualties, they began pulling back from the Ardennes. By the end of January the Americans had retaken all the territory they had lost, and the drive toward the Rhine resumed. Histories: Campaign Maps: Personal Accounts: Photographs: |
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