16 December 1944 – 7 February 1945
The Battle of the Bulge
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:
Ardennes-Alsace
Battle of the Bulge
The Perilous Fight: America’s World War II in Color: Battle of the Bulge

Campaign Maps:
The Initial German Attack and Operations, 16-25 December 1944
Operations, 26 December 1944 – 16 January 1945
Operations, 17 January – 7 February 1945

Personal Accounts:
Rutgers Oral History Archive: Interview with Arnold Lasner
Rutgers Oral History Archive: Interview with Roy W. Brown
Rutgers Oral History Archive: Interview with Andrew J. Ciampa
Rutgers Oral History Archive: Interview with Frank A. Gimpel
Rutgers Oral History Archive: Interview with Herbert H. Newton
Rutgers Oral History Archive: Interview with William I. Wells

Photographs:
A Nazi soldier, heavily armed, carries ammunition boxes forward with companion in territory taken by their counteroffensive in December 1944
Germans captured these American soldiers during the surprise enemy drive into Allied positions, December 1944
Chow is served to American Infantrymen on their way to La Roche, Belgium. 347th Infantry Regiment, January 13, 1945
American soldiers, stripped of all equipment, lie dead, face down in the slush of a crossroads somewhere on the western front, December 1944
American soldier with captured Germans, 1944