“In December of 1944, there were only four American divisions in the Ardennes covering an 89-mile front,” says King. The Ardennes region was known to American GIs as the “honeymoon sector,” a remote stretch of the Allied front line where new arrivals could ease into the war effort and battle-weary vets could recuperate and refit for battle. The Allies were indeed unprepared for the German onslaught, says Martin King, a World War II historian and author of eight books about the Battle of the Bulge. The Battle of the Bulge is the Allied name for the massive German offensive that the Nazis codenamed Wacht am Rhein or the “Watch on the Rhine.” More than 1 million Allied and German soldiers fought in the Battle of the Bulge, nicknamed for the westward bulge created in the Allied line after Nazi tanks and infantry temporarily captured territory during Hitler’s surprise attack. Nazi Front Line Gives Battle of the Bulge Its NameĪ gun motor carriage firing on enemy positions at night during the Battle of the Bulge, 1945. But in the month-long slog known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Americans proved their mettle under frigid winter conditions to seal the fate of the Nazis for good. Hitler’s last-ditch gamble would result in the largest land battle in American military history and cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides.

Hitler ordered his commanders to prepare for an all-out offensive against a strategic soft spot in the Allied line located in the densely forested region known as the Ardennes. The Nazi leader, paranoid and agitated after a failed assassination attempt by the Operation Valkyrie conspirators, believed Germany had one last chance to strike at the heart of the Allies in the West. READ MORE: D-Day: Facts on the Epic 1944 Invasion That Changed the Course of WWIIīut that’s not how Adolf Hitler saw it. The surrender of the German menace was in sight. The Americans and British had chased the Nazis out of France and the Russian army was quickly closing in from the East. It was six months after the D-Day invasion at Normandy and the Allies had reason to celebrate.

Hollywood star Marlene Dietrich was in town on a USO tour performing songs for a crowd of fresh-faced new arrivals and war-worn infantry on much needed R&R. On December 14, 1944, American GIs stationed in the Belgian-German border town of Bastogne were in a jolly holiday mood.

Battle of the bulge tank battles