Transcript The Battle of the Bulge also known as the Battle of the Ardennes

Venlo
The Ardennes Offensive
also known as the Battle of the Ardennes Valley
also also known as the Battle of the Bulge
or, How the U.S. kicked some serious butt one winter evening:
A Children’s Tale
also also also known, to the Nazis, as Operation Watch on
the Rhine
Which in German translates to:
Unternehemen Wacht am Rhein
Thesis
Much like Operation Citadel on the Eastern
Front the Battle of the Bulge represents the last
main counter offensive by the Germans on the
Western Front. This defeat leads directly to the
fall of Nazi Germany. Since most Germans
realized the war has been lost at this point,
German military gambles and atrocities are
desperate attempts to save the Reich.
The Battle of the Bulge
• Single bloodiest encounter by American forces in
WWII in Europe: 800,000 troops engaged,
19,000+ dead
• Represented the one main German counter
offensive that mustered a serious challenge after
the D-Day  attempt by Hitler to neutralize the
Western Front
• Allied victory caused Nazis to retreat back to
Siegfried Line (border of Germany)
Main players
• Allies: Ike, Patton, Monty, Bradley, McAuliffe
• Nazis: Hitler, etc.
– This is an example of yet another time Hitler’s
generals tell him not to do something and he does it
anyways only to have disaster occur (and then he
blames them)
How it went down
• December 1944-January 1945
• Germans plan counter offensive very secretly
(one of the few times Allies don’t have notice),
drop paratroopers behind our lines
• Attack Allied positions in central Belgium near
the French border. Sudden attack causes Allied
line to bend and not break, creating a Bulge.
• U.S. and RAF planes ground the Luftwaffe
• Allies out numbered and attacked form
pockets of resistance. Germans in command.
The response
• Allies form pockets of resistance to Germans that
are all separate  need to unite to win battle
• Most famous at Bastogne (more on this later)
• Allies unite, launch counter offensive, kinda
works
• Germans launch counter, counter offensive, kinda
works
• Allies launch counter, counter, counter offensive
which breaks through once Monty arrives and
sends Nazis running to German border
Malmèdy Massacre
• Germans capture 90 American paratroopers and,
through some debatable error, open fire on them
in a field near Malmèdy, Belgium
• Done under direct orders from the SS—maybe
• Lead to the US order: “No SS troops or
paratroopers are to be taken prisoner, they are to
be shot on sight”
– Is this a war crime??
• Reports similar at other places
• Nazis tried post war (Dachau Trials) and
sentenced to death—those sentences were not
carried out because torture was used, maybe
Siege of Bastogne
• Occurs outside small Belgian town of Bastogne
where Nazis attack
• Nazis encircle McAuliffe and his troops and
outnumber them about 3:1
• McAuliffe commits all able men and reserves
to the battle placing them in a domino form
• Barely hold off until Patton’s tanks bust
through
• Last serious offensive for Nazis in WWII