The Battle Of The Bulge is a extraordinary battle that took place during World War II. From the beginning to the end it has interesting stories about how the American soldiers fought for their lives to help protect us and free the Jewish people from the Nazi’s. This battle took place on December 16th, 1944. America, Britain, and France, where an alliance and Hitler was convinced that the western section of Europe was not strong enough and an attack would break up their partnership. So without delay Hitler ordered an enormous attack against what was mainly American forces. Hitler sent three armies to attack the allies, which was supposed to try to split us their way towards Germany and therefore ruin our chance to supply ourselves. So early that cold, foggy …show more content…
Days before the attack Nazi soldiers who spoke English disguised themselves as American soldiers and sabotaged behind the front lines. They manly cut power lines, changed road signs, and gave false information trying to hide the major massacre that was going to occur. Although the Germans started off with major success, it only lasted for two days. The Nazis had only created a large bulge in the front line and that's the reason many people had given the battle that name but others know it by its real name Ardennes Offense. The Germans had relied on machinery to help them try to win the battle and had little fuel to carry out the mission. When the weather cleared the allies finally had a chance to fight back. The Germans had also tried jet bombing them on Christmas eve but the Nazi soldiers had little fuel therefore it did little damage. The battle was deadly and the weather started to turn. it started to rain and it was frightfully cold. Soldiers started coming down with conditions like trench foot. As the days went on the soldiers kept fighting to stay alive and make it through the horrifying
The prelude to the Battle of the Bulge began on a winter day in mid-December of 1944. Three powerful German divisions, were the last German offensives in the west at that time during World War II. They began after the Normandy invasion in June 1944. Allied had forces swept rapidly through France but became stalled along the German border earlier that year in September. On December 16, 1944 taking advantage of the weather, which kept the Allied aircraft on the ground, the Germans launched a counteroffensive through the semi-mountainous and heavily-forested Ardennes region in Germany, and advanced 31 miles into Belgium and northern Luxembourg near the Meuse River. Their goal was to trap four allied armies, divide the Americans and the British to force negotiated peace along the western front, and retake the vital seaport of Antwerp in Belgium. Thinking the Ardennes was the least likely spot for a German offensive, American staff commander chose to keep the thin line, so that manpower might concentrate on offensives north and south of the Ardennes known as the "bulge" in the Allied lines. These American lines were thinly held by three divisions in the Allied Army and part of a forth division, while fifth division was making a local attack and the sixth division was in reserve. Division sectors were more than double the width of normal defensive fronts, therefore there were more men scattered along a larger area. The German advance was halted near the Meuse River in late December. Even though the German Offensive achieved total surprise, nowhere did the American troops give ground without a fight. Within three days, the determined American stand and the arrival of powerful reinforcements insured that the ambitious German goal was far beyond reach. In snow and sub-freezing temperatures the Germans fell short of their interim objective- to reach the rambling Meuse River on the edge of the Ardennes. But they managed to avoid being cut off by an Allied Pincer movement.
Operational leaders see how the individual components of an organization fit together and use those individuals work to make a larger outcome. When they focus on a problem, they think of what works best within the process and systems to make an impact on the situation. These types of leaders play a big part in making sure that things get done in an effective and functioning manner. According to the Army Doctrine ADP 6-0, the Army over time has strayed away from operational leaders and adapted Mission Command, which gives leaders the ability at the lowest level the capability to exercise disciplined initiative in an act of carrying out the larger mission . Mission Command is made up of the following six steps: Understanding, Visualize, Describe, Direct, Lead and Assess, in which a commander is responsible for. General Patton understood the intent of the Battle of the Bulge on different levels, he was able to form a mental image for the course of actions for the allies, enemies and lead his Army into combat while guiding his officers and soldiers to succeed in meeting his intent. The Battle of the Bulge is where General Patton gained one of his greatest military achievements by using his tactical leadership and logistical genius, which in return helped him turn around the main forces and forced the Germans to drive back in their final counter-offensive. General Patton strongly exercised Mission Command by understanding, visualizing, leading, and commanding what was known as the largest and bloodiest battle during World War II.
The Battle of Britain as a Turning Point in the Defeat of German in World War Two
The Generals and politicians thought the war was going to end very quickly where every I gets to go home on Christmas. Generals and Politicians said “A few quick campaigns and a few decisive victories would “bring the boys home by Christmas, “perhaps even by the fall” (Overfield, James H. Sources of Twentieth-century Global History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.) , p74. They were definitely wrong on that note. The war lasted 4 years in the hell the soldiers called the battlefield. One of the first major battles on the western front was called the Battle of Marne. The battle that halted the Germans from entering France into a long standing stalemate. The trench warfare started here, where soldiers dug deep into the ground and settled down to fight off the enemy soldiers. It was a stalemate for man...
People did not expect the war to develop in the way it did. In 1914
the minds of the public, is that there was more to the Battle of the
The Development of a Stalemate on the Western Front The main reason trenches developed on the western front is due to the failure of the Schlieffen plan, if it had not been for this elaborate quick way to win the war by Germany, trench warfare may never have developed in WWI. As the Germans were being pushed back from Marne they had to dig trenches to protect themselves from the advancing allies, and the allies mirrored them and did the same. The conventional explanation offered by historians for the stalemate on the western front (an area stretching from Belgium all the way down to the Alps) is that by 1914 technology and industrialism had overtaken military strategy and tactics, making them obsolete. Supposedly machine guns and rapid-fire artillery had made the traditional tactics worthless; linear tactics and cavalry charges were things of the past by 1914, and also bad choices were made by inexperienced commanders.
The Battle of Normandy was a turning point in World War II. Canada, America, and Great Britain arrived at the beaches of Normandy and their main objective was to push the Nazi’s out of France. The Invasion at Normandy by the Allied Powers winning this battle lead to the liberation of France and Western Europe. Most importantly Hitler’s was being attacked from both the eastern and western front, and caused him to lose power. If the Allied Powers did not succeed in D-Day Hitler would’ve taken over all of Europe.In a document written by General Dwight Eisenhower he persuades the allied powers to invade Normandy. Dwight Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890. Eisenhower became the 34th president of the United States. He served as the president from January 20, 1953 through January 20, 1961. Before his presidency Dwight participated in World War I and was moved up to captain. Dwight would then take part in World War II and work his way up to becoming a General.
In December, Bradley's front absorbed the brunt of the German offensive during the Battle of the Bulge. After stopping the German assault, his men played a key role in pushing the enemy back, with Patton's Third Army making an unprecedented turn north to relieve the 101st Airborne at Bastogne. During the fighting, he was angered when Eisenhower temporarily assigned First Army to Montgomery for logistical reasons.
The battle began on December 16th, 1944, when the Wehrmacht gathered 200,000 troops and 1,000 tanks in a last-ditch attempt to swing the war in the favor of the Axis. On the first day of the offensive the Germans attacked the Allied front in the region of the Ardennes Forest, a seventy-five mile stretch of very dense forest. Prior to the attack the Ardennes Forest had been a quiet spot on the front where Allied units had been sent for “rest and seasoning”(3). The German attack began this attack on the Ardennes Forest by parachuting troops behind the American lines with intention to disturb, distract and mislead the American troops.... ...
Good morning my classmates and Mr Mcconville, today I’m here to tell you about the Battle of the Somme, the biggest battles within WW1. In early 1916, the French initiated a joint offensive with the British along the valley of the Somme, France. The Somme Offensive took place between the 1st of July to the 18th of November 1916. The Somme offensive was intended to achieve a victory over the Germans on the Western Front after just under 2 years of stalemate deadlock. This battle was mainly a return fire at the Germans for deploying their troops to attack the French in the battle of Verdun.
Before the landings were to begin, the coastal German defenses had to be adequately prepped, and softened by a combination of a massive battering by United States ships, and bombing by the United States Air Force. Between the hours of 0300 and 0500 hours on the morning of June 6, over 1,000 aircraft dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs on the German coastal defenses. As soon as the preliminary bombing was over, the American and British naval guns opened fire on the Normandy coastline (D' Este 112). A British naval officer described the incredible spectacle he witnessed that day: "Never has any coast suffered what a tortured strip of French coast suffered that morning; both the naval and air bombardments were unparalleled. Along the fifty-mile front the land was rocked by successive explosions as the shells of ships' guns tore holes in fortifications and tons of bombs rained on them from the skies. Through billowing smoke and falling debris defenders crouching in this scene of devastations would soon discern faintly hundreds of ships and assault craft ominously closing the shore.
The Battle of the Somme epitomizes the harsh realities of trench warfare for the Allies and represents the negligent battle planning and technological advancements that are associated with the stalemate of World War One. Trench warfare was common across the Western Front, with similar strategies being employed by both opposing sides. Sir Douglas Haig, one of the British coordinators for the Somme offensive is blamed with an offensive strategy destined for failure. The British offensive, an utter failure, resulted in a stalemate, which was common throughout World War One. The British development of the tank, while it eventually ended the horrendous stalemate, was ineffectively used during the Somme.
...ularly as the Battle of the Bulge, the last German offensive of the war. Waffen-SS units fought hard enough that they managed to successfully push back the Allies throughout the forest. Their advance was only rendered fruitless by lack of fuel for their tanks or proper air support. At Malmedy the SS showed its darker side when American POW’s were killed after what is thought to have been a singular escape attempt gone wrong. Leibstandarte SS officer Joachim Peiper was sentenced to death by the Allies after wars end for his part in this massacre, but was later sentences to life in prison instead.
On October 14 1806, the Prussian army was annihilated by the French forces of Napoleon at the battle of Jena-Auerstädt, and the Kingdom of Prussia fell to the French Empire. The Prussian army, using outdated tactics and training established in the 17th century by Frederick the Great, poorly organized, and lead by conservative, elderly generals, who were living in the glory of the past, was an easy victim to the revolutionary style of warfare employed by Napoleon. With this “shocking defeat” of the Prussian army, the “Prussian King Frederick William III convened a military commission in 1807 to investigate the debacle at Jena-Auerstädt and propose reforms to the existing military structure” (Knot, 13). The King charged Colonel Gneisenau and