Battle Of The Bulge

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The Battle of the Bulge

The battle of the bulge was Hitler's last chance to win the war or at least make the allies go for a treaty. He did this because his forces were being pushed back into Germany and soon they would run out of supplies and other resources for war. Hitler thought of this bold plan when he recalled how a German hero Frederick the great was facing defeat, Frederick went on a offensive attack at his foe who had superior numbers but the bold moved worked and Hitler thought he could do the same thing.

The Battle of the bulge took place on December sixteenth 1944. More than a million men participated in this battle including some 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British which made it one of the biggest battles of the war. It happened at the same place were the Germans first crossed over to attack France the Ardennes forest . The allies who were stationed there called it a ghost front because there was never any fighting so the allies sent their new solders and the tired battered solders here .

The Germans mobilized at this last chance they had to win the war and if they would lose this battle Hitler wanted all the Germans left in Germany to all burn any thing useful in Germany and every one to move to Berlin were all the German people would fight to the death. The Germans needed to cut the American forces in to two parts, this way the could easily be destroyed because the allies all ready had a tough time supplying all the troops and Hitler new that if they took control of Antwerp he would have a chance against the allies.

Hitler felt he had enough of the resources he would need to win the battle. The main things that the Germans were hoping for was bad weather so that the allies planes could not get off the ground and support the allies and fire upon the German forces the other main thing the Germans needed was complete surprise. Hitler was mobilizing a task force of 500,000 Germans solders which included tanks special spies and many others. The allies at this time was slowly pushing its way through the Ardennes Forest and into Germany they also were pushing into the Belgium Boarder. But they were having a tough time getting past the maginot line in France.

The allies had a force of 600,000 American solders And 55,000 British solders. Hitler hoped to surprise the Allies off gua...

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...anks lost on each side, 1,000 German aircraft.

The Malmedy Massacre, where 86 American soldiers were murdered, was the worst atrocity committed against American troops during the course of the war in Europe.

The 106th Infantry Division, average age of 22 years, suffered 564 killed in action, 1,246 wounded and 7,001 missing in action at the end of the offensive.

Most of these casualties occurred within the first three days of battle, when two of the division’s three regiments was forced to surrender.

In it’s entirety, the “Battle of the Bulge,” was one of the worst battles - in terms of losses - to the American Forces in WWII.

References Used

Chris Meyers, July 25, 1996, "The Battle of the Bulge-An Ardennes Christmas", [World Wide Web], http://www.cyberplus.ca/~chrism/bulge.htm

D. Reinbol, April 4, 1997, "The Battle of the Bulge", [World Wide Web], http://gpu.srv.ualberta.ca/~dreinbol/bulge.html

John Kline, January 1, 1997, "The Battle of the Bulge", [World Wide Web], http://www.mm.com/user/jpk/battle.htm

Chris Meyers, July 25, 1996, "The Battle of the Bulge-Hitlers Last Gamble", [World Wide Web], http://www.cs.uwindsor.ca/60-205/kingp/page.6htm

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