When we think about American GIs in the European theater of World War II, much of our image comes from the Battle of the Bulge. Named so because of the distinctive “bulge” shape of the front lines, this is where so many American men laid down their lives on fields of frozen mud in France.
What Was the Battle of the Bulge?
The Battle of the Bulge was the result of Hitler’s last dying gasp lashing out against the increasing pressure of the Allied forces in France. Hitler’s goal was to drive a literal and metaphorical wedge between the United States and the United Kingdom.
All told, the battle was six weeks of fierce winter fighting in the forests of the Ardennes region of France. The nearly ceaseless combat took place between December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, in the bitter, freezing cold. Old Man Winter took 15,000 with trench foot, pneumonia, and frostbite.
Winston Churchill called it the most important American battle of the war. It was certainly the costliest – when all was said and done, over 100,000 American souls were left in the ground in France.
A Surprise Attack by the German Military
The attack was a complete surprise to Allied commanders, who were overconfident due to a string of recent victories. What’s more, poor weather in the area made air reconnaissance difficult to impossible. When 410,000 Germans came marching into the Ardennes, Allied forces were woefully unprepared for the attack.
Indeed, the respite in the Ardennes was supposed to be for letting seriously battle-fatigued soldiers get some much-needed rest and relaxation. The Allied intelligence thought that the Germans were using this area for similar purposes, and so sent small numbers of men out there to secure the area, which they considered completely safe, both due to their intel and the dense, woody terrain.
The battle began with a 90-minute barrage of 1,600 artillery guns firing. The initial Allied response was that this was an expected, minor, and localized counterattack. When this proved to be untrue, 250,000 Allied troops arrived as reinforcements.
Snowstorms slowed the advancing German army, but also made it impossible for the Allies to provide any air cover. The Germans were further hampered by supply chain issues and traffic jams due to the weather.
In the north, the Germans were met with fierce resistance from the U.S. 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. Known as the “Northern Shoulder,” Americans were outnumbered five to one but eventually won the day due to road conditions and an unparalleled tenacity in battle. Equally tenacious, the German soldiers continued to fight tooth and nail without food or fuel. Eventually, their supply lines were cut entirely, forcing most of the men to flee.
The American battles of the Northern Shoulder are considered the most decisive of the entire campaign. Despite being outnumbered five to one, they were able to inflict a casualty ratio of 18 to 1 (in no small part thanks to the 30-06 powered M1 Garand battle rifle) in a battle where 20 percent of their effective force was taken out of the fight.
In the Bulge itself, the German offensive was much smaller, but still significantly overwhelmed the Allied troops in terms of both manpower and firepower. The Germans were able to force the surrender of the 422nd and 423rd Regiments of the 106th Division with a single pincer movement.
The Bulge, as one can tell simply by looking at a map of the battle, is where the German military had the most success, but it was on the Southern Front of the Battle that the biggest Allied breakthrough was made. During the Siege of Bastogne was when Eisenhower realized that the German’s biggest strength – how quickly they could move in battle – was also their biggest weakness, leaving them overextended and easy pickings for a counterattack. Upon hearing Eisenhower’s plans, General Patton is said to have remarked “Hell, let’s have the guts to let the bastards go all the way to Paris. Then, we’ll really cut ’em off and chew ’em up.”
The tide began to turn when the Allied forces launched their counteroffensive on December 23, after the bad weather cleared. A substantial German counterattack forced the Allies back into defensive positions. At this point, it was so cold that engines had to be run every half hour to prevent the oil from congealing inside. During a massive German retreat on January 1, which the Allies could not immediately follow up on, most of their heavy equipment was abandoned.
It was all over but for the shouting. The Germans were retreating out of the Ardennes but were fighting fiercely on their way out. On January 7, Hitler agreed to completely evacuate the area.
The Battle of the Bulge was at an end.
Why the Allies Won: The Legacy of the Battle of the Bulge
When the Allies engaged the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, they were fighting a very different Army than the one that had conquered France the first time. After repeated assassination attempts by members of the Regular Army, Hitler became increasingly paranoid, relying more on the political troops of the SS. As such, the units involved in the Ardennes Campaign were more chosen for their loyalty to Hitler and Nazi ideology than they were for their acumen in battle.
On the other hand, the American and Allied forces were fresh in the fight, buoyed from regular victories and their officer corps was chosen for their success on the battlefield. While the German soldiers themselves could provide a fierce fight against the Allied troops, the German command structure simply was not up to the task of taking on Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton.
By February, the battle lines were roughly back where they had been at the beginning of the German offensive. The Allies continued to press the advantage gained from the heavy casualties they had inflicted, continuing to push back the German Army. By the end of the Battle of the Bulge, the German Army was in total shambles, shattered by the Allied counteroffensive and on the run back to Berlin.
Official casualty statistics vary but do not differ on the main points. Not only did America suffer heavy casualties in the fighting, but their casualty levels were also wildly out of proportion to their share of the fighting force, showing just how gung-ho the American GIs were in the Battle of the Bulge. The Americans also gave as good as they got, killing about as many Germans as the Germans killed Americans, despite their significant numerical disadvantage.
The Battle of the Bulge was a turning point in the war, which had as much to do with American battle tenacity as it did with German organizational incompetence. The massive victory secured only sought to further elate the American forces and solidify their alliance with the United Kingdom, the exact opposite of the intended result. The Germans had advanced as far as 50 miles in some cases but were unable to hold any ground gained.
The Battle of the Bulge is interesting for another historical reason. It is the first time in American history when racially integrated units fought on the battlefield. Faced with a massive shortage of men, General Eisenhower moved black soldiers from support positions and segregated units into the main of the fighting force.
While it doesn’t have the same easy recognition factor as the Battle of Lexington, America was no less forged in the crucible of the Battle of the Bulge. It was here that the cocksure American confidence on the world stage that would mark the next 25 years was born. America, it seemed, could not be licked by anyone, not even the full might of the famous German war machine. It was an air of euphoria that would last until the Vietnam War.
Battle of the Bulge: The Epic WW2 Battle That Cemented American Confidence originally appeared in The Resistance Library at Ammo.com.
What happened at the Battle of the Bulge? The German tanks ran out of gas, as they knew they would….They knew that they were doomed anyway…Case closed.
So did their Air Force which had to switch over to synthetic fuels. I asked Dr Rudolph Fritz Wagner who had served in the Nazi Army how they got so far ahead of US and he said due to the Depression, PhDs were teaching high school and they raised an educated generation; just the opposite of the USA Today.
The Battle of the Bulge was not the turning point in the war. This is propaganda and revisionist history. The fact of the matter is US contribution to the defeat of Germany was at best a support position, and not the decisive factor.
The truth is that 9 out of 10 German soldiers who died in the war, died on the Russian front. The Russians were going to defeat Germany with or without allied support. For anyone to suggest that the Battle of the Bulge was the turning point in the war is simply fiction.
the Russians couldn’t have done it without American products shipped in via Vladivostok, or the intel from the UK code breakers.
And they only started to get the upper hand when the Germans had to fight a four front war.
The Allied air offensive was the fulcrum for their defeat, and had Hitler not delayed the ME 262 by two years the Luftwaffe would have knocked the 8th air force out of the sky and collapsed the Allied air offensive.
The Germans should have built a four engine bomber. They really messed up refusing to make the 8×57 Walther G41 gas operated instead of recoil operated. The gas operated G43 was every bit as good as the M1 Garand and held two more rounds and could be easily topped off with loose rounds unlike the Garand. If the Wermacht were carrying these as their primary arm it could have been a game changer. Doctrine may have hurt them as well. The Wehrmacht philosophy was that the rifle squad should support the machine gun. US doctrine had the machine gun support the rifle squad.
No WWII analysis lacks huge amounts of woulda, coulda, shoulda.
Horseshit, the war turned at Leningrad. The Germans were overextended and the weather made resupply or reinforcement impossible. American products helped, but they were not the difference by any means. The Russians would have defeated Germany regardless.
Thanks to Ken Bradstreet. WWII veteran and a real man.
My first father-in-law, Lee Eddy Sanders, was just a teen in a fox hole at the front when the attack came. He said he had only a handful of bullets because the longshoremen back home were on strike. He became a lifelong hater of Unions. He said later it was not uncommon for our guys to shoot Germans who had surrendered; he said there was no-one to guard them, no food and Germans had shot our prisoners. He had to stay in Germany about a year after the war as an MP and came to like the German people better than the French for some reason. My dad was a war hero and the two of them were disgusted with me because I opposed the MIC and the Vietnam War for logical reasons (similar to the Iraq War) and hated Hippie types myself. The ZOG MIC has been exposed over the last decades by courageous Whistleblowers illegally being held (political prisoners). Beating the drums over Ukraine and Iran is getting more backlash than support. People, look a little deeper: Global Warming is a lie; Chem-spraying and The Shots are a Genocide Holocaust in the making; Money, food, Media, Intel, Education, DOJ, etc are all weapons in the Oligarchs hands being used against good Americans; even God is beginning to unleash the Four Horsemen of the Grand Solar Minimum (ref the Eddy Minimum) which will probably peak about 2050 and may last until 2100. Expect a Super Volcano, a massive Earthquake, crop and supply failures, anti-Christ Tyranny etc, during this period.
…..and if it were not for my sons there would be no wars…..
Alright, now you’re getting the hang of things.
“Gung ho” my big toe.
JD Salinger landed Omaha Beach, survived Hürtgen Forest, then Battle of the Bulging bullshit. Later, among other gems, Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye. A studied, hilarious, rant against phoniness.
Vonnegut’s another who takes appropriate tool – gutting knife – to the task of Stepford Wives warglorygasming.
“Much of the blame is the malarkey that artists have created to glorify war, which as we all know is nonsense, & a good deal worse than that – romantic pictures of battle, & of the dead & men in uniform & all that. And I did not want to have that story told again.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
And “A nice thing about war – not that anything about war is nice, I guess – is that while it’s going on & you’re in it, you never worry about doing the right thing.”
And “The nicest veterans in Schenectady, I thought, the kindest & funniest ones, the ones who hated war most, were the ones who really fought.”
And and and…exceedingly little Commitment, ~ 5:30:
I agree with Vonnegut on everything but the one about “never having to worry about doing the right thing”. Ours was so obviously immoral and so were our leaders, that we did our best in that regard. Towards the end they even just let us drop off the victims so we didn’t have to worry about what the CIA did to them.
The ones that hate war the most are the ones who really fought.
Also, the millions of innocents, like my mother, who lived through that hell.
Thanks, Stucky.
-Ken31
I keep forgetting to put that thing back.
“Appalling. Unconscionable writing. Unsophisticated and completely lacking in an understanding of previous and subsequent world events and dynamics. Thoroughly revolting to grift off of “patriotism” to serve up this pile of steaming horseshit.”
And so purely Americana…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americana
This will keep Sammy on (((The))) payroll for another week.
Anyone wanting a quick study of that war, Nick Kollerston wrote 85 small 3 1/2″X6″ pages giving the bread and butter with plenty of links.”How Britain Initiated both World Wars”.
Americans have been lied to at every turn. The lies were so good this country was conned into assisting greatly in the murder of 200 million people. It hurts to be red pilled and having it done quickly and without your permission will send a strong person into shock.
If the Right or what remains of it doesn’t wake up it will be done involuntarily this spring. It’s over. We lost and now the enemy is coming for non Vaxxed Whites.
Our replacements and executioners are pouring over the borders like water over Niagra Falls with the protection and funding supplied by the UniParty. The Feds are flying in aliens to the airports in Florida after dark loaded with illegals with monies gifted to them by the UniParty.
Two years ago my small town of 30,000 was all white with one resident black man. We now have no less than 300 with incomes and housing vouchers courtesy of the taxpayer.
Soff and curse me all you want but you cannot stop our Karma we have earned from coming back on our heads.
God created the law of Karma for people who don’t believe in God. We are a Godless nation.
Flea…why do you think this spring? The Great Reset is on a 10-year timeline…2030. Is there an indicator that you see pointing to *this* spring?
That’s the monetary reset timeline and 2010 is an optomists dream. Until3 months ago when I has 3 consecutive debilitating incidents I spent 6 hours a day just scanning headlines from every source imaginable. Amazing what you find. Unlike many on the left and right I read everything. It’s impossible to know these people if I don’t read their stuff. Another 2 or 3 hours was spent reading or watching things I selected from this scanning. The headlines and the first few lines of any article tell volumes.
Back to the reset. The WHITE RESET is in full swing. I posted an audio from Ted Broer from Healthmaster in Florida that describes what is happening in real time on the YOUR SOCIETY IS DOOMED thread. Also a picture and article from today’s unzreview.com shoing what they are instilling in the minds of our youth just as affirmation of what I have been warning about for two decades.
With that out of the way, this is not nor never has been a secular series of events including the hysteria over the scami-flu. That was created first to provide cover for the reset because the overnight Repo rates were threatening to trigger events prematurely back in the fall of 2019. It was and still is cover for medical martial law and the elemination of whites by
race mixing, DNA altering Vaxx’s and outright murder by the Medical Industrial Complex. Springtime is when the new Bolshevik Hordes will be loosed on the remaing whites with full tactical and financial support of the US Government. Hispanics, Middle Easterners, and Blacks have no enthusiasm for war/rioting in winter. All three are being disbursed in alarming numbers to all red states and small predominantly towns and cities even in blue states. Complete with housing vouchers and guarunteed incomes. Many are armed and ready. The remainder will follow them. They all have the latest smartphones/I phones etc. and are now well practiced in forming flash mobs anywhere. Remember two years ago and the plain white vans full of BLM and Antifa rioters? Those were software generating dry runs.
I won’t make a lick of sense to those who are caught up in the promises of the Charlatins peddling easy listening music about a bright new future around the bend. I have seen and participated willingly in the evil that we are as the hitman for Rothschild Inc. or most anyone else who doesn’t grasp the two seedling spiritual warfare taking place.
Do with this what you wish but before you discount what I say listen to Broes audio just skip his first 30 seconds of horrid music.
Thanks, Flea. I’ll listen to the Broer audio. I do remember the vans of Antifa rioters clearly. They were all white in my area. No minorities.
Sorry Abby I gave yu the wrong article. Trusting government was the one.
Ok, gotcha.
Abby I forgot to mention the Ides of March. March and the planet Jupiter are very important to the Hybrid Freaks chock full of human ritual killings to feed the demons and honor Satan.
As an affermation here is something totally unconnected to me.
https://news.gab.com/2021/12/08/christians-december-6th-was-your-wakeup-call-about-what-is-coming-for-us-all/
I am starting to believe all of this in an a less abstract way. As usual, I went too far. Thank you, Fleabaggs. And Abigail for asking the question. I guess just keep seeking.
I have no idea why I would want to understand them. I am trying to go the other direction. That’s what keeps me here. Something is going on here.
-Ken31
Kollerstrom book:
http://libgen.rs/search.php?req=How+Britain+Initiated+both+World+Wars
Fleabaggs’ post he mentions from earlier thread:
Another point of history worth mentioning. My Dad’s Uncle fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was part of new recruits who were stationed on the front line in the Ardennes with command thinking it was light duty. He lived, but never wanted to talk about it.
My friend Lenny Tobin was in the 101st Airborne division and stationed on the line at Bastogne, he was captured, sent to a Stalag escaped and almost was killed by the Russians who first thought he was a German.
The rest of his life he had the heat on his house at 90 degrees because after what he experienced during the war he couldn’t stand being cold.
My old man was 82nd Airborne. It pains me that I, yourself, rhs jr and other thoughtful men here at TBP will be the last to have known these men as they were in life. It seems almost criminal that the character of such men as these will be lost to history.
Yea…my father in law had the same ‘freezing’ experience in Korea…he can’t take the cold…and we live in NC.
NC is cold. So is SW Virginia. They lied to me.
“The attack was a complete surprise to Allied commanders, who were overconfident due to a string of recent victories.”
This, if I recall correctly, is wrong.
Considering the Allied march towards Berlin was akin to and as old as the American Civil War strategy of a long thin line hoping (yup, hoping) to find a weakness along the enemies line.
Patton was not the least bit surprised having had is literal ass shot in the previous war in those same forests.
Correct me if wrong but when the Krauts attacked, Monty was playing golf while Ike and Omar were eating steak or lobster.
Patton saw it coming. My bad if I’d elevated Patton to “commader”.
George Patton wanted to rearm what was left of the German army and turn them loose on the communist Bolsheviks
with our backing. It would have ended communism forever.
America assassinated him.
Let that sink in.
The account of Patton’s death I read was he was in a truck and was the only one to die in a crash. My best guess is someone covertly loosened the bolt on his seatbelt to nearly off, and the driver had his orders to crash the vehicle. Only a theory, but not impossible.
No, they killed him in the hospital after the crash.
He was paralyzed and died because his lungs filled with fluid. “They” didn’t kill him.
There were no seat belts.
Strange but when you look at the photos of the Germans that we captured, they all look like frightened children because that and old men was all Germany had left.
They laid down their lives fighting what we have allowed to take place in America. They died in vain.
Ditto, WWII Vets were fighting Fascism, Vietnam Vets were fighting Communism and Iraq Vets were fighting Islamism while America fell to Facist-Communist traitors and ZOG NWO will be worse than Nazis.