The Battle of the Bulge
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In late 1944, the Allies were on a roll and Germany was on the ropes. Some Allies, considering how fast they were advancing through Europe, thought that the war might be over by Christmas. However, Hitler had a plan. He would engage in one last desperate battle which he thought would turn the tide of the war in the West and possibly remove the Allies from the conflict. The result was one of the largest battles of the Second World War and the German military's ultimate failure.

Learn more about the Battle of the Bulge and how it shaped the course of World War II on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by NerdWallet. When it comes to general knowledge and history, you know I've got you covered. But who do you turn to when you need smart financial decisions? If your answer is NerdWallet, then you're absolutely right. And if it's not, let me change your mind.

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That isn't to say there weren't setbacks. They had difficulty breaking out of the hedgerows after D-Day, and Operation Market Garden was less than a complete success. Nonetheless, within a matter of months, they liberated most of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The speed at which the Allies advanced surprised everyone, including the Allies themselves. It eventually caused a problem with logistics. They had destroyed the railways in France to stop the Germans, and now they couldn't use them when they needed them.

To support the advancing troops, the Allies needed a deep-water port that could move the large amounts of equipment needed. And at that point, the only such port that the Allies had liberated was Cherbourg, France. The problem with Cherbourg was that the Germans had mined and sabotaged the port, so it wasn't at full capacity. And it was also south of the landing sites in Normandy, the opposite direction from where the troops were moving. The problem was solved when Antwerp, one of the largest ports in Europe, was taken in early September.

Even though they controlled the port of Antwerp, it wasn't until November 28th that they were able to clear the Scheldt River of mines and Germans. With the opening of the port of Antwerp, the Allies now had a way to quickly get supplies to the front lines which were closer to the German border. The Germans in late 1944 were on the proverbial ropes. They had been pushed back in the west and were still losing ground in the east. To stop the bleeding, Hitler devised a plan that he thought would turn the tide of the war on the western front.

He proposed a massive counterattack that would push the Allies back and split their forces in two. The objective of the offensive would be to retake the port of Antwerp, deny it to the Allies, and prevent them from bringing more troops and equipment into Europe. The original plan that Hitler outlined had the Germans in Antwerp in just three days.

There's also speculation that Hitler wanted a successful counterattack so he could come to terms with the Allies to avoid an unconditional surrender, and hopefully then put all of his resources into the Eastern Front against the Soviets. The Germans chose the Ardennes region for their attack because of its dense forests and rough terrain, believing that the Allies would not expect a major attack there. The name of the German operation was Wacht am Rhein, or Watch on the Rhine.

And the Germans were right. The Ardennes was weakly defended precisely because nobody thought that it would be the location for an attack. Eisenhower had placed American forces there who were either brand new or were resting from battle. One of the Germans' weaknesses was that the Luftwaffe had lost control of the skies and the Allies had air supremacy over the Western Front.

But there was one thing the Germans had going for them. Because they no longer had to defend the entire Western Front because they lost it, they were able to concentrate all of their remaining forces into this one attack. The German assault began on the morning of December 16, 1944, under the cover of heavy fog which grounded Allied air support. One tactic the Germans used was infiltrating enemy lines with troops who spoke fluent English and wore American uniforms.

They also changed road signs and did what they could to spread disinformation. Under the Hague Convention, soldiers found posing as enemy soldiers were treated as spies and not enemy combatants. As such, they were subject to trial and execution, not imprisonment. The Americans were taken by surprise, and in the initial hours of the attack, there was complete chaos. British codebreakers had actually intercepted German communications which referred to moving troops from the Eastern Front to the West.

However, Allied leaders ignored the intelligence. One of the reasons why they ignored the intelligence about gathering German forces is because the Allied generals had also gotten reports that German forces were weak and resting just on the other side of the Ardennes Forest. In the initial invasion, the Germans had approximately a quarter million troops plus five panzer divisions, up against about 80,000 Americans.

By the end of the battle, the Germans would have used 410,000 troops, 1,400 tanks, 2,600 artillery, and over 1,000 aircraft. On December 17, the second day of the invasion, the Germans captured 84 American prisoners of war in the Belgian city of Malmedy and then executed all of them. Word of the Malmedy Massacre quickly spread and stiffened American resistance to the Germans.

Over the next several days, German advances continued, which caused a bulge in the Allies' front lines. The bulge in the map gave the battle its name. By the 20th of December, the Germans had advanced far enough to encircle the town of Bastogne, which the American 101st Airborne occupied. Conditions for the 101st were not good. They were surrounded, running low on food and ammunition, and it was cold and snowing.

On the 22nd, German General Heinrich von Lütwitz sent a request to American Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe for an honorable surrender. McAuliffe replied to the Germans in one of the most famous one-word replies in history. His answer simply said, Nuts. The relief of Bastogne became a top priority for the Americans. In a meeting of his generals, Eisenhower asked General George Patton how quickly he could get his Third Army, which was in northern France, to Bastogne.

Usually, this would be an enormous undertaking. The Third Army consisted of over 200,000 men plus equipment and they would have to move in the winter with inclement weather. Patton shocked everyone at the meeting by saying that he could do it in just 48 hours. Because, unbeknownst to everyone there, Patton had already started making the move to Bastogne. On December 23rd, the skies cleared up which allowed the Allies to begin air operations against German ground forces.

This was a dramatic shift in the battle, as the Germans could no longer hide behind the weather, and the Americans were able to unleash their biggest advantage on the battlefield. By December 24th, the battle was starting to turn. The Americans who were initially outnumbered had been bringing in enough units to now outnumber the Germans. Moreover, the German advance started to slow down for a very simple reason. They were running out of fuel.

On December 26th, Patton's 3rd Army reached Bastogne after their rapid 90-degree turn and relieved the encircled American forces. By December 27th, the German advance had finally stalled. The 2nd Panzer Division attempted a breakout, but it made no headway. The 27th also saw the start of an organized Allied counteroffensive. The combined lack of fuel and the Allies' air supremacy had now caused the German advance to grind to a halt.

On January 1st, the Germans launched Operation Badensplatte. The operation targeted Allied airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands, and northern France, with the goal of destroying as many aircraft on the ground as possible to gain air superiority. Although the initial attack damaged a significant number of Allied planes, the operation ultimately failed due to poor conditions, navigational errors, and strong Allied defenses.

The Luftwaffe suffered devastating losses with many of its experienced pilots being killed or captured, which crippled Germany's air capabilities for the remainder of the war. On January 3rd, the full Allied counter-offensive began when British Field Marshal Montgomery joined the offensive from the north. The next few days saw heavy fighting as the Germans attempted to hold on to their gains. Allies made very slow gains, only getting about a kilometer or a half a mile a day.

But on January 8th, Hitler gave approval for German forces to retreat to avoid being cut off and encircled. By this time, it had become obvious to the Germans that the offensive had failed. On January 16th, Allied forces advancing from the north and the south met near the town of Hufelise, effectively closing the bulge. On January 25th, the Battle of the Bulge officially ended as the remaining German forces were pushed back to their original positions from before the offensive began.

All in all, from beginning to end, the entire battle lasted about seven weeks. Ultimately, it was the largest battle of the Western Front during the war, and it turned out to be the largest battle that American forces ever took part in in history. Losses for each side are difficult to pin down, but the Allies, which were mostly Americans, had approximately 89,000 casualties. That included approximately 19,000 killed, 47,000 wounded, and 23,000 missing or captured.

The Americans also lost about 800 tanks and 1,000 airplanes. On top of that, there were also an additional 1,400 British casualties. The Germans suffered similar casualties, but the exact numbers are even less known. Estimates are around 65,000 to 105,000, with a loss of about 550 tanks and 800 aircraft.

Despite losing fewer tanks and planes than the Americans, the losses to Germany were much greater because they didn't have the industrial capacity to replace them, whereas the Americans were churning them out every single day. While the Battle of the Bulge was bloody and delayed the Allied advance into Germany, once the advance continued, the Germans weren't able to put up much of a defense anymore. A little over four months after the battle was finished, the war would be over.

I want to close this episode by talking about something related to the battle that I otherwise probably wouldn't get a chance to talk about, and this seems like a good opportunity. In 1965, a big-budget motion picture was released called The Battle of the Bulge. It had an all-star cast including Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, and Tully Savalas. Had it just been a run-of-the-mill World War II movie, I don't think anybody really would have cared.

However, as the movie was about the Battle of the Bulge, it was one of the least historically accurate movies ever made. I watched it a few weeks ago just to see what the fuss was about, and having visited the Ardennes Forest in Bastogne, it was pretty bad. For starters, it was shot in the open plains north of Madrid, where there were no trees. It wasn't shot in a forest where much of the fighting was actually taking place.

Also, there was hardly any snow on the ground, even though the actual battle took place in heavy snow. The wrong tanks and airplanes were used in the movie, and Patton's rescue of Bastogne was totally absent. The movie was so inaccurate that President Eisenhower came out of retirement to release a statement condemning the movie for being so off the mark.

If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend visiting the city of Bastogne. It has one of the best World War II museums in Europe, and there is also one of the best collections of World War II vehicles in the world. In the area within about a mile of the museum, I was able to see original foxholes that were dug by soldiers during the battle. Some of the villages still have bullet holes from the battle that were never repaired. The Battle of the Bulge was the largest and arguably the most important battle in the war's Western Front.

Had the Germans been successful, it might not have altered the outcome of the war, but the conclusion of the war would certainly have taken much longer. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiefer.

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