Battle of the Bulge

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Battle of the Bulge
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CONTENTS

• STORY OF THE BATTLE
• STORY CONTINUED
• German Units Involved
• Tactical Surprise
• Initial Success
• Mounting Failures
• Allied Successes
• Costs of the Battle
• Media Contents

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Media Contents

• MAP 1 OF THE BATTLE
• MAP 2 OF THE BATTLE
• VIDEO OF THE BATTLE
• PICTURE OF WORLD WAR II SOLDIERS
• RESOURCES
• Axis Casualty Picture
• Infantry Casualty Picture
• Combat Photo

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Summary

• The Battle of the Bulge lasted from 16 December
  1944 to15 January 1945. It was Hitlers last
  attempt to win the European Theatre of World War
  II. His goal was to split the American and
  British forces in the Ardennes Forest and to
  recapture the port of Antwerp which was a source
  of Allied dependence for supplies. He planned the
  offensive to take place during the winter in bad
  weather to ground air forces. Hitler knew that
  otherwise the Luftwaffe could not provide enough
  air support and that the British and Americans
  could. The battle was intense at first, but as
  the cold and snow set in, the soldiers on both
  sides began to battle the elements as well as
  each other. Some the most intense fighting was in
  the town of Bastogne. A unit of the 101 Airborne
  division of the U.S. Army was surrounded for more
  than a month. They were stuck and were being
  attacked daily.

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Summary Continued

• The only saving grace was that the German Army
  attacked with only one of the two artillery
  batteries that they had around the town of
  Bastogne. The 101st outlasted the Germans by
  simply holding out. They could not get
  reinforcements of food, ammo, or supplies because
  they were surrounded and the weather was so bad
  the Army Air Corps could not fly in a drop of
  food or supplies.

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German Units Involved

• 3 German armies were engaged
• Sixth SS Panzer
• Fifth Panzer
• Seventh army
• Some experienced units had been brought in from
  the eastern front. However, many were newly
  raised volksgranadier units.

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Tactical Surprise

• The reasons the assault achieved tactical
  surprise
• The Allies were able to read secret German radio
  messages through a program called ULTRA.
• ULTRA had in fact determined that German forces
  were massing.
• It was assumed that this massing was for
  defensive purposes and that an offensive would
  not be launched.

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Initial Success

• Initially the offensive was achieving good
  results for the Germans.
• Deception
• German special forces disguised themselves in
  U.S. uniforms and parachuted behind Allied lines.
  Doing so caused U.S. troops to begin harboring
  distrust toward one another.
• The Sixth SS Panzer Army at first made good
  progress as American soldiers were encircled in
  snowy uplands and surrendered.
• The Fifth Panzer Arm surrounded Bastogne, which
  effectively contained the 101st Airborne and a
  portion of the 10th armored divisions.

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Mounting Failures

• While the Assault was off to a good start, the
  tides of battle soon began to swing in the favor
  of the Allied forces.
• While Bastogne was encircled by the Fifth Panzer
  Army, the town managed to hold out.
• On December 19th Allied offensives were cancelled
  elsewhere and forces wee committed to assist.
• Allied troops were deployed in both the southern
  and northern portion of what was called the
  bulge.
• The Sixth Panzer Army was stuck in the north and
  the Fifth Panzer army fell short of its
  objectives.

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Allied Successes

• On the 22nd of December, the bad weather finally
  cleared.
• German troops were poorly situated jammed
  closely together on roads. As a result, they were
  bombarded by air forces.
• The Luftwaffe launched an all out assault on
  Allied airfields on January 1st. While inflicting
  a sizable amount of damage, the toll of the
  limited success was more than the Germans could
  handle.

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Costs of the Battle

• German Costs
• Close to 100,000 men were lost.
• The majority of committed airplanes and tanks
  were lost, and irreplaceable.
• Allied Losses
• The Allies experienced similar heavy losses,
  however unlike the Germans, their losses could be
  replaced.
• The offensive created a crisis in the Allied
  command. It highlighted the dangers of becoming
  complainant and presumptuous.

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Axis Casualty
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Infantry Casualties
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Photo taken During the Battle.
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MAP 1 OF BATTLEFIELD
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MAP 2 OF BATTLEFIELD
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VIDEO OF BATTLE

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vKUOP-HnZ_1s

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PICTURE OF PERIOD SOLIDERS
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Resources

• http//www.europeanmilitarytours.com/bulgemap.html
  
• http//ice.mm.com/user/jpk/battle.htm
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge
• http//www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/ww2
  20europe/ww220europe20pages/ww220europe20map
  2072.htm

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Resources Continued

• Bulge, Battle of the. Funk Wagnalls New
  Encyclopedia. 2007.unitedstreaming. 2 November
  2007lthttp//streaming.discoveryeducation.com/gt
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vKUOP-HnZ_1s
• Holmes, Richard. The Oxford Companion to Military
  History.
• New York Oxford University Press, 2001.