Definition of Battle of the Bulge

Remembered as the last German offensive on the Western Front during World War II, the Battle The Ardennes is also remembered for its harshness and the war crimes committed by the units of the H.H.

The Battle of the Ardennes consisted of the German attempt to counterattack the allied forces with the aim of advancing towards the Channel from La Mancha to Antwerp, splitting these forces in two, in a movement reminiscent of the one carried out during the attack on France by 1940.

Americans know her as the Battle of the Bulge (of the bulk), by the projection that the German troops created in their advance.

Since the Normandy Landings, the Allied troops had advanced rapidly through France, and since the landing in the Provence region, the Germans had assisted the speed of movements retreating with great velocity towards its borders with the aim of not getting bagged in territory Gallic.

Hitler wanted to seal the war in the west with a definitive offensive that would force the British and Americans to negotiate a peace treaty, so that he could focus on the war in the east.

instagram story viewer

The objective was to take Antwerp, with which the Germans would "rob" the Allies of their main supply port, at the same time that they would split their forces in two and could bag them.

The situation of tension in which they would put the troops and the respective governments, together with the situation of demoralization in the field civil, would be, in Hitler's opinion, the one that would lead the allied powers to negotiate a ceasefire and a subsequent treaty of peace.

The German dictator also took advantage of the fact that the allies had stopped their offensive actions in order to stabilize and rest their armies, supply them and prepare them for the final assault on Germany.

The Germans collected all the war material they could to start the offensive, as well as their most veteran troops, which would ultimately prove a mistake.

The offensive started with two elements of advantage for the German army: on the one hand, the surprise effect, since the allied commanders neither expected an offensive operation nor feared it of this magnitude, and on the other side the climatology.

The bad weather and the clouds that hit the region during the first days canceled the overwhelming superiority Allied air force, so the British and American planes could not provide support to their troops from land.

The idea was, as in 1940, to break through the Ardennes, a harsh terrain, and charge against American forces, which Hitler mistakenly believed were weaker by nature.

On December 16, 1944, the battle began with the German offensive action. Quickly, the Wehrmacht used its panzer units as a point of attack in a west-northwest direction, with Liege, Bastogne and Luxembourg as the most immediate targets on its way to Antwerp.

The Allied surprise was total, and the fledgling American troops were beaten, in such a way that the Germans took thousands of prisoners.

To this surprise also contributed with certain chaos inflicted the special troops of the Wehrmacht, the commandos called “Brandenburger”; Trained to infiltrate wearing enemy uniforms and speaking perfect English, they set about changing signs indicators of roads and to carry out hand strokes. Its use was criticized throughout the war by some German commanders, such as Marshal Erwin Rommel, for not being in accordance with the rules of war.

Despite all this, the Germans - and especially Hitler - had sinned in arrogance, and the most experienced troops of the Americans proved to be exceptional fighters.

At the points where they managed to hold out, they caused serious problems for the Germans, forming pockets of resistance. that hindered and delayed the German advance, something that ultimately proved fatal to Hitler's claims.

Bastogne was the city that offered the greatest resistance, being besieged but without surrendering until the allied reinforcement troops could come to their aid.

Famous was the response of General McAuliffe, commander of the defending forces of the city, to the ultimatum of surrender presented by the attacking German troops: “nuts!"Translated from English to Spanish as" noses "or" balls "(or stronger synonyms that the kind reader will surely be able to find on his own ...).

As of December 23, the weather conditions improve, allowing the allied air force to take off to assert its superiority.

At this moment the tables are reversed, and although the Germans tried to maintain their offensive in the following days, their effort hit an impassable wall.

To try to suppress Allied air superiority, the Luftwaffe launched, quite recklessly and risky, a great operation against allied airfields, thereby seeking to destroy the maximum number of enemy aircraft in land.

Although the theoretical triumph in this operation fell to the German side, it was a Pyrrhic victory, since the losses suffered by the Luftwaffe could not be replaced, while despite being high, the losses of the allies could be replaced thanks to the endless industrial power North American.

By stopping the German offensive, the front line had remained in the form of a salient that impinged on the allied territory (hence the American name of Battle of the bulge).

This projection would be eliminated in a "traditional" way, that is, with a combined attack from the north and south. to its base to pocket and isolate the most distant troops, or to force their retreat to the starting positions.

The northern attack would be carried out by the British under Montgomery, while the Americans from Patton would advance from the south.

Most of the German troops managed to return to their front line, although this was at the cost of abandoning much equipment.

Among said equipment, a high number of armored cars were found, haunted by the lack of fuel since the allies erased from the map the wells of Ploesti (Romania), the last large oil field that remained in territory controlled by the Reich.

The direct consequence of the result of the Battle of the Ardennes was the end of any German offensive fickleness which, from there, would become exclusively on the defensive.

The German defeat resulted in the loss of its most seasoned troops, which left the most inexperienced in charge of defending the country.

After the battle, the German army took refuge in the Siegfried Line, a fortification static that gave the replica to the French Maginot Line, and that despite the formidable of its structures, it could not withstand the onslaught of the allies to enter Germany.

One of the characteristics of the offensive was the atrocities and crimes committed by Waffen SS forces in their advance.

Said forces, a fourth branch of the German army (Wehrmacht) were made up of Nazi fanatics who respected neither the lives of their opponents nor the conventions of war. This was the case with the Malmedy massacre.

A posteriori, and once the crimes were discovered, the revenge actions on the part of the US soldiers were not long in coming. This was the case with the Chenogne massacre.

Photo: Fotolia - Jenny Thompson

Themes in Battle of the Bulge