The Battle of the Bulge was German offensive and key engagement of World War II, which lasted from December 16, 1944 until January 25, 1945. During the Battle of the Bulge, 20,876 Allied soldiers were killed, while another 42,893 were wounded, and 23,554 captured/missing. German losses numbered 15,652 killed, 41,600 wounded, and 27,582 captured/missing. Defeated in the campaign, Germany lost its offensive capability in the West. By early February, the lines returned to their December 16 location.
It began when the situation on the Western Front rapidly deteriorated in the fall of 1944, Adolf Hitler issued a directive for an offensive designed to stabilize the German position. Assessing the strategic landscape, he determined that it would be impossible to strike a decisive blow against the Soviets on the Eastern Front. Turning west, Hitler hoped to exploit the strained relationship between General Omar Bradley and Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery by attacking near the boundary of their 12th and 21st Army Groups.
Hitler’s ultimate goal was to compel the U.S. and U.K. to sign a separate peace so that Germany could focus its efforts against the Soviets in the East. Going to work, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Army High Command, OKW) developed several plans including one that called for a blitzkrieg-style attack through the thinly defended Ardennes, similar to the assault conducted during the Battle of France in 1940.
The video below carries the voices of those of the greatest generation as they fought through that hell in the Ardennes some 75 years ago: a hell on earth.