When Allied troops successfully stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, they could hardly be blamed for thinking the worst was over. But as they sped across France, Belgium and Holland toward the heart of Hitler's Germany, the American and British forces found themselves spread thin. Allied supply lines, mostly trucks running 24 hours a day from one end of France to the other, were stretched to the breaking point. At one point, it took 5 gallons of gas to transport each gallon of fuel that reached tanks and artillery on the front lines.
The Germans knew their one chance to halt the Allied advance was to hit them hard before they managed to get a solid grip on the continent. Any counter-attack would be aimed specifically at U.S. troops: The German high command – in particular, the increasingly delusional Adolf Hitler – believed that the relatively untested American GIs would crumble quickly in a pitched battle. And Hitler hoped a big U.S. defeat would erode support for the war back home and force the Americans to make peace.
German commanders planned their big move for mid-December, when long nights and bad weather kept American reconnaissance planes on the ground. Moving troops and tanks after dark to avoid tipping off the other side, German commanders massed their forces (a mix of hardened veterans and under-trained teenagers) in the Ardennes forest along the German border. Hitler himself moved to a headquarters near the front lines to supervise the attack.
On the night of Dec. 16, German paratroopers were dropped deep behind American lines to seize vital road junctions and a crack team of English-speaking commandos infiltrated the area to disrupt American operations. Then, two hours before the sun came up, a massive artillery strike shook the trees in the Ardennes. German tanks and infantry pushed forward along a 60-mile front, taking American soldiers by surprise amid thick snowstorms. In one spot – the
Schnee Eifel -- thousands of GIs were surrounded by German tanks and surrendered. The advancing Germans forced Allied troops to withdraw along a wide front, creating a "bulge" in the American lines.
Continuing reading about the Battle of the Bulge with
Bastogne.
