Daily Archives: November 07, 2023

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted for five weeks from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in Europe. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg. It overlapped with the Alsace Offensive, subsequently the Colmar Pocket, another series of battles launched by the Germans in support of the Ardennes thrust.

Left:  American soldiers of the 117th Infantry Regiment, Tennessee National Guard, part of the 30th Infantry Division, move past a destroyed American M5A1 “Stuart” tank on their march to recapture the town of St. Vith during the Battle of the Bulge, January 1945.

The primary military objectives were to deny further use of the Belgian Port of Antwerp to the Allies and to split the Allied lines, which potentially could have allowed the Germans to encircle and destroy the four Allied forces. The Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who since December 1941 had assumed direct command of the German army,^[16] believed that achieving these objectives would compel the Western Allies to accept a peace treaty in the Axis powers‘ favor. By this time, it was palpable to virtually the entire German leadership including Hitler himself that they had no realistic hope of repelling the imminent Soviet invasion of Germany unless the Wehrmacht was able to concentrate the entirety of its remaining forces on the Eastern Front, which in turn required that hostilities on the Western and Italian Fronts be terminated. The Battle of the Bulge remains among the most important battles of the war, as it marked the last major offensive attempted by the Axis Powers on the Western front. After their defeat, Germany would retreat for the remainder of the war.

The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. American forces bore the brunt of the attack. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies’ superior air forces. Fierce American resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive, around Elsenborn Ridge, and in the south, around Bastogne, blocked German access to key roads to the northwest and west that they counted on for success. Columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This congestion, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops.

Allied strength during the battle peaked at more than 700,000 men; combined, U.S. and British forces suffered from 77,000 to more than 83,000 battle casualties,^[19] including at least 8,600^[13] killed. The “Bulge” was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II^[20][21][22] and the third-deadliest campaign in American history.^[23]

Fifty-three East Tennesseans died during the epic battle.  Here is the breakdown by county:  Anderson, 2; Blount, 2; Bradley, 3; Campbell, 1; Carter, 2; Cocke, 3; Cumberland, 1; Fentress, 3; Grainger, 1; Greene, 1; Hamblen, 1; Hamilton, 7; Hancock, 1; Hawkins, 2; Jefferson, 1; Johnson, 1; Knox, 8; Loudon, 2; Marion, 1; Monroe, 1; Morgan, 1; Polk, 1; Rhea, 1; Roane, 2; Sullivan, 1; Unicoi, 1; Union, 1; Washington, 1.