Seeking to drive to the coast of the English Channel and split the Allied armies as they had done in May 1940, the Germans struck in the Ardennes Forest, a 75-mile stretch of the front characterized by dense woods and few roads, held by four inexperienced and battle-worn American divisions stationed there for rest and seasoning.Īfter a day of hard fighting, the Germans broke through the American front, surrounding most of an infantry division, seizing key crossroads, and advancing their spearheads toward the Meuse River, creating the projection that gave the battle its name. 16, 1944, more than 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks launched Adolf Hitler's last bid to reverse the ebb in his fortunes that had begun when Allied troops landed in France on D-Day. In the initial attack the Germans had an almost two-to-one advantage in manpower and for the first time on the Western Front outnumbered the Allies in terms of tanks and other armored vehicles.Early on the misty winter morning of Dec. It was a good time to take a break, and then you had a huge blizzard.'īy contrast, the Germans were very prepared and had amassed more than 400,000 men, and just over 1,400 armored vehicles including tanks, tank destroyers and assault guns. They (the Americans) were out of food, ammunition and gasoline. But from the American perspective, the Germans were going to be defeated – it was just that the Allies' supply lines couldn't keep up. 'It was in many ways a colossal failure of intelligence, and the Allies misread the tea leaves. 'There was a certain amount of hubris involved,' Ulbrich added. Ulbrich, program director and associate professor in the Master of Arts in History and in Military History at Norwich University in Vermont, told Fox News. 'If you look at where the Allies were – after fighting through the hedgerows of Normandy and racing across France, to them the Germans looked bloodied and beaten,' David J. 6, 1945 file photo, American tanks wait on the snowy slopes in Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.

Tank battles during battle of the bulge