December 1944: Battle of the Bulge

The last major German offensive of the Second World War, launched on 16 December 1944, was the Battle of Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The offensive was launched from the Ardennes at a weak point in the Allied line and attempted to split Allied forces. It failed to reach the Meuse River and created a salient that was then attacked by the Allies. At the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Germany had failed to achieve its objectives and had exhausted its last reserves of resources and manpower, opening the way for Allied invasion of Germany.

The Battle of the Bulge was conceived by Hitler as a way to inflict a major defeat on the Allies, in the hope that a costly defeat would force them to consider peace terms favorable to Germany. German leadership understood that they were losing and that, soon, the Soviets would capture Hungary and deprive Germany of its last source of oil, crippling its ability to maintain its war industry. To prevent defeat and occupation, Germany needed to negotiate a favorable peace deal, which they believed could only be secured by a major Allied defeat. This final offensive was planned for the Western Front as it was believed that the Americans had no stomach for high casualties and would seek to negotiate if Germany could inflict a severe defeat.

The German plan for the Battle of the Bulge was for a concentration of forces to gather in the Ardennes, which had been poorly garrisoned by the Allies, and then attack to the west, moving to Antwerp and cutting off Allied forces in Netherlands and northern Belgium from their main force. This encircled force could then be attacked, causing heavy Allied casualties, until the Americans used their role as the economic backer of the Allied war effort to force a peace settlement.

The German offensive in the Battle of the Bulge was initially successful, as there were few American defenders placed around the Ardennes. The 400,000 German soldiers overpowered Allied forces in eastern Belgium, inflicting 75,000 casualties. However, Allied reinforcements arrived to stymie the German attack and the offensive was halted before reaching the Meuse River. The German offensive had failed to reach Antwerp, so, instead of splitting the Allied force, it created a ‘bulge’ of exposed positions that were then attacked by reinforced Allied forces. The concentrated German troops in the ‘bulge’ suffered almost 80,000 casualties and were forced to retreat back into Germany.

Germany had marshaled the last of its limited resources to organize the Battle of the Bulge. The battle had failed in its goal of forcing the Allies to consider a negotiated peace and it had used manpower and materiel that Germany could not replace. The men killed and resources used in the Battle of the Bulge could not be used in the defense of Germany, severely weakening the Siegfried Line. At the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Germany had almost no fuel remaining on the Western Front and only one-third of the ammunition needed to continue effective operations. Neither of these resources could be replaced, resulting in a relative weak and ineffective defense of Germany. Moreover, those resources devoted to the Battle of the Bulge could not be deployed on the Eastern Front, preventing Germany from effectively blocking the Soviet offensive through Poland and into eastern Germany.