The battle of the Bulge is one of the most costly battles every fought in the history of warfare. It was a miserable fight for those on the lines. Fighting in December, the infantry soldiers were commonly faced with trench foot, frost bite, hypothermia, and extreme sleep deprivation. The Allied line between Echternach to just south of Kinschov Belgium was very thin. This distance of about 75 milies was held by only three infantry divisions and one armored division in reserve. The Allied command must not have thought that they were at to high of risk of a German attack. Few patrols were being sent out, observation posts were scarce, and arial reconnaissance was non-existent because of cloudy and snowy weather. The intel that was gathered from the O.P.s consisted of sounds of many tracked vehicals and large artillery movement on the german side of the lines. The Germans were able to get 2000 artillery pieces, ammunition, and supplies in place for the push against the weak, poorly informed allied line.

The Battle

The Germans hit the Allied line with constant, heavy bombardment. The German infantry then followed trying to clear some of the resistance and a clear path for the tanks. The dense forest made it hard for the tanks to maneuver. Dispite heavy allied losses by the end of the first day, they had forced the german tanks to find alternate routes and had slowed the German advance significantly.

Because of the poor terrain for the takns and strong allied resistance, the allies were able to pull back and organize stronger defensive positions around St. Vith and Bastogne. The 7^th armored division met up with the 106^th infantry around St. Vith just in time to hold off the German assault.

Worse problems were developing around Bastogne however. The 101^st Airborne Division had just arrived in Bastogne and was already short on supplies. Bastogne marked a very important crossroads for many major roades that the Germans needed in order to continue their advance, and therefore must be held. Now Bastogne was occupied by the 101^st, the 9^th Armored Division, 4^th Artillery Battalion and the 705^th anti-tank Battalion. They were soon to meet two German Panzer and 2 Infantry Regiments. Fierce fighting broke out north and east of Bastogne on 19 December. The 101^st and the VIII corps was ordered to evacuate Bastogne. This was later made impossible by the Panzer Lehr and the 5^th Parachute Divison who cut their escape route, the Neufchateau highway. During the night of 21 December the 101^st supply lines were cut off and Bastogne was now encircled. The allies had to continue the with with almost no supplies until the sky cleared on 23 December and the much needed artillery, ammunition, and medical supplies were dropped. The previous day four German soldiers had come under a white flag telling General McAuliffe that they were surrounded and asked for his surrender. He replied with the now famous one word line “nuts”. Still the allied lines were thinning and there were many cassualities on both sides. The future still remained grim until the 10st fought off an entire Panzer Corps and the Germans began to run out of supplies and fuel. They were stopped just 6 miles from the Meuse river not able to move any further.

Results and Aftermath