The Battle of the Bulge | Hitler’s failed Ardennes Offensive

Thanks for watching our penultimate video of the year! Do you think the Ardennes Offensive was doomed to fail from the beginning, or do you think it could have worked? Let us know!

I was a 19 yr old replacement - grandma's boy raised in sunny Fla, - and ended as a replacement in a foxhole in the Ardennes! I complained I couldn't feel my feet. The medics told me I'd feel them again come spring! If you're still alive, they added. I did and I was so here I still am. Just survived a prostate operation and feel like new - now 96yrs - next pause: 100!

One of the reasons so many vets settled in Florida is because of this battle, and others throughout that winter. One of them stating "I will never be cold again a single day of my life."

Bizarrely it was actually good news for the allies, the bulge took months off of the end of the war, Germany expended so much materiel there was little left for their home defence.

My uncle landed on Normandy on D day, late in the day. He then fought the Nazis across France. He was injured in the Battle of the Bulge. He spent almost a year in a French Hospital. He was wonderful, fun, loving, hard- working. Seemingly unfazed by anything. He would never discuss the war. my Mom’s birthday was Dec. 16th. He would occasionally say something about the war on her Birthday. He still had shrapnel. I remember asking him about the war. The only thing he told me was how happy he was to see Lady Liberty in the New York Harbor and how we would never ever leave the USA again. RIP.

I knew a guy who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and froze his feet. He was able to work as a long time telephone line repairman but his feet always bothered him until the day he died. R.I.P. Bob Preboski.

My great grandfather fought in this battle. Ended up in the hospital after a shell exploded nearby. He also had frozen feet. I remember he told me a tank drove over him while he was in a ditch. Cant imagine how scared he mustve been..a true legend. Rip grandpa augie.

Yesterday, Friday , June 17th 2022, I was honored by Officiating the Funeral Service for Pfc William F. Werkman co. A, 3rd Bn., 394th Inf. Reg. 99th Inf. Div., one of the last few survivors of the Battle of the Bulge. He was 100 year old. Bill will be greatly missed! Rest in peace Soldier, and one last time, Thank you for your Service Sir!

My dad 82nd airborne, after borrowing a German half-track he was wounded in Belgium,his buddies protected him while shooting the gun and saved him when he got hit,,,I love those guys

Patton was prepared to counterattack even before the German offensive. He anticipated it and had plans ready in case it happened. That was how he was able to disengage and turn his army North to relieve Bastogne so fast.

His situation was SO hopeless, anything was worth a try. But the allies would have needed to have made multiple terrible decisions over and over again to accommodate the more or less hopeless plan. Hard to imagine all those decisions being made badly.

A longtime close friend of mine said her first husband died in the Battle of the Bulge. A co-worker said her father died in it just before she was born. Their stories made this battle not an historical event or a series of lines on a map, but deeply personal.

I had a great uncle who was separated from his unit and lost in the Ardennes forest for a while. As the family lore goes, at one point he walked into a clearing right as a German soldier, similarly lost and alone, walked into it from the other side. They eyed each other for a while, both armed but both also exhausted and cold, until they decided not to take their chances, and they both turned around and walked away. That side of my family was only two generations removed from immigrating from Germany at the time, and ALL of them (four brothers from one family and several others too) served as soldiers or aviators in Europe. That had to be gutwrenching. Also, I have visited Bastogne a couple of times and I highly recommend the museums. It's a wonderful place to visit and they still love to see Americans 😅

Great summarized narration and the MAP Graphics made it so simple and clear, for the first time (age 63, my uncle fought in the Ardennes w/ 29th ID), I got it!! many thanks

Both the Germans and the Japanese had this idea of a overly-complicated "one significant battle" to win the war.

I was just a kid when I met Rocky Jones of price utah. He lost both legs in the Battle of the Bulge. He fought valiantly but succumbed later to the effects of it. A great man to me.

What never seems to be discussed about the battle is geography. The Ardennes tends to run from the NE to the SW. In 1940 the Germans attacked along the grain of the mountains while in 1944 they were trying to go across the grain to get to Antwerp. This meant there were much fewer openings for the German army to go through and therefore it could be much easily blocked. Secondly in 1940 because Belgium had declared neutrality the French forces were only on the edge of the Ardennes, not spread throughout it in very good defensible positions. When Patton made his counterattack from the south, it had the advantage of going with the grain of the mountains. Overall it was a really stupid plan on many levels and it is amazing it got as far as it did.

When I was in the military in the '70s and '80s, I had the honor of knowing several WW2 vets, including one retired O-6 who commanded a US infantry regiment in the ETO. I've read their battle history and it is extensive. Their division alternated between the 1st, 3rd, and 7th Army as the needs of the post-D Day Allied offensive across Northern France dictated. His brigade spearheaded the re-taking of Cherbourg and continued in combat throughout the drive across France. They had just gotten pulled off the line for a rare rest and refit when the German counteroffensive (aka the Battle of the Bulge) kicked off, and they were ordered back onto the line to help defend the southern flank of the bulge. In April they were in action in the Ruhr Pocket when Germany surrendered. Occupation duty followed, and he was later sent to Nuremburg to be on staff for the war crimes trial. His wife was a military nurse during WW2 and was at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th of '41. Both were in their 80s when I knew them in the 1980s but were still active, healthy, and mentally sharp. They were amazed that any young people wanted to talk about history and hear their stories. One of my fellow members of the military back then said his dad was also a veteran of the Bulge, and his dad had laughed when the son asked what it was like. You'd expect the typical war stories, but the dad said his strongest memory was of the cold. To paraphrase, he said if you really want to know what it was like, wait until the coldest time of the winter (in the Midwest), preferably when there's some snow on the ground, then go outside, roll yourself up in a wet blanket, and sleep on the ground that night. Then stay out there for several days with no shelter and almost no food. Never mind having to also deal with an enemy counter offensive, the weather was their most memorable adversary.

My dad was a member of the 818th tank destroyer battalion part of the 3rd army group fighting under Patton. He told me after the Malmandy massacre they took no prisoners alive.

These videos by the IWM are very well done and quite informative. I was aware of the Malmedy massacre, but not of the others that were mentioned. My father was in the U.S. 106th Infantry Division and he narrowly missed the Battle of The Bulge as he was in the Signal Corps and had been ordered to Paris for equipment. When the offensive began and the 106th did not fare well he was reassigned.