Battle of the Bulge
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The Battle of the Bulge, also called the Ardennes Offensive and known to the Germans as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine), was a Western Front offensive campaign of the Second World War fought from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. Its aim was to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and split Allied lines, so that the Germans could encircle and destroy four Allied armies and force the western Allies to negotiate a peace favorable to the Axis. On the morning of 16 December 1944 the Germans achieved total surprise, aided by Allied overconfidence, faulty intelligence, poor aerial reconnaissance in bad weather, and overcast skies that grounded Allied air forces. American resistance at Elsenborn Ridge and Bastogne blocked key roads. The farthest west the offensive reached was Foy-Notre-Dame, southeast of Dinant, stopped by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division on 24 December 1944. Improved weather allowed air attacks, and on 26 December Patton's Third Army reached Bastogne. The offensive was effectively broken by 27 December but continued another month. Germany committed over 410,000 men, and suffered 63,000–104,000 casualties; Allied forces exceeded 700,000 men with 77,000–83,000 casualties. It was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the last major Axis offensive on the Western Front.