The Battle of the Bulge :: World War II History

The Battle of the change formThe purpose of this speech for the split up is to gain better knowledge of one of the most tragic and devastate battles of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge. To Better understand The Battle of the Bulge I will explain to you the cause of the battle, location of the battle, when it took place, who was the battle fought between, the issuing of soldiers involved, and the number of casualties. The prelude to the Battle of the Bulge began on a pass day in mid-December of 1944. Three powerful German divisions, were the last German offensives in the west at that time during World War II. They began aft(prenominal) the Normandy invasion in June 1944. Allied had forces swept rapidly through France that became stalled along the German border earlier that year in September. On December 16, 1944 taking advantage of the weather, which kept the Allied aircraft on the ground, the Germans launched a counteroffensive through the semi-mountainous and heavily-for ested Ardennes region in Germany, and advanced 31 miles into Belgium and northern capital of Luxembourg near the Meuse River. Their goal was to trap four allied armies, divide the Americans and the British to force negotiated peace along the western front, and retake the vital oasis of Antwerp in Belgium. Thinking the Ardennes was the least likely spot for a German offensive, American staff commander chose to keep the thin line, so that work force might concentrate on offensives north and south of the Ardennes known as the bulge in the Allied lines. These American lines were thinly held by iii divisions in the Allied Army and part of a forth division, darn fifth division was making a local attack and the ordinal division was in reserve. Division sectors were more than double the width of chemical formula defensive fronts, therefore there were more men scattered along a larger area. The German advance was halted near the Meuse River in of late December. Even though the German Of fensive achieved total surprise, nowhere did the American troops give ground without a fight. Within three days, the dictated American stand and the arrival of powerful reinforcements insured that the ambitious German goal was far beyond reach. In snow and sub-freezing temperatures the Germans fell hapless of their interim objective- to reach the rambling Meuse River on the edge of the Ardennes. But they managed to obviate being cut off by an Allied Pincer movement.