8 Things You May Not Know About the Battle of the Bulge - History in the Headlines

On December 16, 1944, Adolf Hitler launched an audacious counterattack against Allied forces in the freezing Ardennes Forest in southern Belgium and Luxembourg. In the subsequent Battle of the Bulge—so named for the 60-mile “bulge” the German blitzkrieg left in the Allied lines—the Ardennes’ American defenders were caught off guard as more than 250,000 German troops and hundreds of tanks descended on their positions. A lack of resources and fierce American resistance eventually halted the German advance, but not before some 80,000 G.I.s were killed, captured or wounded—more than in any battle in U.S. history. On the anniversary of the start of the start of Nazi Germany’s last gasp attack at the Battle of the Bulge, learn eight surprising facts about the fight Winston Churchill called “undoubtedly the greatest American battle” of World War II.