The Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge

Introduction

The Battle of the Bulge in late 1944 was the last battle on the Western Front WW2. It 'was the greatest battle that involved the U.S. Army, and was ultimately a defeat for the German army. The strategic context of the Battle of the Bulge can be considered as a last attempt to turn a war that Germany had lost almost all cases. In 1944 the success of Operation Overlord, the Allies had allowed us to establish a beachhead in France. Besides this, the release of low-and Paris in August seemed to suggest that the war was far from over (Parker, 1991). The success of the Red Army to liberate Poland also seemed to confirm this. However, for all the defeats some strategic advantage had been gained for the Germans (Parker, 1999). First, the loss of territory, guaranteed that Germany reserves were now defending less territory. Secondly, the Allies were over-running their supply lines in the West who have advanced to Paris, but with the French ports as Cherborg sunk by the Germans their supplies have been slowed (Ambrose, 1998). As such, the Allied advance was slow and needs to re-apply. Similarly, Germany now had hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the reserves available. As such, Germany had two options either to plan a new advance or create a defensive perimeter. Some plans have been proposed as possible before it was confirmed that the German reserves would be used to hit the thin Allied lines near the Ardennes forest. The objectives were to spit the Allied armies in the West (Marshall, 1996). By dividing the United States and the armies of the United Kingdom, could then be pushed back to the channel. Such a defeat for the Allies would potentially split the coalition and end the war in the West, with a negotiated peace. This would leave only the Red Army to the east. As such, the German troops were organized in the dense forest of the Ardennes. The advantage of this is that the forest camouflaged German troops in the Ardennes. As such, the Allies did not expect any German advance at the time, assuming that the war was far from over. Therefore, the further advantage of surprise was with the German army in December (Stamps & Esposito, 1995). As such, the Battle of the Bulge began as German target the weaknesses in the Allied lines around the Ardennes. It 'started well and soon the Allies withdrew emerged as a bulge in the line. However, as the Allies have awakened a potential knock-out was avoided as reinforcements and air support targeted German supply points and troops on the road. Therefore, the Allies began to restore their lines in 1945. The Battle of the Bulge was a defeat for the German army, and left the Allies are ready to advance on Germany. Overall, the advance could not be sustained in the face of military superiority of the Allies and reinforcments and Germany ...