History Hour

Ardennes Counteroffensive - Battle of the Bulge

History Hour is a series of presentations which covers manifold events in numerous eras.

On the morning of December 16, 1944, more than 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks crashed into Allied lines in the Ardennes Forrest. The sudden and concentrated attack was immediately successful in completely surprising Allied forces. The Allies’ reaction was swift and effective. Within a few weeks, the Allies had halted the German offensive and would commence a coordinated counteroffensive to eliminate the “bulge” that the unexpected German attacks had gained. Hitler’s desperate gamble had failed, and never again would the Germans launch an offensive in the west on a similar scale.

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