Monday is the anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, which was the last major German attack of World War II.
It was one of the bloodiest fights of the war, the U.S. Army losing over 80,000 men, states the National World War II Museum.
It was to be a counterattack after the Allies advanced into Belgium towards Germany, an operation that Hitler’s generals did not want, as the U.S. Army Center of Military History notes.
Due to the cloud cover, the Germans were able to eliminate the Allies’ air dominance at the beginning of the American battle and record low temperatures were taking their toll on the American troops, as stated by the History.com.
“I was from Buffalo, I thought I knew cold,” baseball Hall of Famer and WWII veteran Warren Spahn said in “The Love of Baseball.” “But I didn’t really know cold until the Battle of the Bulge.”
He had no family. He was not famous.Yet hundreds came out to pay their respects to this WWII veteran at his funeral.
Initial gains were fleeting as the Allies recaptured the lost territories by the end of January 1945 and the Nazis suffered between 80,000 and 100,000 casualties, according to the Army Center. The American victory and the beginning of an offensive by the Soviets on the eastern front made the fall of the Third Reich almost inevitable.
Winston Churchill described the six-week battle as the greatest American battle of the war.
Below are some pictures of the Battle of the Bulge.
