german use of tanks in the battle of the bulge

Hitler's real target was the British-American alliance, and he saw the battle as a Juggernaut to break apart and defeat the Allied forces. The battle was fought on an 80-mile front running from southern Belgium through the Ardennes Forest, and down to Ettelbruck in the middle of Luxembourg.

More than a million men fought in the battle - 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British. It was the largest land battle of World War II in which the United States directly participated. The Battle of the Bulge, so named because of the westward bulging shape of the battleground on a map, lasted from mid-December 1944 to the end of January 1945. But before they could cross the Rhine River, they would have to face a last-stand German onslaught. Therefore, Adolph Hitler knew that the end was near if something could not be done to slow the Allies' advance.Īfter the triumphant breach of Normandy in August 1944, the Allies rushed across France with amazing speed. The Italian peninsula had been captured and liberated, and the Allied armies were advancing rapidly through France from west to east.

The Soviet Red Army was closing in on the Eastern front, while strategic Allied bombing was wreaking havoc on German cities. The Ardennes Offensive - a last-ditch effortīy late 1944, Germany was unmistakably losing the war.

German use of tanks in the battle of the bulge