Battle of the Bulge | Animated History

In the snowdrifts of Bastogne, a young GI grips his rifle. The Americans stand ready to meet their foes, eager to have a stand-up fight after nights of fruitless watches. Our GI scans the treeline, expecting to see black-clad SS soldiers burst forth into his firing line. Gunfire in the distance, the din of combat. Finally, some action. Figures emerge from the trees, and he raises his rifle to... those aren't Germans. As his comrades from the 99th Division dive into cover, scrambling to get as far away from the forest as they can, our GI grabs a runner by the arm. What's going on? The haggard soldier from the 99th barely gets it out. The 99th is gone, and the SS who wiped them out are right behind them. Hi, I'm Griffin Johnson, the Armchair Historian. The Battle of the Bulge was Nazi Germany's final attempt to wrestle back control of the war on the Western Front. At this stage of the war, Germany was hemmed in on three sides, and the Nazis had few options to relieve the pressure. An offensive in the east would simply be swallowed by the immense Soviet Red Army, while doubling down on the Italian front would have only a marginal impact. To Hitler, the natural option was a surprise push across the relatively lightly defended Ardennes and a drive toward the Dutch coast to force a wedge between the Commonwealth and American forces, and if he was lucky, force the Allies into a second evacuation like Dunkirk. The Battle of the Bulge is sometimes considered the climactic conclusion to the Western Front of the Second World War, a last-ditch attempt by a crumbling regime to avoid being consigned to the dustbin of history. But while Germany's bid for world domination was arguably doomed from the start, today's sponsor, Humankind, gives you a chance to rewrite the historical record and leave your mark on a living, breathing world that constantly challenges you with the consequences of your actions. Build your legacy by combining traits from 60 historical civilizations and progress from a primitive tribal society to a continent-spanning superpower. Humankind also features immersive tactical combat, an aspect I personally love as it's something I've actually never seen in a 4X game. With complex terrain interactions, Humankind lets you fight your own Battle of the Bulge as either a victorious conqueror or a failing superpower, struggling to stave off the final defeat of your empire. The Wehrmacht laid out their plans in the utmost secrecy. Codenaming the offensive Operation Wacht am Rhein after a Prussian patriotic anthem. Only a handful of Hitler's closest commanders knew of the plan, and each was forced to sign a pledge of secrecy on pain of death before learning its details. Regimental commanders, meanwhile, were only to be briefed the day before the attack was to take place. To avoid tipping off the Americans, troops moved across the thickly forested Eifel region during the night and sheltered in villages by day, with their vehicles concealed in barns. Maps were distributed only at the very last moment, and total radio silence was observed. Consequently, Allied air reconnaissance completely failed to notice these new troop concentrations. Though made a high priority, Wacht am Rhein was a divisive operation. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was an ardent supporter, but many other commanders remained skeptical, believing the units would be better utilized in the defense of the Reich. General Siegfried Westphal was among those who did not believe the available forces could ever reach the River Meuse, but refrained from raising any objections for fear of being labeled a defeatist. Gerdt von Rundstedt and Walter Model also agreed this was simply one of Hitler's map fantasies, although Model saw the offensive as a final gamble he had no choice but to carry out. The Allies certainly didn't expect an attack. The highest echelons of Allied command assumed the Germans were preparing a counterattack against an American crossing of the River Rohr. On the eve of the offensive, British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery said, the shortages of German manpower, equipment, and resources precluded any offensive action on their part. He wasn't far wrong. Field commanders knew fuel would be a major problem, particularly in the difficult terrain of the Ardennes. The 6th Panzer Army under Sepp Dietrich would advance in the north. The 5th Panzer Army under Hasso von Manteufel in the center, and Erich Brandenburger's 7th Army would take the south. The two Panzer forces were to push toward Antwerp, while the infantry would protect the southern flank against General George S. Patton's 3rd Army. Dietrich was to cross the vital bridges over the River Meuse within the first 24 hours of the assault before pushing on to Antwerp. Manteufel, meanwhile, would capture Brussels. To reach the Meuse, the Germans first had to pass through the junctions at Saint-Vite and Bestone, the capture of which was crucial for maintaining a stream of supplies to the advancing forces. The 6th Panzer Army advancing toward Monschau was given special priority by Hitler. It included the elite of the Waffen-SS, most notably Kampfgruppe Peiper, led by its ruthless namesake. Peiper's unit, consisting of roughly 4,800 men and 800 vehicles, would form the vanguard of the northern thrust. The offensive would be preceded by Operation Greif, during which a special brigade, trained under the command of SS-Colonel Otto Skorzeny, was to adopt American customs and infiltrate enemy lines dressed as American soldiers to capture key bridges. Eight of his nine jeep teams managed to slip through the net undetected, cutting wires, tampering with road signs, and committing minor acts of sabotage. One even managed to misdirect an entire infantry regiment. The Germans would not find themselves facing the cream of America's fighting men. The American defenders comprised six divisions of VII Corps, most of them brand new to the field or redeployed to the Ardennes as a kind of working vacation after intense battle. Days before the attack, the 106th Infantry Division heard tanks and other vehicles moving to their section of the front, but their inexperience gave them no idea what it meant. Even the experienced 4th Infantry Division assumed the engine noises were merely one of Volk's Grenadier Division replacing another. In the early hours of December 16th, the Americans were torn from sleep by the screams of rockets and bone-rattling pounding of field guns. Sepp Dietrich's 6th Panzer Army had opened fire against known US Army positions in the first action of the battle. As the GIs scrambled out of their sleeping bags, Manteuffel, who had decided to ignore Hitler's insistence on an opening artillery barrage, crossed the River Sauer in secret, preferring to take the sleeping Americans by surprise. As he did so, engineer battalions began bridging the River Uhr so the 116th, 2nd, and 130th Panzer Lehr could follow. Evidently the gambit succeeded. A number of American soldiers panicked and fled. One officer acknowledged that a few men broke under the strain, wetting themselves repeatedly or vomiting or showing other severe symptoms. Many American positions were surrounded and captured, but others were defended in stunning acts of bravery, such as when Lieutenant Lyle J. Buch, Jr. of the 99th Division held a knoll at Lanzerat for the entire day with only 18 men. They killed and wounded over 400 enemies at a cost of just one life. The fierce resistance of the 99th held up Kampfgruppe Peiper in particular. In his impatience, Peiper ordered his vehicles to push forward rapidly and to ruthlessly run down anything in their way, even driving them through the American minefield at the cost of five Panzers. Although the element of surprise counted for a lot, the German advance was not a total success and suffered from numerous delays and errors. Early in the morning, the 326th Volksgrenadier Division advanced with the aim of blocking the roads to Oppen and Aachen and prevent any American reinforcements coming in from the north. However, the Germans' own artificial moonlight, a glow created by bouncing searchlights off clouds, silhouetted the Volksgrenadiers perfectly against the mist and snow, and the Americans had themselves a turkey shoot, forcing the 326th back within an hour. The weather was a constant irritation. German forces experienced horrendous conditions on the road and in terms of visibility, which meant while they struggled to move, the Allies also struggled to impose their air power over the battlefield. Nevertheless, on December 17th, the Germans were satisfied with their progress, and morale was high. A soldier in the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division wrote, That day, Eisenhower ordered all reserve formations to the front. He decided that Bastogne, through which the main roads leading to the Meuse passed, was the obvious place to block the German advance. The 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions were immediately dispatched. If the 101st could reach Bastogne before Mannteufel's spearhead, perhaps the Screaming Eagles could turn the tide. Eisenhower had ample reason to be concerned. Peiper had chosen to ignore the route mapped out by Hitler due to muddy tracks, instead capturing Hunsfeld and Bollingen, where he seized a fuel dump unopposed. At each village, his men massacred American POWs and local villagers. Peiper committed his most heinous crime at Bounier. Here, he murdered 84 POWs of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion in what would become one of the most infamous episodes on the Western Front. Hereafter, rumors of the SS massacres spread fear among the American forces. In the south, Mannteufel's 5th Panzer Army moved against the 28th Division, surrounding the ancient town of Clairvaux, which was defended heroically, but ultimately fruitlessly, by outnumbered and outgunned men. Despite this brave defense, 1st Army HQ ended the day in somber spirits, fearing the Germans were on the verge of forming vital bridgeheads over the Meuse. The next day, the Germans continued their assault, overrunning American positions in an attack against the last battalion of the 2nd Division. Just 197 Americans survived the assault. Their final stand, combined with artillery support, helped save the rest of the division. 1st Army HQ was hastily evacuated and moved to Chaux-de-Fontaine, but defenders at Trois-Ponts managed to stave off Panzer Grenadiers trying to cross the river. Searching for alternative routes, Peiper found the forested slopes at La Glaize impossible to traverse, and the bridge over the river Lien already blown up. Resistance prevented the Germans from reaching Bastogne, but US headquarters was still struck by paralysis. By the end of the day, General Bradley still had no idea 1st Army HQ had been abandoned. The Americans were fighting and dying to protect an empty house. On the 19th, Bradley and General Patton were summoned to Verdun to meet Eisenhower. The meeting led to a reorganization of the Allied defense, and thanks to intercepted communications, they now had a clearer idea of the lay of the land. Eisenhower insisted there would be no withdrawal behind the Meuse. Instead, Alexander Patch's 7th Army would extend northward to cover for part of Patton's 3rd Army, while Patton himself would advance to Bastogne to relieve the city's beleaguered defenders. Both sides continued to suffer heavy casualties over the next few days, with repeated German attempts to capture Bastogne repulsed by heavy American artillery bombardments. Nonetheless, by the evening of the 21st, the town was almost entirely surrounded. Despite resistance and delays, the Germans were confident. One cheerful Leutnant wrote to his wife, You cannot imagine what glorious hours and days we are experiencing now. It looks as if the Americans cannot withstand our important push. On the 22nd, the German commander Lütwitz sent the Americans a demand to surrender. General Anthony McAuliffe, in charge of Bastogne's garrison, simply sent the words NUTS in return. Yet the demand was a bluff. Lütwitz lacked the strength to annihilate the defenders, preferring instead to wait for reinforcements or else starve the besieged men out. The latter was a distinct possibility, as the Americans lacked resupply and had been constantly shelled. If they didn't starve, they may well have just broken. The snow had returned too, causing poor visibility, with Americans and Germans frequently crossing each other's lines in the murk. Meanwhile, another attack on Saint-Vite drove away the last of the American defenders there, although traffic jams faced by the Germans the following day would give the US Army time to regroup and pull back to form a new line. The next day marked a turning point. The weather finally cleared. The skies were suddenly filled with Allied aircraft, allowing transport planes to conduct a massive supply drop of ammunition, fuel, rations, and medical supplies all around Bastogne. Meanwhile, fighter-bomber attacks proved extremely effective at breaking up German attacks as they were assembling. However, General Patton struggled to punch through to Bastogne, and was repeatedly stymied by ruined bridges that had been blown up by American engineers earlier in the battle. On the 24th, Acting Chief of the General Staff, Heinz Guderian, visited Hitler to argue that the Ardennes Offensive had clearly failed to achieve its goals and was not worth continuing, calling instead for renewed attention on the Eastern Front. Hitler, however, refused to withdraw. He would have been cheered by an apparent German triumph early that morning, when forward elements of the 2nd Panzer Division reached Celle. This would be the furthest west the Germans would reach during the battle, but it would only be a fleeting victory. Ammunition and fuel were running dangerously low, to the point that even a complete withdrawal from their positions had become impossible. Food, too, was short, and by the time the Allied troops had entered Celle the following afternoon, they encountered only famished and exhausted Panzer troops. That night was Rundstedt's turn to inform Hitler the offensive had failed. But still, the Fuhrer refused to order a withdrawal, angrily dismissing him. On the 26th, Patton finally relieved Bastogne. True to form, Patton arrived via a reckless charge straight through the Assenois and north into Bastogne, covered by artillery fire and airdropped Napalm. It succeeded in driving a hull through German lines, allowing troops and tanks from the 4th Armored Division to rush in and relieve the town. By this point, Hitler no longer made any mention of Antwerp. Instead, Bastogne was to become his symbol of victory, and he wanted no effort spared in capturing it. Refusing to listen to the protestations of his commanders, Hitler ordered the creation of Army Group Lütwitz out of the remains of his forces to crush the town's defenders. The Germans launched attack after attack against Bastogne. But by the beginning of 1945, total Allied air superiority and relentless American artillery salvos had caused massive casualties. German resistance and poor weather slowed the advance. And by the 11th of January, there were unmistakable signs that the Germans were withdrawing. At the end of the month, the front line had been more or less restored to its position before the offensive. And the Germans had totally failed to reverse the course of the war. And despite inflicting heavy casualties upon the Americans, they had only succeeded in delaying the inevitable. Total, unconditional defeat just four months later.