History of Sorts

On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched the last major offensive of the war, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front.

The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred the highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted the German armoured forces, and they were largely unable to replace them.

Rather than going into too many details about the battle, I found it better to show you in photographs.

American engineers emerge from the woods and move out of defensive positions after fighting in the vicinity of Bastogne.

Three members of an American patrol, Sgt. James Storey, of Newman, Ga., Pvt. Frank A. Fox, of Wilmington, Del., and Cpl. Dennis Lavanoha, of Harrisville, N.Y., cross a snow-covered Luxembourg field on a scouting mission in Lellig, Luxembourg, December 30, 1944. White bedsheets camouflage them in the snow.

German troops advanced past abandoned American equipment.

American soldiers of the 3rd Battalion 119th Infantry Regiment are taken prisoner by members of Kampfgruppe Peiper in Stoumont, Belgium, December 19, 1944.

An American soldier escorts a German crewman from his wrecked Panther tank, during the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge.

British Sherman “Firefly” tank in Namur on the Meuse River, December 1944.

Belgian civilians were killed by German units during the offensive.

U.S. POWs on December 22, 1944.

German field commanders plan the advance.

An American artilleryman shaves, in the frigid cold, using a helmet for a shaving bowl.

Infantrymen fire at German troops in the advance to relieve the surrounded paratroopers in Bastogne.

GIs of the 413th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry.

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