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Bulge, Battle of the: see Battle of the Bulge.

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Battle of the Bulge, popular name in World War II for the German counterattack in the Ardennes, Dec., 1944-Jan., 1945. It is also known as the Battle of the Ardennes. On Dec. 16, 1944, a strong German force, commanded by Marshal von Rundstedt, broke the thinly held American front in the Belgian Ardennes sector. Taking advantage of the foggy weather and of the total surprise of the Allies, the Germans penetrated deep into Belgium, creating a dent, or "bulge," in the Allied lines and threatening to break through to the N Belgian plain and seize Antwerp. An American force held out at Bastogne, even though surrounded and outnumbered. The U.S. 1st and 9th armies, temporarily under Field Marshal Montgomery, attacked the German salient from the north, while the U.S. 3d Army attacked it from the south. Improved flying weather (after Dec. 24) facilitated Allied counterattacks. By Jan. 16, 1945, the German forces were destroyed or routed, but not without some 77,000 Allied casualties.

See C. B. MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets (1984); J. S. D. Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods (1969, repr. 1995).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Bulge, Battle of the

(Dec. 16, 1944–Jan. 16, 1945) In World War II, the last German offensive on the Western Front, an unsuccessful attempt to divide the Allied forces and prevent an invasion of Germany. The “bulge” refers to the wedge that the Germans drove into the Allied lines. In December 1944, Allied forces were caught unprepared by a German counterthrust in the wooded Ardennes region of southern Belgium. The German drive, led by Gerd von Rundstedt's panzer army, was initially successful but was halted by Allied resistance and reinforcements led by George Patton. The Germans withdrew in January 1945, but both sides suffered heavy losses.

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