The Battle of the Bulge - Essay Example

History The Battle of the Bulge The Battle of Bulge was a bold initiative by the Germans to win over their Allies. The battle is undoubtedly the biggest war ever fought by the army of the United States (U.S.). The U.S. invested more vehicles, equipment, supplies, aircrafts, men and effort in this battle than it has ever done in any war since time immemorial. As the Allied forces were approaching Germany, they displaced the Germans in every town they passed through to a point where they were contented that they had won the war. Contrariwise, Hitler was busy devising tactics to stop the momentum which the contemporary press came to dub as the ‘Battle of the Bulge’ to depict the inward bulging nature of the allied front during the period of war. The aim of the war, which was Hitler’s initiative, was to divide the Allied forces into two by advancing through the Ardennes wooded area in Belgium and Luxembourg to make it easy for the German troop to penetrate the stronghold of the Allied, the Antwerp port. Hitler scheduled the war in such a manner that the weather would disadvantage the Allied forces (Bruning and John 1). The result was fear, panic, and physical misery for both sides. Both sides depended majorly on artillery to sustain the war. This mutual application caused an impermanent deadlock. As the artillery of the Americans helped them extend out, the Germans used their guns to counter the several advancement attempts by the American Infantrymen. Due to the bad weather experienced, the American warplanes were grounded and the ground observers were the only feasible agents of fire support. Additionally, the Americans were better positioned in the possession of firearms as compared to the Germans. Experienced German soldiers were aware of this fact since they had prior encounters with the Americans in battles. However, in the initial stages of the battle, the Germans used artillery in punching gaps in defensive positions of the Frontline. Intrinsically, the tasks of the forward ground observers became salient since the most of the fire from the Allies was observed. The German’s initial barrage, such as changing of road signs, giving of wrong directions and cutting off telephone lines projected the disruption of the communication system used by the Allies. A poor communication network, translated to direct fire on the approaching German troops in the pursuit of attacking only for the troops to overrun them (Walker, 90). Nevertheless, the American gunners managed to stall the advancements of the German army with a result of a stalemate that was gory. The bad weather conditions did not only affect the Allied forces, but also the German army men started to fight for warmth and shelter in the Ardennes, apart from fighting the allies. The Germans employed the tactic of camouflage by engaging in the battle in white suits to match with the snow. The Ardennes’s people welcomed allied forces into their homes, where they received nursing for their wounds and for those who were ill from the bad weather conditions. These people also shared fuel, blankets, and food to the Allied soldiers when the circumstances called for such. There were even volunteer surgeons who flew in by the military glider to the Ardennes to help in the operation of wounded Allied soldiers. The support the Allies received from the people reduced the chances of the German troops winning the battle. Both sides of the war suffered major losses. The US, for instance, had a casualty count of 75,482. Of these, 8,407 were confirmed killed with 101 of them being unarmed prisoners of America, 46,170 were wounded with the remaining 20,905 reported to be missing as at the end of January. The British Army had 1,408 casualties of which 200 were killed, 239 confirmed wounded, and 969 reported to be missing in action. On the side of the Germans, their number of casualties varied based on the parameters. The figure ranges between 67,200 and 98,025. Considering the minimum figure, 11,171 died, 34,439 severely wounded and 23,150 reported to be missing in action. The enemy discernably captured the missing casualties. Also, the allied forces lost 730 tanks, including tank destroyers, and assault guns as compared to the Germans who only lost 610, representing a forty five percent loss in initial strength, during the Battle of the bulge (Zaloga et. Al. 92). At the end, the Germans had more casualties as there was a restoration of the original line of the Germans and the allied in the Ardennes. Artillery and armor played a key role during the battle. Germans used 24 jet fighters during the entire war. Indeed, the American defenders were stunned, as per Hitler’s plan, allowing the German Panzer armies to charge forward using the Loshein gap into Ardennes. The confusion created caused many troops to surrender and withdrew from the force, but the leaders of the Allied force attributed to the withdrawal and surrender on fatigue. After the weather cleared up, the American army counterattacked. They used P-47 fighters to stratify the German troops using the roads and invaded the supply lines for the Germans. Seeing this, the German army responded by launching a heavy raid on the Allied force’s airfields which destroyed 465 planes of the Allies while costing the Germans 253 pilots and 277 aircrafts. Patton, the leader of the Allied troops, armored 108 infantrymen with 1,295 guns in order to counter the attacks from the enemy. On average, both troops fired more than a thousand rounds of artillery enhanced by the mortar fire in a single day. The Allied troops lost 158 armored cars and halftrack, 6 M 7 guns that were self-propelled, 125 tanks of M4 type and 38 tanks of M5 in a single division throughout the battle. The Allied forces used a total of 1600 artillery pieces and 955 rocket launchers in the course of the war (Zaloga, ‘US Antitank Artillery’ 36). Within a very short time period, the battle consumed considerable resources. One of the major turning points of the battle of the war was the change of weather that worked to the Allied force’s advantage. The Germans would use loudspeakers to taunt the Allied forces while asking them their preferred method of death during the Christmas. Hitler took advantage of the desperate nature of the Allied and even offered them a chance to surrender. In response, the American Commander told Hitler that doing so was ‘Nuts’. After the Commander sort for divine intervention from God, the fog lifted as the Christmas was approaching. With this, the Allies were able to overcome the initial shortcomings that they were experiencing by launching their planes that helped in aerial observation to identify targets and for communication purpose. The American defenders were able to bar the Germans from intersecting through the Meuse River (Tucker 1682). The good weather conditions set the Allies on a good ground to fight because they greatly depended on the weather. Bastogne’s abrupt preference as a salient location for logistics had a major turnaround in the war. Initially, none of the two groups deemed Bastogne as a vital point not until the launch of the Battle of the Bulge. After being barred from crossing the river, the German troops opted to go to the east side to take advantage of the success they had had that far. Intrinsically, Bastogne was attractive to both the German troops and Allied forces. Hitler rendered the town a potential communication thereat for the Germans and hence consecrated the army to concentrate their attacks on the town. On the other hand, the Allied forces got the town garrisoned with 18,000 soldiers while 45,000 troops of Germany surrounded it (Tolhurst 9). Securing the central town favored the Allies in winning the war. Fuel was the main factor for the victory in the battle. The German troops were able to hold a gasoline pump of the Allied in the Spa town, which contained 25,000 fuel gallons. However, the allied forces acted quickly to save the pump by deploying more soldiers to the town immediately. Fortunately, they were successful and the once peaceful town was restored to its initial nature. The Germans mission to delay the moment of advancement for the Allies failed. The triumph of the Allied forces came when the German troops ran out of fuel. Bombing the Germans fuel gallons was a strategic move by the Allies to pin down the enemies in the long term. Germans were not able to move any further due to the lack of supplies on top of the insufficient fuel that remained. Peiper, the Waffen-SS officer in Germany and his group started to run back to Germany on foot after running out of fuel, abandoning their tanks and war vehicles (Green, Michael and James 94). Exhausting fuel translated to an equivalent exhaust in the Germans strength and hence victory in the battle. The massacre of the American prisoners also created a major turnaround to the war. The German’s Panzer forces got a section of the Allied forces to surrender after engaging in a brief battle. In revenge for the troops lost during previous encounters, the leader of the troop shot the Allied forces, which constituted American prisoners, and later spread the brutality to all the other captured troops using machine guns. They surveyed the shot bodies to ensure there was no life spared. However, 43 of the allied soldiers survived the attack by cheating death. On a revenge mission, the American army focused to kill all the German troops without sparing any of them. This served as a catalyst for the Allied forces to engage aggressively in the battle. In the process of executing their mission, they conquered the Germans by restoring the initial ‘line’ (Zaloga, ‘Vith and the Northern Shoulder’ 68). The battle transformed to revenge calculated one rather that a territory securing one. Conclusion The Battle of Bulge was a genius trick by the Germans to win over the Allies. The battle came as a surprise to the Allies despite the captured Germans leaking the plan to them, something that they ignored. Initially, Hitler’s plan proved potent when the Allies did not attack. However, the rude response from the American commander and of the fog drying up made it a fairground for the fight. The Allied forces were able to secure Bastogne town through the aircrafts that helped in communication and spotting of targets like fuel gallons of the Germans. The motivation came from the revengeful nature of the Allies in response to the massacre committed on the American prisoners. Since fuel was a major requirement for the troops to maintain the battle, the Germans lost the battle when they ran out of fuel. Nature, revenge and strategic planning helped the Allies restore the initial ‘line’. It was wise to plan a surprise attack, but it ended up exacerbating the Germany army, which was not effective even before the war. Works Cited Bruning, John R, and John R. Bruning. The Battle of the Bulge: The Photographic History of an American Triumph. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press, 2011. Print. Green, Michael, and James D. Brown. War Stories of the Battle of the Bulge. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press, 2010. Print. Tolhurst, Michael. Bastogne. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Leo Cooper, 2001. Print. Tucker, Spencer. Almanac of American Military History. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2013. Print. Walker, John R. Bracketing the Enemy: Forward observers in World War II. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. Print. Zaloga, Steve. Us Antitank Artillery: 1941-45. Oxford: Osprey Publ, 2011. Print. Zaloga, Steve, Peter Dennis, and Howard Gerrard. Battle of the Bulge 1944: 2. Oxford: Osprey, 2012. Internet resource. Read More