Battle of the Bulge
On 16 December 1944, Germany launched Operation Watch on the Rhine — its last major western offensive — through the Ardennes forest, the same route that had shattered the French front in 1940. Thirty German divisions struck a weak sector of the American line, creating a 'bulge' 90 kilometres deep and threatening to reach Antwerp and split the Allied armies. The response was defined by the encircled American garrison at Bastogne, which refused to surrender (the famous 'Nuts!' reply of General Anthony McAuliffe), and by the rapid relief by Patton's Third Army, which turned his army 90 degrees north in 48 hours — a logistical feat of extraordinary skill. The German offensive consumed their last armoured reserves; when it was driven back by January 1945, Germany had nothing left with which to stop the Allied advance to the Rhine. The Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last offensive in the west, and the largest single battle the United States Army fought in World War II: 840,000 Americans engaged, with 75,000–80,000 casualties.
- Year: 1944 CE
- Category: Military
