The+Battle+of+the+Bulge

As the Allies started from the beaches of Normandy, Germany was slowly but surely losing its conquered territory. However, the Germans were not falling back without taking a toll on Allied soldiers. They caused many a life to leave this world during their retreat and the Allies wished to find a quick way to end the war. Field Marshal Montgomery, one of Great Britain's greatest commanders proposed a daring plan. This incorporated the use of a massive airborne assualt against 3 major bridgeheads. Those were Arnhem, Nigmegen, and Eindhoven. This topic will not be explained in much detail, as all that is needed to be known is that the operation failed and that Bernard Montgomery dropped in favor with general Eisenhower, supreme commander of Allied forces. With this, the war went along as it had before: Patton kept advancing over the French contryside with his armored divisions and the Germans kept pulling back and fighting at the same time, thus inflicting heavy casualties on the Allied troops. This was the scenario all the way until Berlin, which is a surprise since the quality of German troops in the later part of the war was lacking in quite a few areas. Anyway, the Allied powers, the Soviets from the east and the British and Americans from the west, were slowly putting pressure on the Fatherland. So, Hitler decided on a very risky move. He decided to throw all his armor into one decisive battle, either he would succeed and crush the western Allies or his last veteran force would be decimated, leaving Germany open to be destroyed. The commander that was put in charge of this important operation was a young SS officer named Joachim Peiper. He commanded the 1st SS Panzer Division, which was the main striking force of the offensive. This unit was also the one responsible for the infamous Malmedy Massacre, where many an American life was lost because of a commando raid that directed the American troops in the wrong direction. Anyway, the Germans launched their offensive with a tiny air offensive. Sixteen Me 262s tried to disrupt Allied transportation by strafing the American railway lines. This had limited success for although the railway line was disabled, the German offensive did not gain enough ground in their two day offensive to make it a real important achievements. Also, as the Germans only advanced 60 miles, only a bulge was created in the American line. After those few miles of initial success, the Americans started to fight back with a ferocity that probably shocked the Germans, delaying them for a number of days. This was all the Americans needed to reinforce the sector, because a few days after High Command got word of this sudden German offensive, General Patton broke through the German left flank and disrupted their plans once and for all. this was the final offensives the Germans ever launched, and it ended up in disaster, leaving Germany in a worse disposition than before.