The Battle of The Bulge was an incredibly brutal battle that greatly influenced World War Two. Thousands of soldiers died on both sides, and it considerably accelerated the end of the war. After D-Day, the Allies desperately needed to regroup (The History Place 1). Hitler saw this opportunity, and decided it was time to strike (The History Place 1). The strategy, if it worked, would split the United States’ First and Third armies, which were essentially the two strongest forces (The History Place 1). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge Hitler believed it would collapse the U.S and Britain’s alliance, splitting the Allies and making it easy for Germany to crush them once and for all (The History Place 1). The Battle of The Bulge occurred in Bastogne, Belgium, and the Ardennes forest (Atkinson 86). The Ardennes was a dense, thick forest with almost no visibility, making fighting …show more content…
Even though man-to-man combat was infrequent, The Battle of The Bulge is widely considered the most brutal battle of the Western Front. Prisoners of war were being killed on both sides, which was not common in World War Two (Beevor 369). The Germans showed phenomenal military intelligence by attacking through the weakest point in the Western Front - The Ardennes (Beevor 139). Because of this, the Americans lost just over 75,000 soldiers, most from starvation, frostbite, or fear. Only 19,250 were confirmed dead, however (Beevor 367),(Atkinson 221). Although the Americans lost many, German casualties were even greater. One author states, “Perhaps the German leadership’s greatest mistake in the Ardennes was to have misjudged the soldiers of an army they had affected to despise” (Beevor 369). The Germans lost just slightly over 80,000 in the battle, many in part to frostbite or otherwise (Beevor