Battle of the Bulge Timeline

The German High Command estimated losses between 81,834 and 98,024 men on the Western Front between 16 December 1944 and 25 January 1945; the accepted figure was 81,834, including 12,652 killed, 38,600 wounded, and 30,582 missing. Dupuy's estimates suggest 74,459 casualties among divisions and brigades alone through 16 January 1945.

Casualties among American divisions totaled 62,439 from 16 December 1944 to 16 January 1945: 6,238 killed, 32,712 wounded, and 23,399 missing. A preliminary Army report listed 75,482 casualties for the First and Third US Armies, while British XXX Corps losses to 17 January 1945 were recorded as 1,408.

On 7/8 January 1945, Hitler agreed to gradually withdraw forces from the tip of the Ardennes salient to east of Houffalize to avoid being cut off, though the Germans continued to resist and were only gradually pushed back.

On 17 January 1945, command arrangements within the U.S. 12th Army Group shifted as the battle concluded, with further changes following on 4 April 1945 as the Allies prepared for the final drive into Germany.

Image source: Twelfth United States Army Group

On 18 January 1945, Churchill stated to Parliament that 'the United States troops have done almost all the fighting', acknowledging the predominantly American sacrifice in the Ardennes battle.

The Battle of the Bulge ended on 25 January 1945, with the front lines pushed back roughly to where they had been before the German offensive began, at enormous cost to both sides.

The High Command of the Allied forces had planned to resume the offensive by early January 1945 after the wet season rains and severe frosts, but those plans had to be postponed until 29 January 1945 due to unexpected changes in the front.

Image source: Western Front (World War II)

By the beginning of February 1945, the lines were roughly where they had been in December 1944, meaning the German offensive had gained no lasting territorial objectives despite heavy losses.

Otto Skorzeny led Operation Greif, a false-flag operation using English-speaking Germans in captured American uniforms to sow confusion behind Allied lines during the Ardennes offensive. He was later tried at the Dachau Trials in 1947 but acquitted.

Image source: Operation Greif

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive or Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein, was an offensive campaign on the Western Front taking place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. The Germans achieved total surprise due to Allied overconfidence, faulty intelligence, bad weather limiting aerial reconnaissance, and preoccupation with offensives elsewhere.

On 16 December 1944 at 05:30, the Germans began the assault with a massive 90-minute artillery barrage using 1,600 artillery pieces across a 130-kilometer (80 mi) front on the Allied troops facing the 6th Panzer Army.

By 17 December 1944, German forces under Colonel Joachim Peiper had seized a U.S. supply depot, providing desperately needed fuel for the panzer spearheads racing westward.

Image source: Joachim Peiper

Another, smaller massacre was committed in Wereth, Belgium, approximately 6.5 miles (10.5 km) northeast of Saint-Vith on 17 December 1944, where eleven African American soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion were murdered after surrendering.

Image source: 333rd Field Artillery Battalion (United States)

During the opening days of the offensive, German forces under Peiper murdered American prisoners of war near Malmedy on 17 December 1944, an atrocity that hardened American resistance for the rest of the battle.

Image source: Malmedy massacre

On 17 December 1944, the 1st SS Panzer Division was approximately 16 hours behind schedule when its convoys departed the village of Lanzerath en route west to the town of Honsfeld, delaying the entire German timetable.

Image source: 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

Peiper's forces took 36 hours to advance from the Eifel region to Stavelot, while the same advance had required only nine hours in 1940, illustrating how much slower the 1944 offensive progressed through stiffening resistance and congested roads.

The battle around Bastogne received a great deal of media attention because in early December 1944 it was a rest and recreation area for many war correspondents, who covered the encircled town's defense extensively.

Image source: Siege of Bastogne

On 24 December 1944, the U.S. 2nd Armored Division engaged and blunted the German spearhead near Celles, marking a decisive check on the westernmost point of the German advance.

Image source: 2nd Armored Division (United States)

Five copies of a report by the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service – Indications of the German Offensive of December 1944, derived from ULTRA material, were issued on 28 December 1944. Rose, head Air Adviser in Hut 3, described it as 'an extremely good report' showing the failure of intelligence at SHAEF and the Air Ministry.

Image source: MI6

After receiving news of the Malmedy massacre, during the counteroffensive at the southern shoulder on New Year's Day 1945, American soldiers of the inexperienced 11th Armored Division executed approximately sixty German prisoners of war near the Belgian village of Chenogne, 8 km from Bastogne.

Image source: Chenogne massacre