Germany's last western offensive caught the Allies completely off guard in frozen Belgian forests. One American general, surrounded and outgunned, was asked to surrender. He replied: 'Nuts.'
By December 1944, Allied commanders were confident Germany was nearly beaten. Eisenhower had thinned his lines in the Ardennes forest, considering it too rough for a major offensive. On December 16, Germany proved him wrong: three armies with 410,000 men attacked through the forested hills of Belgium and Luxembourg in a surprise assault designed to split Allied forces, capture the port of Antwerp, and force a negotiated peace.
The initial assault achieved complete tactical surprise. Dense fog grounded Allied air support. German troops wore American uniforms and drove captured American vehicles in a sabotage operation that created widespread panic behind Allied lines. The attack tore a 60-mile-wide bulge in American lines — giving the battle its name. In the chaos, entire American units were overrun or captured, including 8,000 men at the Schnee Eifel — the largest American surrender since Bataan.
The German plan depended on capturing American fuel depots — the panzers didn't have enough fuel to reach Antwerp otherwise. American troops defending the depots sometimes destroyed their supplies rather than let them fall into German hands. At Stavelot, a single company of engineers held a massive fuel dump long enough for reinforcements to arrive, denying Germany the million gallons of fuel that might have changed the battle's outcome.
The key to stopping the German advance was Bastogne — a Belgian town at the junction of seven roads that controlled movement through the Ardennes. The 101st Airborne Division, rushed to the town, found itself surrounded by four German divisions. On December 22, German commanders sent a formal demand for surrender. Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe's reply became one of history's most famous: 'Nuts.'
The weather cleared on December 23, allowing Allied airpower to strike for the first time. Supply aircraft dropped ammunition and medical supplies into Bastogne while fighter-bombers tore apart German columns on the roads. General George Patton had already performed one of the most remarkable feats of the war — pivoting his Third Army 90 degrees in winter conditions and driving 100 miles north to relieve Bastogne on December 26.
The Battle of the Bulge was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the American military in World War II: 81,000 American casualties over six weeks. But Germany had exhausted its last strategic reserves — 1,000 tanks, 1,600 aircraft, hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable troops. After the Bulge, Germany could only retreat. The Rhine crossing and the final advance into Germany began within weeks.