The Battle of Bulge

The four troops that are sent out to the western frontline got different missions.

The commander in Chief of this Battle is Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt, who is the commander in Chief of the western sector for Nazi Germany during World War Two.

1.    The German 6^th Panzer Army led by General Sepp Dietrich is in charge to capture the city of Antwerp. Antwerp is a city in northern Belgium, it is important because it is near both Holland and Belgium’s capital cities.

2.    The German 15^th Army’s mission is to protect the German 6^th Panzer Army from the Allies attack from the north.

3.    The German 5^th Panzer Army led by General Hasso von Manteuffel is in charge of capture the city of Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

4.    The German 7^th Army’s mission is to protect the German 5^th Panzer Regiment not to get attack by the Allies army that is coming from the south.

The Nazi Germany knows that to let this plan to work they need 4 key elements

1.     The attack need to be unexpected by the Allies

2.     The weather needs to be bad for airplanes to fly- after USA join the Allies; the Allies had the control of the sky in Western Europe.

3.     The attacks need to be fast, before the Allies reinforcements arrives

4.     Need to get oil from the Allies, Nazi Germany troops are lack of oil after the Allies air force destroy most of the cities that Nazi Germany storage their oil.

Nazi Germany had a successful attack at the first two days of the battle. The weather is bad for airplanes to fly and the Allies are not prepared to fight. However, on the third day of the battle, the Nazi Germany slows down their attack because they are running out of oil. Because the Nazi Germany starts a huge attack plan, they need a lot of oil to support their army. But Germany is lacking of oil. Also, the battle is at the Allies front line, most of the Allies oil storage factories are away from the front line, which makes the Nazi difficult to attack and get oil from Allies.

On December 22 1944, 10 days after the battle start, the weather started to get clear. The Allies air forces can finally join the battle and help the Allies to have a counter attack to the Nazi Germany. Now any moving in the daytime is dangerous for Nazi Germany armies because the Allies air force can easily find and attack them.

December 24 1944, the Nazi Germany starts to attack again. But because they are out of fuel and resources, so they retreat back to Siegfried-Line, a defend line that is in between France and Germany.

On January 1 1945, because the Nazi Germany wants to keep their advantages in this battle, they sent out their last air forces to bomb the Allies armies in Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and Northern France. Most of the Nazi air forces are destroy in this day and this makes the Nazi lost their ability to start any air attacks again during World War Two.

Although the Nazi Germany had stop most of their attack in the western sector, they still hold some important positions at the front line. The Allies decide to push the Nazi back to Germany and hoping to end this battle in January 1945, so they start a counter attack from the north (English army led by General Bernard Montgomery) and south (American army led by General George Smith Patton Jr.) to push Nazi back. Most of the Nazi troops retreat backs to Germany at January 7 1945. And the battle ends.