By January 25, 1945, the last German units pulled back across their original starting lines, concluding the Battle of the Bulge. The failed offensive cost Germany irreplaceable men, tanks, and aircraft it desperately needed for the defense of the Reich, hastening the collapse of the Western Front in the war's final months.
Launched on December 16, 1944, Hitler's gamble aimed to split American and British forces and seize the port of Antwerp, forcing a negotiated peace in the west. Nearly a million men fought in the freezing Ardennes forest, many American units caught completely by surprise. The 101st Airborne's stubborn defense of Bastogne, and General Patton's furious armored dash to relieve it, became legend, along with commander Anthony McAuliffe's one-word reply to a German surrender ultimatum: 'Nuts!'
By late January the bulge in Allied lines that gave the battle its name had been erased. The offensive cost Germany roughly 100,000 casualties and, crucially, hundreds of tanks and aircraft that could never be replaced. American losses were also severe, some 19,000 killed, in the largest and bloodiest battle fought by U.S. forces in World War II. Germany's last reserves were spent; within months, Allied armies crossed the Rhine.
Key people: George S. Patton, Anthony McAuliffe, Adolf Hitler