bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany > The ETO > Ardennes/The Bulge, © 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 1 Nov 2022.
Germany mounted two major counteroffensives In the European Theater in the early winter of 1944-45. 
The largest, in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg, resulted in the Battle of the Bulge.
Links to Big Pigeon's The ETO > Ardennes/The Bulge subpages: (some are incomplete)
Battle of the Bulge Overview
The Battle of the Bulge began with a surprise attack westward into the Ardennes area of Belgium and Luxembourg by the Wehrmacht, the German army.

Wehrmacht forces had staged behind the defensive barrier known as the Siegfried Line or Westwall. The 16 December attack on the US First Army soon ruptured the US defensive line and captured thousands of prisoners.

The accompanying map shows the approximate maximum German penetration as of late 26 December. 

​The US high command was slow to recognize the magnitude of the German attack, but did manage to move additional divisions in place in time to reduce losses and prevent a deeper penetration.
The Bulge
The Bulge
The German advance stalled before the end of December. By the end of January, US forces, with help from our Allies, had eliminated the bulge and were again on the offensive.
The accompanying map shows the provinces of Belgium, five French-speaking in the south and five Flemish in the north. 

Most of Belgium was liberated in early September 1944. Except for V2 missile attacks in the port city of Antwerp, Belgium had suffered little damage yet from ETO operations. This was about to change.

The Battle of the Bulge extended over portions of Liege and Luxembourg provinces and a bit of Namur Province, as well as the northern portion of the country of Luxembourg.

Fortunately Wehrmacht forces never reached the Meuse River, along which the cities of Liege and Namur lie.
The Ten Provinces of Belgium
The Ten Provinces of Belgium (The south five are primarily French-speaking, the north five Dutch-speaking)
The Enemy Goals
Adolf Hitler planned the Ardennes counteroffensive having the grandiose goal of advancing to Antwerp, thus splitting the Allied forces and seizing the Allies' major port.

German generals, having a more-realistic view of the situation, hoped for a more moderate goal of breaching the Meuse River.
After the Bulge
Neither Hitler's goal or the goal of his generals was realized. The German counteroffensive stalled short of the Meuse River.

The Battle of the Bulge resulted in an Allied strategic victory. The German army lost valuable reserves and were eventually forced to withdraw. However, Allied losses in men and material were roughly the same as German losses.

As collateral damage, around 3,000 civilians were killed during the Battle of the Bulge, by air attacks, ground fire, and atrocities.

The German Ardennes counteroffensive in the Ardennes and the parallel January German Nordwind counteroffensive in northern Alsace weakened the Wehrmacht's ability to resist subsequent Allied advances on both the ETO and Russian fronts.  They marked the transition between the hard-fought War of Attrition in the fall of 1944 and the relatively easy Allied advance through the remainder of the Siegfried Line and on to the Rhine in the late winter of 1944-45.
The 1944 Bartholomew Map of Belgium and Luxembourg
Here is a 1944 map showing the portion of Belgium and Luxembourg fought over during the Battle of the Bulge.

Don't confuse the Belgian province of Luxembourg with the country of Luxembourg.

​The map on the right has two much detail to be of much use. The scalable version shows all of Belgium with much detail, but may be slow to load on your computer.

This map was produced in 1944 by Bartholomew & Sons, Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Bulge Area in 1944
The Bulge Area in 1944
1944 Scalable Map of All of Belgium
​Sources for Big Pigeon's The ETO > Ardennes/The Bulge webpage:
Major sources:Sources for webpage images: (C/O = courtesy of) ​

​The following is my work area. Please ignore.
​
Links to the former ETO > Enemy Counteroffensives subpages:
Possible reorganization with battle emphasis:
Enemy Counteroffensives
     Ardennes - About the Bulge
         The Wehrmacht Attacks
         Elsenborn Ridge
         The St. Vith Salient
         The Road to Dinant
         Bastogne
         ...   
     uAlsace - Nordwind, January 1945

The Bulge, 21-25 December
The Bulge, 26-31 December
The Bulge, 1-19 January
The Bulge, 20-25 January


Links to the former ETO > Enemy Counteroffensives subpages:
Possible reorganization with battle emphasis:
Enemy Counteroffensives
     Ardennes - About the Bulge
         The Wehrmacht Attacks
         Elsenborn Ridge
         The St. Vith Salient
         The Road to Dinant
         Bastogne
         ...   
     uAlsace - Nordwind, January 1945

The Bulge, 21-25 December
The Bulge, 26-31 December
The Bulge, 1-19 January
The Bulge, 20-25 January
​Early that fateful day, the three armies of the Wehrmacht's Army Group B all smashed westward into the weakly-defended lines of the US First Army's V and VIII Corps.

Soon the ETO began feeding divisions into the Bulge area in an effort to contain the Wehrmacht advance.

The Sixth Panzer Army in the north of the Bulge was contained first. Further south, the Fifth Panzer Army continued to advance for ten days.

​After the Wehrmacht advance was halted, it took an additional month for US forces to eliminate the Bulge.

Neither the grandiose German goal nor the more moderate goal of crossing the Meuse River was realized. The result was an American strategic victory. The German army lost valuable reserves and were eventually forced to withdraw. However, Allied losses in men and material were roughly the same as German losses.