My father, Marion King, was 21 years old when he arrived at the front on October 25, 1944. He served as a forward artillery spotter and radioman with the 78th Infantry Division, 308th Field Artillery Battalion, Battery B in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe.
This month marks the anniversary of “the greatest American Battle of the war”* where American forces in World War II won a major victory simply by hanging on. The Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium was the key defensive battle of the war.
Adolf Hitler launched an offensive on Dec. 16, 1944 hoping to smash through and split the Allied lines, then advance to the Atlantic coast. The German troops’ failure to divide Britain, France and America with the Ardennes offensive paved the way to victory for the allies.
In the greatest U.S. intelligence failure since Pearl Harbor, Hitler was able to launch his attack with complete surprise, with Americans outnumbered two to one. By the time the battle ended at the beginning of February, six weeks later, U.S. forces had inserted 600,000 combat soldiers, and 400,000 support troops. One in eight Americans in uniform at the time, anywhere in the world, took part in the Battle of the Bulge, the largest battle the U.S. Army has ever fought.
American troops suffered approximately 100,000 casualties, roughly one-tenth of all U.S. combat casualties in World War II. The 106th division, the first in the path of the German attack, was almost wiped out, suffering more than 8,000 casualties. Company L of the 335th Regiment suffered 150% casualties – meaning the original members were killed, then half of their replacements.
Hitler’s mid-December timing of the attack was strategic, as freezing rain, thick fog, deep snow drifts and record-breaking low temperatures brutalized the American troops. More than 15,000 “cold injuries”—trench foot, pneumonia, frostbite—were reported that winter, determined to be one of the coldest on record.
In Bastogne, Belgium, the Germans had surrounded thousands of Allied troops, including the famed 101st Airborne Division. When the Germans demanded the surrender of the 101st on December 22, the response from its commander was “Nuts!” When the weather cleared on Christmas Day of 1944, the Allied tanks and air forces could finally maneuver and get assistance to the soldiers who were previously blocked off. The day after Christmas, Patton’s Third Army arrived and rescued the troops.
By January, the front had stabilized and the Allies could bring their superior manpower to bear, while another break in the weather allowed Allied air forces to disrupt German supplies. By the end of the month, the Allies had recaptured all of their lost territory, and the Bulge had been ground down. Victory was declared on January 25, 1945 and the war ended May 7 with Germany’s surrender.
*Winston Churchill