The Battle of the Bulge began on this day 81 years ago...

My grandfather was one of the troops rushed over there after the battle started to try to plug the hole. They stopped the Germans and he eventually got wounded in a smaller action known as the battle of Banholtz Woods in February 1945 as the allies were pushing back into Germany. He was in the 94th Div. As a kid I remember seeing him with his shirt off and he had a huge hole/scar in his shoulder from shrapnel. I also recall him telling a story when I was a kid about his company running across a road and the germans were shooting down the road at them with an MG42 and the tracers were going between him and the man running in front of him. Crazy stuff. Wish he was around still so I could ask him all about it.

My wife had a battle with the bulge last month

Pretty remarkable that some of the foxholes the troops dug in the woods of the Ardennes are still there 81 years later.

Can't fathom what it was like... freezing your nuts off while getting shelled by artillery left and right. We went from this to boys thinking they are girls.

it's hard to travel around the ardennes today, let alone 80 years ago. i've stood in the woods overlooking Foy where easy company made that charge through the snow. for you band of brothers guys, it's the attack where spears takes over from dike. It's amazing anyone made it across the field. they'd been outside for a month and getting the shite shelled out of them and somehow made that attack. different type of dude man.

and we bitch when starbucks doesn't have a blueberry muffin. we suck compared to them

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Can't fathom what it was like... freezing your nuts off while getting shelled by artillery left and right. We went from this to boys thinking they are girls.

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We are 100% in the good times create weak men phase of history.

My paw paw fought in the Bulge with the 78th Infantry Lightning Division. Broke through the enemy lines near the towns of Simmerath and Kesternich in January 1945.

I’ve often wondered what effect on the war it would have been had Hitler not squandered his two best panzer armies in this hopeless attempt to take Antwerp. I mean, I know the Germans would still lose the war. That was inevitable by December 1944. But what if he’d have concentrated 5th and 6th Panzer Division on the Eastern Front instead?

Which, I’m aware the 6th Panzer Army did later go east after Watch Am Rein failed where they were wasted in another pointless attack, this time to try to save Vienna, while the 5th Panzer Army remained in the West and was eventually destroyed in the Ruhr Pocket. But what if these two formations had not been squandered and instead had been held in reserve east of Berlin to defend the approaches to capital?

Consider the devastating casualties the Germans inflicted on the Red Army with what amounted to cobbled together shattered kempfgrupen fleshed out with poorly trained and poorly equipped press-ganged Luftwaffe ground crews, Kreigsmarine sailors, Hitlerjugen boys, and the old men of the Volkstrum. But imagine along with these cannon-fodder formations, the Germans also had both the well trained and superbly equipped 5th and 6th Panzer Armies at their disposal, intact and dug in on the Seelow Heights, I’d say it’s entirely possible thy could have held the Soviets back long enough for the Western Allies to reach Berlin first. The American 83rd Infantry Division was less than 50 miles from Berlin at that time. Considering the high level of mobility of the American Army by this point of the war, a move of 50 miles was nothing.

Of course Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight Eisenhower, who had already made it clear he had zero intentions of going for Berlin, would have to be convinced to change his mind on the matter. But, had the Red Army been stopped cold and taken even more gargantuan casualties in the process of trying to even reach Berlin, it’s possible Ike may have seen the need to help out our Soviet allies and end the war as soon as possible by taking Berlin himself. Most in the German High Command already fully realized they were doomed to total defeat. They knew Berlin was going to be taken, the only question was by who. And to a man they all far and away preferred it be the Americans than the Soviets. Considering this fact, along with the scant German forces still facing the Americans, coupled with the fact there were very few formations in Berlin itself at this time as they were all on the eastern approaches to the city, Berlin could have been easily taken from the west by the US Army.

Now how would that change the post-war power structure in central Europe? That’s another question.

Patton was right.

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We're had almost this exact conversation, word for word, over the Thanksgiving meal. Crazy.

We came to no solid conclusions

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It’s a question I’ve long pondered. And we are far from the first to do so. I do think the most likely outcome would be the Americans taking Berlin due to the points I laid out in my previous post.

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ETA How is your son's service going?

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He’s doing good. In fact he’s set to get married this coming April. Me and his mother are very ready and excited. We’re ready for grandbabies, the more the better. And the first step in getting them is for him to get married.

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I’ve often wondered what effect on the war it would have been had Hitler not squandered his two best panzer armies in this hopeless attempt to take Antwerp. I mean, I know the Germans would still lose the war. That was inevitable by December 1944. But what if he’d have concentrated 5th and 6th Panzer Division on the Eastern Front instead?

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Hitler's top generals were not the cream of the crop. He promoted people based on loyalty to the Nazi party, not for their strategic brilliance.