Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge was one of the most epic and decisive battles of World War II. In the largest American land battle of the war, the U.S. Army stopped Hitler’s well-equipped force of a half-million Germans and his final offensive in Western Europe. The victory would affect the lives of millions. 

On the Battle of the Bulge Tour we travel from Brussels to the Ardennes, Malmedy, Bastogne, Diekirch and areas that defined the fierce struggle. We get a detailed view of the soldiers, many of them untested in combat, and the Germans who opposed them.

History of the Battle of the Bulge

Addressing the first officer candidate class to graduate from Fort Benning in September 1941, Chief of Staff of the Army, George C. Marshall, reminded the citizen-soldiers turned officers that “the real leader displays his quality in his triumphs over adversity, however great, it may be.” Nowhere during World War II was this demonstrated more clearly than during the month-long Battle of the Bulge, which was the largest American land battle of the war and, in the words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, an ever great American Victory.

More than 75 years later, what most people recognize about the Battle of the Bulge is the 101st Airborne Division’s epic eight-day defense of Bastogne. As any veteran of the Ardennes will tell you, however, it was much more than that.

On the morning of December 16, 1944, a well-equipped force of a half-million Germans fell unsuspectingly along a thinly held front along the Belgian frontier. Adolf Hitler hoped that the three armies he committed to his all-or-nothing offensive would crack the Western Front wide-open, split the Allies in two and seize the vital port of Antwerp. If the attack succeeded, victory in Europe would be delayed for at least another year and Hitler might have the time he needed to bring his “wonder weapons” on line and complete the awful work of the Final Solution. It might even have caused a war weary Soviet Union to sue for peace. To the barely 80,000 Americans that found themselves in the midst of this deluge, the Führer’s ultimate objectives were unimportant; what mattered was survival in some of the most horrific combat conditions imaginable.

With the passage of time, it is easy to think that it was elite troops like the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions that made such a victory possible, but it was not. A great many of the units that fought in the Ardennes were untested in combat, their officers and men part of the massive training effort devised and overseen by General Marshall. It was citizen-soldiers and the “90 Day Wonders” who led them that ultimately won the battle, and it was the leadership lessons these men had been taught in boot-camp and officer’s candidate school that had made the difference between victory and defeat.

Our Battle of the Bulge Tour will take a detailed look at these men and the German soldiers who opposed them. Each stop will provide a chance to analyze the decisions-right and wrong-that officers on both sides made under the most stressful conditions imaginable. Guests will see how the young officers and enlisted men who had been through the Army’s training program made decisions that achieved a victory that would impact the lives of millions.

Tour Highlights

Historians