Victory in Europe Day: 7 important Allied victories against the Nazis
6. The Battle of the Bulge – Dec. 16, 1944 to Jan. 25, 1945
In an effort to counteract the advances of the Western Allies following the D-Day landings at Normandy, over 200,000 German troops and about 1,000 tanks launched a counteroffensive.
Axis forces centered their attack on the Ardennes Forest, a 75-mile stretch of the western front located in modern day Belgium and Luxembourg, where the Allies lacked a strong presence.
Although German forces initially broke through the lines, creating the "bulge" for which the battle was named, Allied reinforcements arrived and gradually repulsed the counterattack.
"Never again would Hitler be able to launch an offensive in the west on such a scale," explained the U.S. Army's official website. "An admiring British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill stated, 'This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.'"
"Indeed, in terms of participation and losses, the Battle of the Bulge is arguably the greatest battle in American military history."
