Battle of the Bulge order of battle

The Ardennes Counteroffensive, commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge, was a massive military operation undertaken by Nazi Germany in southern Belgium and northern Luxembourg which lasted from 16 December 1944 until 25 January 1945.

The operation was conceived entirely by German head of state and armed forces chief Adolf Hitler.

The plan was vigorously opposed by the two ranking generals who would oversee the assault, who saw only a waste of men and material with little chance of success.

The Führer dismissed all objections, convinced that the elite German forces would roll over the war-weary and/or inexperienced American formations in the Ardennes Forest and drive all the way to the English Channel port of Antwerp.

In order to mislead any Allied intelligence personnel who might discover the plan, it was given the defensive sounding name Wacht am Rhein, meaning "watch on the Rhine".

See for Allied and German Orders of Battle: December 1944 & January 1945: (Tucker-Jones pp 263–287) Oberbefehlshaber West Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt[a] Heeresgruppe B Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model[b] Armies deployed North to South: Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower Armies deployed North to South: Oberstgruppenführer der Waffen SS Josef "Sepp" Dietrich[e] Generalleutnant Otto Hitzfeld ‡ Units involved in the initial assault 16 Dec