Battlefield Detectives: " The Battle of the Bulge " 5 of 5

oh ok

Here's what I said "In 1944, Germany and its 'allies' were already retreating in the east, massively outnumbered in troops and materiel."

Basically, keep the battle in perspective. It wasn't strategic in value, even supposing the German army had managed to win it. It was a smallish battle of little importance to the overall situation the Germans faced, because of what they had already lost in the east.

Any continued confusion over this should be referred to your shallow gene pool.

so they helped them in the battle of the bulge?

The German Army had several hundred thousand 'allies' in the form of people conscripted from Romania, Hungary, and friendly Ukrainians. There were some Lithuanians and others as well.

Some were unwillingly conscripted, while others (primarily those that were from areas previously under Soviet control) helped the German armies willingly.

Some study on your part will confirm what I say.

what germany's allies?

Thanks for upping these.

In 1944, Germany and its 'allies' were already retreating in the east, massively outnumbered in troops and materiel. The BoB has a romanticism about it, but it was actually a very minor battle. 50 or a 100 thousand soldiers doesn't even make it a medium battle when a million soldiers could be turned on a whim by senior commanders.

Of course, a story about 'our boys holding the line' will always play well. And yes, I'm happy they did hold the line. But keep it in perspective.

Thanks for posting this kingtiger88

I was thinking the same thing.

before u retreat if you cannot carry your materials and equipment with you you destroy them to deny the enemy use of your equipments...

I can't remember if it was this program or not..

But my understanding is that Hitler sent the tanks in there without any supplies

The tank commanders were supposed to "look for" gas along the way

That has got to be the most ignorant war tactic ever! Can you imagine what the German Generals must have thought of hitler?

he lacked intelligence due to the secrecy of the operation. they passed an allied fuel depot by a mile and never knew it.and by this time hitler was calling all the shots instead of letting his generals do thier jobs,hitler was a politician not a commander.

you destroy tanks rather than let them fall into enemy hands. they were out of gas and useless.

I am still stuggling to find out how the hell could you mess up 25 German Div so quickly and gain so little ground regardless of the terrain and fuel probs. Jochem Peiper`s memoirs could have been interesting.

My opinion, the Germans were simply lackluster!

He was tortured and burned in 1976 in his house in France by suspected French communists (never caught).

Peiper was killed by terrorists in his house like in the 60's. That trial was a debacle. Many sentences were thrown out.

Peiper had to destroy 80 Tigers? They were precious to the Germans

If Hitler's ego allowed for defense rather than blowing his wad at the Bulge and at Kursk, maybe they could have held onto Germany long enough to elicit a treaty with the Allied forces?!

By the way, Peiper and his group were tried in Nuremberg for executing 300+ American troops during this time -- 73 convictions; 43 including Peiper were sentenced to death: see Malmedy Massacre

yea thanks alot, I think that the Germans had a really good chance of winning, but they just needed more fuel.

Thank you for this series of videos! Your contributions are very generous!