Remembering: The 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge

Today marks the 80^th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, one of WWII’s most significant and brutal campaigns. Following the June 6^th, D-Day invasion of Normandy, Hitler was on the defensive. His last push on the western front was his Ardennes Offensive. The freezing conditions were so bad that for the rest of their lives, the soldiers who lived through it remembered the cold. My father told me there was no Christmas that year. Lasting until January 16, 1945, the battle claimed 75,000 Allied and 120,000 German lives. Within five months, the war in Europe was over. Today, estimates are that only 2-3% of this campaign’s veterans are still alive. (Photo: Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)