(1/6) TANKS! Battle of the Bulge (GDH)

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This episode of TANKS! examines the Ardennes offensive launched by the German Army into Belgium and Luxemburg. The battle is commonly referred too in the United States as the Battle of the Bulge.

The German Army was suffering defeat upon defeat in the east. The Soviet Unions offensive doctrine had become more complex and detailed in scope. Operation Bagration dealt a sweeping blow to Army Group Center. Almost an entire army group was destroyed in detail. The German Armys casualties were more than the replacement army could re-introduce into combat. The more powerful T-34/85 and especially the IS-2 were deployed in mid-1944. The IS-2 was equipped with the 122mm cannon. This cannon could penetrate 160mm of armor plate. More importantly the kinetic energy delivered by the 122mm could disable a Tiger or Panther without penetrating. (GDH)

Hitler realized that any offensive on the eastern front in 1944 would fail. The Soviet forces were far too strong to make any impression. Hitler summarized that the logical attack should be directed at the Italians of the western alliance. The Americans.

The Allies suffered from serious manpower shortages. Replacements were not making good the combat losses. Eisenhower made the decision to take a calculated risk, by leaving the Ardennes section covered with a light presence. Green and exhausted units were placed in this area. (GDH)

The shock of the initial assault dumfounded most in the Allied High Command. The Allied lines on the North and South shoulders held. However, in the central area the Germans completely broke through. The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions raced to the area. The 101st made their heroic stand at Bastonge in this sector. (GDH)

The American counter-attack, with limited UK support, drove the Germans back to their start lines in January 1945. Most casualties occurred during this counter-offensive. By the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Americans had suffered 20,000 killed in action.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Tanks
• German
• Germans
• Army
• Allies
• American
• Americans
• Eisenhower
• Ardennes
• Hitler
• Soviet
• 1944
• Bastonge
• Battle
• of
• the
• Bulge
• GDHouston

[ThMooningCat]

Germany never failed, they just got nerfey by THQ..

[Lionwolf0777]

Love all the historical footage.

[joonijoon]

"250,000 men 1,000 tanks and armored vehicles" sources please???

[ijan1705]

Hitler was such a idiot!

[sass225]

@darthvader5300 Hilter never planned to be on the defense had the germans been successful in killing that mad man and replacing him with say rommel it would have cost the allies many more lives to defeat the german warmachine.

[sass225]

@SMGJohn while he may have had more tanks he didn't have enough fuel to power the ones he had. lets not forget the german armored fist wasn't stopped by the allies it ran out of gas after being delayed monuver war eats alot of fuel

[SMGJohn]

@lukebccb Main reason for German defeat was lack of equipment. Hitler decided to produce lot's of V1 and V2 rockets instead of jet fighters to fight the allies. If he did put less interrests in the rockets and left them for later and produced enough jet airplanes. He would've have wont he war as in 1944 he would have had the double number of Panthers, double the King Tigers and finished his Maus super heavy tanks project.

[SMGJohn]

Why they say Russians? And in Russian documentaries heck even Norwegian documentaries they say 'Soviets' all the time. Is it me or does the western media try to refuse the Soviets existance??

[lukebccb]

@ijl1i: And sure the Tiger and Panther would take out quite a number of T34s and Shermans but eventually they'd get overwhelmed by T34s and Shermans and be destroyed by them and every destroyed Tiger and Panther wasn't getting replaced whereas T34s and Shermans were flying out of the factories by the thousands.

Panther/Tiger = complicated, only produce a few at a time

T34s/Sherman = simple, cheap, lots of them.

[lukebccb]

The Germans lost the war cause the Stalin didn't care how much men or materials the Soviets lost. Stalin would never capitulate to hitler. That's why the Red Army somehow survived and was able to roll into Berlin.

[BizzLeVrai]

that king tiger fap fap fap

[ijl1i]

Tiger II was worthess, the Germans were on a retreat, it was basically a pillbox, no point in making it able to go forward. Totally pointless tank.