Battle of The Bulge
After the capture of Walcheren came the last great German offensive of the war. In a repeat of their 1940 attack, German formations smashed through weak Allied lines in the Ardennes in Belgium.
The Battle of the Bulge presented a command problem to General Eisenhower. It had sliced through US lines, leaving some American formations north and south of the new German salient. However, the headquarters of U.S. 12th Army Group lay to the south, and so Eisenhower decided to place American forces north of the "Bulge" salient under 21st Army Group. They, with the American 3rd Army under General George S. Patton, reduced the salient.
After the battle, control of the U.S. 1st Army which had been placed under Field Marshal Montgomery's temporary command was returned to Bradley's 12th Army Group. The U.S. 9th Army remained under Montgomery longer, before being returned to American command in Germany.
Read more about this topic: 21st Army Group
Famous quotes containing the words battle of the, battle and/or bulge:
“The battle of the North Atlantic is a grim business, and it isn’t going to be won by charm and personality.”
—Edmund H. North, British screenwriter, and Lewis Gilbert. First Sea Lord (Laurence Naismith)
“In a time of war the nation is always of one mind, eager to hear something good of themselves and ill of the enemy. At this time the task of news-writers is easy, they have nothing to do but to tell that a battle is expected, and afterwards that a battle has been fought, in which we and our friends, whether conquering or conquered, did all, and our enemies did nothing.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The young men float on their backs, their white bellies bulge to
the sun, they do not ask who seizes fast to them,
They do not know who puffs and declines with pendant and bending arch,
They do not think whom they souse with spray.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)