THE END OF 1944

November 24, 1944: Cherbourg, France

December 16-27, 1944: Battle of the Bulge. This battle was where most of the heavy fighting of the war occurred. American forces lost 80,000 men in this conflict alone.

December 26, 1944: Bastogne; First German plane shot down at 10:00 p.m. The offensive begins
Once on the ground, the troop headed towards Bastogne just inside the Belgium border where the other Allies were waiting. Bastogne was a key point in the war and the troops panned out all sides of the town, hoping to stop the Germans from entering into France. Bitter cold, extremely windy conditions, and snowy weather with temperatures near or just below freezing, delayed progress. As supplies diminished, the Allies felt their resolve fall. The Germans attacked whenever they could but the weather limited their vision too.

German military tactics that could have been easily used to overcome the Allies were ignored. Rather than group together and hit all the areas of the perimeter, the Germans opened gunfire on only one section of the perimeter. That steady stream of gunfire to only one area gave the Americans the advantage. The Germans were stopped and just two days before Christmas. The weather cleared so that supplies could be dropped for the Allies. Gaining new strength the Allies continued to fight the resistance and shortly after Christmas, Bastogne was officially an Allied victory.