The term Ardennes Offensive (or Battle of the Ardennes) refers to multiple battles throughout history, all of which took part in or around the Ardennes Forest in Belgium.
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The last phase of operations in the Ardennes, therefore, is properly part and parcel of the final Allied offensive in Europe, and so the course of battle beginning on 3 January 1945 is described in another and final volume of this subseries.
The Ardennesbattle normally was "fought," in the sense of exercising decisive command and directing operations, by the corps commander.
On the contrary, the operations in the Ardennes show in real life tactical forms and formations which (in such things as dispersal, gaps between units, counterattack doctrine, widths of front, and fluidity of movement) are comparable to those taught by current Army doctrine and envisaged for the future.
The Ardennes Offensive, also known as Second Battle of the Ardennes and popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge, started in late December 1944 and was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II.
Indiciative of the desperate circumstances under which the battle plan was finally approved, was the intentional scheduling of the offensive just as the weather produced a massive warm front with heavy fog and low lying clouds, effectively grounding the Allied air forces in the area for the first few days of the operation.
Attacks by the 6th SS Panzer Army infantry units in the north fared badly due to unexpectedly fierce resistance by the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division and U.S. 99th Infantry Division, which was attached to the 2nd, at the Elsborn Ridge, stalling their advance; this forced Dietrich to unleash his panzer forces early.
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