Marking the 80th Anniversary of “an ever-famous American victory”: A Look at the US National Archive’s Battle of the Bulge Records

Today’s post was written by Duncan Bare, archives technician at the National Archives in College Park.

Winston S. Churchill famously described the Battle of the Bulge as “undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and […] an ever-famous American victory.”[1]  As the German offensive commenced at around 5:30 am on December 16^th, 1944, however, the outlook for US forces facing them across the 80-mile stretch of front was bleak.

Operation Herbstnebel (Autumn Fog), more commonly (but inaccurately) known as Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine), was Adolf Hitler’s final large-scale offensive in western Europe. Its two main thrusts were spearheaded by Sixth (SS) Panzer Army under SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer (SS Col. General) Joseph ‘Sepp’ Dietrich and Fifth Panzer Army, commanded by General Hasso von Manteuffel, respectively. After breaching US lines in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg, these armies were to cross the Meuse River and proceed to the strategically important port city of Antwerp.

Meanwhile, the German 7^th Army, commanded by General Erich Brandenberger and primarily consisting of infantry units, was to screen Dietrich’s and von Manteuffel’s armored and mechanized troops by attacking Allied lines to the south. In total, some 24 German divisions were committed to the offensive.

Opposing the German forces were initially those of the V, VII, and VIII Corps of the First US Army, led by Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges. Although outnumbered and outgunned at the battle’s outset, many ‘green’ US formations demonstrated resolve in the face of overwhelming odds and unfavorable conditions.

Nevertheless, by December 19^th, 1944, Kampfgruppe Peiper (Task Force Peiper) belonging to Sixth Panzer Army had penetrated nearly 30 miles west to Stoumont, in Belgium. Along the way, units under Peiper’s command massacred 130 US PWs of Battery B, 285^th Field Artillery Observation Battalion near Malmedy. This, and other war crimes committed against surrendered combatants as well as Belgian civilians only stiffened US resistance.

In the center, elements of Fifth Panzer Army surrounded the strategically important road hub of Bastogne and famously compelled its defenders to surrender. Before the town was encircled, Combat Command-B of the US 10^th Armored Division arrived on December 18^th, followed the next day by the 101^st Airborne Division 

Col. W.L. Roberts, commanding officer of CCB 10 AD mused “In my humble opinion, the 101 could not have held Bastogne alone, neither could the armor, but acting together, the strength of the ensemble was tripled.”[2] He was referring to the 101^st Airborne Division, CCB/10^th AD, and the 705^th Tank Destroyer Battalion.

To the south, the German 7^th Army penetrated some 12 miles into US lines but was kept from its objectives by US VIII Corps. Within a matter of days, US Third Army, under General George S. Patton launched a fierce counterattack into the German 7^th and 5^th Panzer Armies areas of operations, while British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery was temporarily given command of US forces in the north of the Bulge both to coordinate their defense and an inevitable counteroffensive.

Thanks to a “fateful break in the weather” on December 23^rd, Allied aircraft could “smash German transport and troops so badly that they were effectively reduced in fighting efficiency.”[3] Interestingly, the farthest German penetration to the west during the campaign would occur the following day, December 24^th, as 2^nd Panzer Division (Fifth Panzer Army) reached the village of Foy-Notre Dame, coming within sight of the Meuse. There, they were rebuffed by the US 2^nd Armored Division.

[US infantry, many of them in snowsuits, advance with an M-4 Sherman overland in the Ardennes in early January 1945. Located in: Ibid.]

The northern and central German advances stalled well short of the Meuse, as did those of the 7^th Army in the south. From December 26^th, the day Bastogne was relieved, to January 25^th, Allied forces gradually ‘pushed’ out the bulge, dislodging German troops from Belgium and Luxembourg, before counterattacking into Germany.

More than 80,000 Allied soldiers, overwhelmingly Americans, were either killed, wounded, or captured over the course of the battle’s five weeks. An equal, if not higher number of German casualties were reported, with figures ranging from 80,000 to more than 125,000.

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The US National Archives maintains custody of numerous records relating to the Battle of the Bulge.

Operational reports of US armies, corps, divisions, and corps-level commands are located in the series World War II Operations Reports, 1940–1948 (entry NM-3 427, NAID 305275) in Record Group 407: Records of the Adjutant General’s Office.

The series Records Relating to the History of the Ardennes Campaign, 1944–1945 (Entry UD 584, NAID 5821674) in Record Group 498: Records of Headquarters, European Theater of Operations, United States Army (World War II) contains the US European Theater of Operations Historical Division’s account of the battle, including drafts, photographs, maps, drawings, and charts.

German army, corps, and divisional records, although sporadic for the time period, can be found online in the series Records of German Field Commands and Divisions, 1962–1971 (Entry T315, NAID 12004423) in Record Group 242: National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized. Captured Waffen SS records are in the series Miscellaneous SS Records: Einwadererzentralstelle, Waffen-SS, and SS-Oberabschnitte (Entry T354, NAID 7788697), also in Record Group 242. Both series are digitized.

Information on German officers can be found in the series Records of the Headquarters of the German Army High Command, 1956–1970 (Entry T78, NAID 7821296), also in Record Group 242 and digitized. Interviews and interrogations of German commanders such as Joachim Peiper, Joseph ‘Sepp’ Dietrich, Otto Skorzeny, Hasso von Manteuffel, Gerd von Rundstedt, and others involved with Herbstnebel can be found in the series European Theater Historical Interrogation (ETHINT) Reports Conducted as a Component of U.S. Army Europe Foreign Military Studies, August 1, 1952–July 6, 1959 (Entry A-1 2202C, NAID 580528), in Record Group 549: Records of the United States Army, Europe.

Similar, more detailed interrogations of several German commanders are in the series Reports, Interrogations, and Other Records Received from Various Allied Military Agencies, 1945–1947 (Entry NM-70 160, NAID 647749) in Record Group 238: National Archives Collection of World War II War Crimes Records.

Records of the ‘Malmedy trial’, at which Joseph ‘Sepp’ Dietrich, Joachim Peiper, Hermann Priess, and other high-ranking Waffen-SS officers were defendants are available in the microfilm series Records of U.S. Army War Crimes Trials in Europe: United States of America v. Valentin Bersin, et al., War Crimes Case 6-24, May 16-18, 1946 (Entry A3390) in Record Group 153: Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army).

The translated transcript of an interview conducted on June 11, 1945 by the US Seventh Army Interrogation Center with the Joseph ‘Sepp’ Dietrich in which he candidly discusses the Battle of the Bulge has been digitized and is available in the National Archives Catalog here: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/57339184?objectPage=1.

Photographs of American Military Activities (Record Group 111), as well as captured German images and film stills (Record Group 242), including those of Waffen SS photographers, can be found in the Still Pictures Branch of the US National Archives.

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[1] Robert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897-1963, Vol. VII, 1943-1949 (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1974), 7095.

[2] Col. W.L. Roberts, 18 February, 1945, M-42, in NARA II, RG 407, E NM-3 427, B 19068.

[3] German Breakthrough, 16 December – 15 January 1945, V Corps Sector, in: NARA II, RG 498, E UD-584, B 4018.