Battle of the Bulge Photo Gallery

Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt (on Hitler’s left) was nominally in command of the entire Western Front. In reality he was more of a figurehead. However, Allied intelligence believed that his conservative style dominated German planning, overlooking the vital fact that Hitler dominated all. Hitler did not consult him over Ardennes planning issues. Von Rundstedt realized that “the available forces were far too small for such an extremely ambitious plan.” When he learned of Hitler’s plan he scoffed: “Antwerp? If we should reach the Meuse we should go down on our knees and thank God!”

Hitler, seen here with general officers studying a map, was the principal German strategist for the Ardennes offensive.

General Alfred Jodl, head of the operations staff of the OKW at the time of the Battle of the Bulge.

Field Marshal Walter Model, commander of Army Group B at the time of the Battle of the Bulge.

Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model, pictured here during the first week of the Ardennes offensive, was commander of Heeresgruppe B, the army group charged with Operation ‘Wacht am Rhein.’ His personal opinion of the whole concept of the operation was far from enthusiastic; he considered it unrealistic—and with reason.

Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model was one of the architects of the “Miracle of the West.” He unsuccessfully advanced a more practical, limited alternative, the so-called “small solution.” He commanded Army Group B, comprising the armies taking part in the Ardennes offensive.

SS-Sergeant Ernst Barkmann, commander of Panzer 401, a Panther of the 4th Panzer Co., at the time of the Battle of the Bulge.

Major Gerhard Tebbe, Panther tank battalion commander during the Battle of the Bulge.

Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein, commander, Panzer Lehr Division, at the time of the Battle of the Bulge.

American soldiers hunting for German snipers in La Roche, France.

Dead GIs at a crossroads were stripped of much of their equipment, including their shoes, by the German forces during the Ardennes offensive. Honsfeld, 17 December 1944.

American infantrymen of the 290th Regiment fight in fresh snow near Amonines, Belgium, in January 1945.

American soldiers stringing barbed wire as a defensive measure in the event of another enemy counterattack.

American soldiers stringing barbed wire during a blizzard.

GIs of the 30th Division relax behind the front on 16 December 1944. The seated figure has a BAR in his right hand and an M1 Garand rifle in his left, plus .50-caliber machine gun bullets draped across his shoulders.

Staff Sergeant Joseph Arnaldo, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, during the Battle of the Bulge.

American POWs taken during the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge are on their way back to Germany and imprisonment for the rest of the war.

American infantrymen batter down the door of a house where German snipers are holding out in the town of Stavelot.

American combat engineers blow a bridge over a river during the Battle of the Bulge.

GIs line up for a movie at the quiet backwater town of Malmédy, five days before the German Ardennes counteroffensive began in December 1944.

A soldier of the Third Army works his way forward under a barbed wire fence about five miles from Bastogne.

Two American soldiers man a foxhole near Bastogne with a .50-caliber machine gun which has been dismounted from a vehicle. Note the extra machine gun barrel at the left, propped up on two ammo boxes for cooling. A bazooka can also be seen to the right of the gunner.

Bodies of American soldiers lie in the snow after the so-called Malmédy massacre.

Manhay, Belgium. On 3 January 1945 an attack was launched west of Manhay in the First Army zone. Visibility was reduced to 200 yards and the temperature was near zero. The few roads were coated with ice and the snow off the roads was waist deep making it extremely difficult to maneuver. During the first day advanced of almost 4,000 yards were made before a heavy snowfall halted the assault.

On 5 January 1945 the attack was resumed and the La Roche-Vielsalm road was cut. La Roche was captured by the British on 10 January. The British troops were then withdrawn to regroup for the Rhineland Campaign. The Germans began to withdraw from the tip of the salient after becoming convinced that they had lost in their attempt to halt the Allies.

Towns in the Ardennes are small and usually fall into one of two types: a cluster of houses at a crossroads, such as Noville …

… and a river valley settlement, such as Stolzemburg on the Our.

Joseph Sepp Dietrich.

Snow scene near Krinkelt.

Losheimergraben, Germany.

Constructing a winterized squad hut near the front lines.

Camouflaged pillbox in the forest serves as a regimental command post.

Typical Ardennes terrain. The rough, wooded tableland of the Ardennes in eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg is broken by many small streams which become serious obstacles during periods of heavy rain or thaw.

The Ardennes contains a fair primary but poor secondary road system. Because of the rough terrain the main centers of the road net assumed great importance during the Battle of the Bulge. Heavy snow made infantry maneuver difficult and seriously limited tank movement.

Staff Sergeant George W. Talbert of the 3rd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, on the lookout in a forest near Sourbrodt in Belgium, 19 December 1944. Talbert was KIA January 16, 1945, aged 24.

American engineers unloading barbed wire which was used in defensive measures against counterattacks.

Waffen-SS troops dash across a road during the Ardennes Offensive. Behind them can be seen a 3-inch anti-tank gun, also known as a “towed tank destroyer.” The gun and half-tracks were part of a roadblock set up by the 14th Cavalry Group.

Waffen-SS troops dash across a road during their Ardennes Offensive, December 1944. The burning vehicle behind them is an M8 armored car of the 14th Cavalry Group.

American troops and an M4 medium tank pass through Lierneux, Belgium, en route to the Ardennes.

GIs of the 75th Infantry Division inspect in the main street at Beffe, 40 km south of Liège, Belgium, an abandoned VW Type 82 “Kübelwagen,” belonging to the 2nd SS Panzer Division ‘Das Reich.’ In the background an M4A3(76)W medium tank from the 4th Cavalry Group, 7 January 1945.

This photo, a frame from captured movie film shot by a German combat cameraman, shows several Waffen-SS soldiers taking a break alongside a road during the opening stages of the Ardennes offensive. The soldier in the center, also seen in the previous photo, is holding an MG 42 machine gun and has belts of ammo draped around his neck.

M4A1 76mm medium tank, knocked out, Ardennes.

A member of a U.S. cavalry reconaissance squadron checks his vehicle mounted .30 caliber machine gun covered by frost, Battle of the Bulge, December 1944.

A motorcyclist delivers a message to paratroopers riding on the rear of a Tiger II tank during the advance. Note that the man standing on the left carries a captured Sten gun. The Sten gun was notoriously unreliable and British soldiers gave it the nickname “Stench gun.”

Browning M1917 .30 cal. water-cooled machine gun well dug-in during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944.

American infantrymen of the 347th Infantry Regiment at a field mess en route to La Roche, Belgium, 13 January 1945. Lucky not to have been captured—yet; luckier still to be getting a meal. The soldier being served carries an M1 Carbine.

German infantry on the march in the Ardennes, December 1944. The first man carries a Panzerfaust and the second man a MG 42 machine gun, for which they are all carrying spare ammunition belts.

Covered with white camouflage, an infantryman assumes a prone firing position on frozen ground outside St. Vith as Americans retook the town from the Germans.

155mm M1 howitzer beneath a camouflage net covered with snow in the Ardennes, December 1944.

Use of foliage and tarpaulin plus recently fallen snow to conceal 2½-ton 6x6 truck, 6th Armored Division, winter 1944-45.

8-inch howitzers and their prime mover tractors move along a snow-covered road in Belgium, December 1944.

GIs of the 413th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division “Timberwolf Division,” resting on the rails after combat in Düren, town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 21 December 1944.

Camouflaged M29 transports wounded, Belgium, 1944.

American infantrymen pause on a road on the outskirts of St. Vith, Belgium.

American soldiers hunting for German snipers in La Roche, France.

Severe winter conditions in the Bulge hamper movements of troops and equipment, winter 1944-45.

Soldiers of U.S. First Army hacking at frozen ground to dig foxholes near their machine gun position during a lull.

American soldiers of the First Army huddle around campfire in the snowy countryside of northern Ardennes Forest during lull in the Battle of the Bulge.

Hard going for U.S. tanks at Amonines, Belgium, on the northern flank of the Bulge. January 1945.

Allied aircraft vapor trails in skies above U.S. soldier unloading a jeep outside a farmhouse in the Ardennes Forest.

German POWs carrying body of American soldier killed in the Bulge through snowy Ardennes field.

American troops man the trenches along a snowy hedgerow in the northern Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge.

This American soldier shaves in the cold during a lull in the fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.

An American Sherman M4 tank moves past another gun carriage that slid off icy road in the Ardennes Forest during push to halt advancing German troops.

Soldiers with the 7th Armored Division trudge through snow in a bombed-out Belgian village in 1945.

An American soldier, just back from the front lines near the town of Murrigen, shows signs of fatigue 1 January 1945.

American GIs helped local residents to load themselves and their belongings onto U.S. trucks so they could escape the fight.

This German plane was shot down by Allied guns and was found lying in a snowy field in the Ardennes Forest.

German prisoners of war hold up their arms as Allied soldiers round up captives 20 January 1945 near the French-German border

German soldiers aboard a Jagdpanzer IV/70 tank destroyer from the 12th SS Panzer Division during the Bulge.

A heavily armed German soldier during the Ardennes Offensive, December 1944.

Men of 7th Armored Division manning a 3-inch M5 anti-tank gun at a road near Vielsalm, Belgium, 23 December 1944.

Von der Heydte during the Ardennes Offensive, December 1944.

Armored reconnaissance jeep of 82nd Airborne Division, Ardennes Forest, Belgium, December 1944.

German prisoners taken during the Battle of the Bulge, circa late December 1944.

5th Armored Regiment tankers gathering around a fire and opening Christmas presents next to their M4 medium tank, near Eupen, Belgium, 30 December 1944.

Sergeant James Storey, Private Frank Fox, and Corporal Dennis Lavanoha, wearing bedsheets for camouflage, on a scouting mission, Lellig, Luxembourg, 30 December 1944.

Pvt. Paul Romanick of Battery B, 103rd Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, cleaning 40mm anti-aircraft gun, Sourbrodt, Belgium, 31 December 1944. Note six swastika symbols indicating six kills.

Dead German soldier in Stavelot, Belgium, 2 January 1945.

M36 gun motor carriage, camouflaged in white, operating near Dudelange, Luxembourg, 3 January 1945.

Men of 290th Infantry Regiment in snowy terrain near Amonines, Belgium, 4 January 1945.

Jeeps, Dodge WC54 ¾-ton field ambulances, and U.S. troops on a street in the heavily damaged town of Foy, Belgium, 16 January 1945.

M8 armored car of the 101st Airborne Division in Noville, Belgium, 16 January 1945.

Men of the 1st Infantry Division checking out a gasoline truck that had skidded off the road due to snow and ice, Sourbrodt, Belgium, 19 January 1945.

Men of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, riding on M4 medium tank at Schopen, Belgium, 21 January 1945.

Here is a portion of the wreckage in St. Vith, Belgium, after units of the 7th Armored Division took the town.

This dug-in mortar emplacement near St. Vith, Belgium, is manned by, left to right, Pvt. R.W. Fierde, S/Sgt. Adam J. Celinca, and T/Sgt. W.O. Thomas, 24 January 1945.

Vehicles of the U.S. 87th Infantry Division in the woods near Wallerode/St. Vith, Belgium, on 30 January 1945.

A belated Christmas gift being delivered during the Battle of the Bulge.

506th PIR bazooka team.

 

Rochefort, Belgium, 29 December 1944.

A U.S. Army combat engineer sets a charge in the Ardennes. When the charge detonates, the tree will fall across the road creating a partial roadblock. Belgium, December 1944.

A U.S. Army Signal Corps cameraman films GIs in the snow with his Bell & Howell 35mm Eyemo motion picture camera during the Battle of the Bulge, 1944.

American soldier examines bullet holes in the side of an American ambulance during the Battle of the Bulge.

Wounded medic, Battle of the Bulge.

German soldier with Panzerfaust during the Battle of the Bulge.

Vehicles and infantry of the U.S. 1st Army on the road during the Battle of the Bulge.

U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer Edmund Burke O'Connell, a motion picture photographer with the 196th Signal Photographic Company with his Bell & Howell 35mm Eyemo 71-Q motion picture camera during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944.

Medic Don Rinella, Malmédy, Belgium, 1944.

Christmas Eve, 99th Infantry Division.

German soldier captured while wearing a GI overcoat.

101st Airborne paratrooper fills his canteen cup with snow for making coffee, near Foy, Belgium, December 1944.

German soldiers in a Schwimmwagen drive through the Kaiserbaracke crossroads, December 1944.

German infantry advancing during the Battle of the Bulge; two soldiers pass a burning vehicle from the 14th Cavalry Group.

SS troops capture American GIs during the Battle of the Bulge.

A soldier of the 535th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, 99th Infantry Division, with his pup during the Battle of the Bulge, somewhere in Belgium on January 4, 1945.

324th Medical Battalion, 99th Infantry Division, December 1944.

A soldier prepares to bed down for the night in a Belgian forest during the Battle of the Bulge. December 21, 1944.

A VW Type 82 abandoned during fighting in the Ardennes.

U.S. soldiers helping push a jeep carrying wounded German soldiers through the snow during the Battle of the Bulge, January 1945.

German infiltrator lined up for execution by firing squad after conviction by a military court for wearing U.S. uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge. December 23, 1944.

Another German infiltrator lined up for execution by firing squad after conviction by a military court for wearing U.S. uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge. December 23, 1944.

An American machine gun crew man their .30-caliber water-cooled machine gun, dug in near St. Vith.

Three German assault guns knocked out and abandoned along the road to St. Vith as found on 23 January during the 7th Armored Division’s drive to recapture the town.

A German supply column crossing a captured American bridge. Von Manteuffel’s attack was delayed due to the inability of inexperienced German engineers to span the Our River.

In the outskirts of Stoumont the leading Panther has received a direct hit and starts to burn. Alert to the danger, the commander of the second tank, head exposed, cons his Panther forward. All these shots were actually taken in combat on 19 December.

A knot of paratroopers set up a machine gun by a fence and hedge close to the burning Panther, from whose crew only SS-Rottenführer Heinz Hofmann escaped alive.

Same view, closer photograph: SS-Sturmbannführer Werner Potschke, CO of I Abteilung, SS Panzer Regiment 1, turns to pick up an abandoned Panzerfaust before returning to the battle. He wears a leather jacket and trousers over his uniform; his Knight's Cross, shoulder straps and collar patches can just be seen.

A graveyard of SdKfz 251 half-tracks: the mounts of SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 2 lie scattered across the orchard below La Gleize.

A motorcyclist delivers a message to paratroopers riding on the rear of a Tiger II tank during the advance. Note that the man standing on the left carries a captured Sten gun. The Sten gun was notoriously unreliable and British soldiers gave it the nickname “Stench gun.”

German paratroopers riding on the deck of a Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger II during the Ardennes Offensive. Note the man standing holding the Sten gun.

The crew of a Wirbelwind lend a hand to mop up small pockets of resistance in Stoumont on 19 December, using a variety of small arms; again, note heavy foliage camouflage.

The battle over, a Wirbelwind stands abandoned outside the hotly-contested 'Festung Sankt-Edouard' in Stoumont.

All six SdKfz 138/1s from 13th (IG) Kompanie, SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 2, reached La Gleize, and were abandoned there after the battle. Here Capt. Benton of the U.S. Army Air Force examines one of the 15cm sIG 33 guns near the village church.

This Panther/M10 coded 'B10' made an unplanned entry into the cafe at La Falize; this photo gives a clear view of the clever general similarity to the American vehicle which was achieved with cladding plates—note that even the spare track links are attached in 'American style.’

This Panther/M10, coded 'B5' as a vehicle of Co. B, 10th Tank Battalion, was disabled at Malmédy by Pvt. Francis Currey, U.S. 120th Infantry, with a bazooka. Currey was to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery on 21 December.

'B7,’ the only Panther to reach the northern bank of the Ambléve at Malmédy. It was stopped only 50m from the bridge by a bazooka round in the engine compartment. The crew ran for safety across the bridge, but all were cut down by American fire except the radio operator, Obergefreiter Karl Meinhardt, who remained hidden for several days before being captured.

Another view of the Panther/M10 coded 'B7,’ knocked out by a bazooka near the Warche bridge at Malmédy, 21 December; Oberfeldwebel Bachmann and all but one of his crew from Panzer Regiment II, 6th Panzer Division, were killed as they tried to make their way back across the bridge on foot.

PzKpfw VI Tiger II heavy tank passes a line of American soldiers captured in the Battle of the Bulge.

Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger II, number 105, commanded by Jürgen Wessel, immobilized in the rue Hat Rivage, Stavelot, 18 December 1944.

Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger II, possibly the same tank as in the previous photo, knocked out during the bitter fighting for the small town of Stavelot.

Tiger II knocked out by 6th Armored Division, near Wardin, 12 January 1945. Note the shell holes in the side of the hull and turret.

Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger II, number 204, near the Petit Spai bridge after the battle, in January 1945.

Kampfgruppe Peiper left seven Tiger II tanks in or near La Gleize. Tiger '204' was one of them, but was later driven northwards by these American engineers, who tried to reach the railway station at Spa. The tank broke down near Ruy, and would move no further; instead, Tiger '332' was salvaged at Coo, and shipped to Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

Tiger II, knocked out in La Gleize in December 1944 during the battle of the Bulge, being examined by British troops at a later date.

The burned-out hulk of a Tiger II tank of Peiper’s kampfgruppe lies abandoned along a road in La Gleize after the Battle of the Bulge.

Panzerkampfwagen V Panther, number 131, commanded by Oberscharführer Strelow, immobilized in an air attack on 18 December 1944. The Cheneux bridge is in the background.

Panzerkampfwagen V Panther, number 002, abandoned in La Gleize after the battle. The number would indicate it was a command tank of Peiper’s kampfgruppe headquarters.

Panzerkampfwagen V Panther, number 221, commanded by Hauptscharführer Knappisch, in La Gleize after the battle. It was damaged during the attack on Stoumont.

Waffen-SS troops work to free a bogged-down Schwimmwagen from the slush and mud on a road in the Ardennes, December 1944.

Sergeant Karl Wortmann, served with Kampfgruppe Peiper during the Battle of the Bulge.

A Waffen-SS Unterscharführer and his driver stop their Schwimmwagen alongside the road signs at the Kaiserbaracke crossroads. This photo, taken at Kaiserbaracke, has appeared many times captioned as showing Peiper himself, but this is inaccurate. These men are actually NCOs of SS Panzer Aufklärungs Abt. 1, photographed at a spot which Peiper himself did not pass on 17 December. An SS-Oberscharführer is behind the driver.

A close-up of the Waffen-SS officer and his driver in their Schwimmwagen at the Kaiserbaracke crossroads, 18 December.

German self-propelled 150mm artillery in the pre-dawn light of 16 December. The vehicles are heavily camouflaged with pine boughs.

A Sturmgeschütz of Kampfgruppe Y, abandoned beside the N32 at Géromont; it was photographed on 15 January, while Lt. John Perkins, Cpl. Peter Piar and Pvt. Calvin DuPre of the 291st Combat Engineers removed a booby trap from it.

Once armored support, such as this Sturmgeschütz III assault gun crossed the Our, they spearheaded the attack against the 110th Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. Lacking effective anti-tank support, the American defense collapsed.