[Faline]

Breathtaking new photographs, including several vivid full-color images, offer a never-before-seen look at the war-weary soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge who fought through the frozen Ardennes Forest in a mountainous region of Belgium in the dead of winter.
They show soldiers on both sides battling the frigid weather as they fought each other during Nazi Germany's last-ditch effort to drive back Allied forces between December 1944 and January 1945.
The pictures were released by Life Magazine on the 67th anniversary of the start of the grueling battle.

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:


At the end of the of the 41-day offensive, 19,000 American soldiers were dead. The British Army lost 1,400 lives. Total allied casualties are estimated at 110,000 - making it the bloodiest battle for American troops in all of World War II.
German casualties were lower at about 85,000. But the Wehrmacht - Germany's unified military command - ultimately lost their gambit to break through the Allied lines and capture key supplies -- especially fuel for tanks and aircraft.

Under-manned and not prepared to camp out in temperatures that dropped to four degrees below zero Fahrenheit, American forces held out against German tanks and troops until reinforcements, including General George S. Patton's Third Army arrived and beat back the Nazi offensive.
The German surprise attack came after Allied forces liberated France and were beginning to look forward to surging into Nazi Germany. Some historians say complacency among Allied commanders left troops totally unprepared for the German counterattack that sparked the Battle of the Bulge.
Perhaps the most famous story of the bloody battle came during the German siege of the Belgian town of Bastogne. Surrounded, American units were running out of ammunition and food. Medical supplies were scarce.
When the Nazi commander demanded the surrender of the Americans, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division responded with a one word answer: 'NUTS!'

Here, German Fuhrer and Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler and members of his General Staff review plans for 'Operation Bodenplatte,' an airstrike in support of the Ardennes offensive:


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


Soldiers with the Seventh Armored Division trudge through snow in a bombed-out Belgian village in 1945:


A fifteen year old German soldier, Hans-Georg Henke, cries being captured by the US 9th Army in Germany on April 3, 1945:


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


American GI's helped local residents to load themselves and their belongings onto US trucks so they could escape the fight:


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


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


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


American soldiers of the 1st Army huddle around campfire in the snowy countryside of northern Ardennes Forest during lull in the Battle of the Bulge:


Hard going for US tanks at Amonines, Belgium, on the northern flank of the 'battle of the bulge':


German POWs carrying body of American soldier killed in Battle of Bulge through snowy Ardennes field:


View of German soldiers aboard a Jagdpanzer IV/70 tank destroyer from the 12th SS Panzer Division during the Battle of the Bulge:

[Cumulonimbus]

Awesome post. I love these old war photos

[rabenson]

Love these pics. Thank you Kelly you always come up with the most interesting posts.

[Viking64]

Amazing stuff, Kel!! I love the colour pictures. So rare from this era. My father fought in TBOTB and I can still recall all of the stories he told us kids about it when we were young.

He brought home some vintage gloves like the ones in the picture below. Us 4 boys used to fight over who got to wear them when playing outside in the winter because they were so warm!!

[Arkoquisa]

my great uncle was captured by the germans during the bulge, and my grandfather was an american strategist. I have his old officers jacket. It turns heads when i wear it, everyone thinks its an old nazi coat, dumbass's olive drab = american

[Wheelwash]

these are really cool
I can't imagine being 17-18 and being put on a ship to go fight the war knowing I probably am not coming back...can't imagine what those brave guys went through

[collaredgirl65]

[Wolf]

Great pics, awesome view of history.

[jlip22]

[Oswald2001]

R-E-S-P-E-C-T to our GI's.

Great photos.