The Ardennes

World War II started because of the Germans, Italy, and Japan wanting to expand their borders across the world. The European powers that did not agree with the vision of the Axis powers formed what we know today as the Allies. The Allies and Axis had many long battles. Ultimately leading up to the start of World War II was full of long lasting battles. Lots of those battles ended in a stale mate. The Allies were able to gain back most of the land that the Axis had claimed. Hitler, the Kaiser of Germany, proposed a plan to his generals. Most of the generals thought Hitler was out of his mind with this counter attack but Hitler had a goal “A unification of the individual German states and tribes or even the construction of a German Empire in the sense of a unified state.” Hitler’s goal was to bring Germany back to a world power. Bringing Germany back to power it once had would mean the control of Europe. After many long battle the Allies had the Germans backed up to a breaking point. The Germans then devised a plan for a counter attack. This counter attack would be known as the Ardennes where the Panzer armies were used to strike the Allied forces and halt their advances. The Ardennes, a forest between Belgium and Germany,
It was so easy for many of them to come in contact with many generals well known in the world even before the great crusade. “The man responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of France and Germany, was suddenly saluting me, Don Malarkey, an ROTC Dropout.” Many of the soldiers at the Bulge were faced with the problems of the rifles freezing over. “These were the Darkest days…. When GIs urinated on their M-1 rifles each morning to free ice-encrusted chambers…. Water froze in our canteens.” These soldiers struggled in the cold months of December and January just to stay warm but keep the rifles warm as