WW2 for the day

War History Online has an article about the Battle of the Bulge:

Just before the Battle of the Bulge, Allied officers drew an eighty-eight mile line through the forests, hills, and ravines that make the region called the Ardennes. This area lies principally in modern day Belgium but also stretches into France, Germany, and Luxembourg. Being strategically situated, the area’s recorded history is punctuated with wars dating back to Charlemagne and the Middle Ages.
Earlier in the war, the German army found ways to traverse the rugged terrain and fast-moving rivers of the area that had previously been perceived at impassable. Through this difficult route, the Germans entered France in May of 1940 and marched toward victory in Paris.
After fierce fighting, which started with the landings in Normandy in June of 1944 and continued all through September and October of 1944, hundreds of battered and exhausted men were sent to rest and re-equip. The front was to be defended, for the most part, by inexperienced soldiers who had to cover far more ground and face an enemy assault they could not imagine. Not even the commanding officers expected the intense attack that was to come.
Under the cover of the dense forests of the Eifel region, which borders the Ardennes, twenty-five divisions with heavy artillery and two of the dreaded Panzer tank divisions had gathered under the evergreen trees out of sight of any aircraft reconnaissance. Twenty to thirty thousand German soldiers were ready to push the Allies aside and march to Antwerp in Belgium.
This action was designed to split the British and American line, so the Germans could then proceed to encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in favor of the Axis. Once that was accomplished, Hitler believed Germany could fully concentrate on the Russian theater of war.
In this amazing color footage, you will see the German army on the attack through the Ardennes:

Rico says it's yet another war he's glad he missed...