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This World War 2-era short film – originally titled as "The Enemy Strikes" – is a propaganda documentary produced by the US Army in 1945 about the historical event known as the Battle of the Bulge.

Opening with shots of the liberation of Paris in August 1944, the narrator informs the audience that this was "America's honeymoon"; that at the time people were concerned that the war was about to end and the difficulties of transforming back to civilian life. Particularly noted was the concern that the US had built too many tanks and artillery, and they would be sitting around, useless.

All this changes in December. The Germans launch a massive counteroffensive in Luxembourg and Belgium, driving the Allied armies back. The film shows American forces struggling to regain the initiative against the German Wehrmacht. Finally, the Americans are able to launch an airstrike against the enemy and repulse the attack.

The film was intended for US civilian audiences. Its main emphasis is that, despite recent Allied victories, the Axis could still launch a counterattack and that this was no time to get complacent. Americans are exhorted to remember that it is too soon to celebrate and that they should continue doing their part on the home front.

Much of the footage is from captured German films. The documentary contains images of prominent German officers including Field Marshal von Runstedt. General Eisenhower is shown at the 8 minute mark, speaking to American troops at the front.


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND / CONTEXT

The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War 2. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in eastern Belgium, northeast France, and Luxembourg. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armored forces, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and, later, Luftwaffe aircraft also sustained heavy losses.

The Germans officially referred to the offensive as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein ("Operation Watch on the Rhine"), while the Allies designated it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase "Battle of the Bulge" was coined by contemporary press to describe the bulge in German front lines on wartime news maps, and it became the most widely used name for the battle. The German offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy four Allied armies and force the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers' favor. The offensive was planned by the German forces with utmost secrecy, with minimal radio traffic and movements of troops and equipment under cover of darkness.

The Germans achieved total surprise on the morning of 16 December 1944. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies' overwhelmingly superior air forces. Fierce resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive, around Elsenborn Ridge, and in the south, around Bastogne, blocked German access to key roads to the northwest and west that they counted on for success. Columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops. Improved weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, as survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line.


Battle of the Bulge: The German Counteroffensive | World War 2 Documentary | 1945

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NOTE: THE VIDEO DOCUMENTS HISTORICAL EVENTS. SINCE IT WAS PRODUCED DECADES AGO, IT HAS HISTORICAL VALUES AND CAN BE CONSIDERED AS A VALUABLE HISTORICAL DOCUMENT. THE VIDEO HAS BEEN UPLOADED WITH EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. ITS TOPIC IS REPRESENTED WITHIN HISTORICAL CONTEXT. THE VIDEO DOES NOT CONTAIN SENSITIVE SCENES AT ALL!