ANY WARThe last German offensive in the west
On 16 December 1944, Germany launched its last great offensive on the Western Front. More than 200,000 troops and hundreds of tanks struck through the snowbound Ardennes forest of Belgium and Luxembourg, where the American line was thinly held by tired and untested divisions. The plan was to split the Allied armies and drive all the way to the port of Antwerp. The bulge the attack pushed into the front line gave the battle its name.
Why Bastogne mattered
Bastogne was a small Belgian town, but seven main roads met there, and the German armoured columns needed those roads to move west. The 101st Airborne Division was rushed in by truck on 18 and 19 December, joining tank and infantry teams of the 10th Armored Division already fighting on the roads outside town. By 21 December, Bastogne was completely surrounded.
The defenders were short of winter clothing, ammunition and medical supplies. They fought from foxholes hacked into frozen ground, in fog and snow, against attack after attack. On 22 December the Germans sent a written demand for surrender. Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe answered with one word: "Nuts!"
Relief
When the skies finally cleared on 23 December, transport planes dropped supplies into the perimeter and fighter-bombers attacked the German positions around it. On 26 December, tanks of the 4th Armored Division, part of General George Patton's Third Army, broke through from the south and reached the town. Bastogne had held. The German offensive stalled short of the Meuse river, and by the end of January 1945 the bulge had been pushed back.
What you command
You command the American defenders, dug into prepared positions in the snow, while the Germans attack with a larger force and panzers in support. Your job is to hold the objective.
Put your squads behind real cover (walls, buildings and woods stop bullets) and keep fire on the open ground they must cross. Set squads to defend or wait in ambush, keep the tanks in mind before they reach your line, and shift men to wherever the attack is breaking through. Every building and treeline comes from the real map of Bastogne.
