{"id":176412,"date":"2019-12-16T18:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T17:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=176412"},"modified":"2019-12-16T20:34:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T19:34:07","slug":"battle-of-the-bulge-wwii-allies-mark-75th-anniversary-of-hitlers-last-offensive-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=176412","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the Bulge: WWII allies mark 75th anniversary of Hitler’s last offensive | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"
Second World War allies and their former enemy, Germany, have marked the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive – the Battle of the Bulge.<\/p>\n

At a ceremony at the Mardasson memorial in Bastogne, Belgium, US defence secretary Mark Esper paid tribute to the 19,000 American troops who died.<\/p>\n

More than 10,000 German soldiers were killed.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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\"Battle<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nImage:<\/span>
\nTens of thousands of troops lost their lives<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The offensive began on 16 December 1944 when more than 200,000 German soldiers began to break through dense Belgian woods and Luxembourg’s hilly Ardennes.<\/p>\n

Taking advantage of freezing weather and tired US troops, the Germans pierced the front line so deeply that it became known as the Battle of the Bulge.<\/p>\n

The Americans pushed back and, after reinforcements had been drafted in, the tide began to turn by Christmas.<\/p>\n

The conflict continued until 25 January 1945.<\/p>\n

Many German units were severely depleted of personnel and equipment, and the war came to an end in September.<\/p>\n

Mr Esper said the battle was “one of the greatest in American history”.<\/p>\n

US soldiers’ efforts “not only defended America but also ensured that the peoples of Europe would be free again”, he added.<\/p>\n

“It was ultimately the intrepid, indomitable spirit of the American soldier that brought victory,” Mr Esper said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\"Battle<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nImage:<\/span>
\nThe conflict began on 16 December 1944<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Battle<\/p>\n<\/div>
\nImage:<\/span>
\nIt continued until 25 January 1945<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: “On this day, we Germans would like to thank the United States of America.<\/p>\n

“The American armed forces, together with their allies, liberated Europe and they also liberated Germany. We thank you.”<\/p>\n

Mr Steinmeier added: “Those who died were victims of hatred, delusion, and a destructive fury that originated from my country.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Second World War allies and their former enemy, Germany, have marked the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive – the Battle of the Bulge. At a ceremony at the Mardasson memorial in Bastogne, Belgium, US defence secretary Mark Esper paid tribute to the 19,000 American troops who died. More than 10,000 German soldiers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":176413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1191,13805,477,13703],"class_list":["post-176412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more","tag-germany","tag-hitler","tag-usa","tag-ww-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/176413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}