Battle of the bulge

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FIELD ARTILLERY; ITS EFFECTIVENESS AT THE BATTLE FIELD: BATTLE OF THE BULGE
ESSAY OUTLINE
Introduction
Thesis
“Battle of The Bulge” build-up
Where and when was it fought
What countries participated
What caused the conflict
The Battle
The strategies used
Weapons and equipment used
Advancements in weaponry and tactics
Outcome of the Battle
Impacts on the militaries
Impacts on the populace
Impacts on the economy
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
For decades, people have engaged one another in war that has been fueled about by a number of reasons. As a result, different tactics have been employed to win in the battle as well as minimizing the number of casualties. This paper purposes to identify the usefulness of field artillery at the time of war, and to achieve this, the paper will examine the Battle of the Bulge. It will also try to identify the battle’s influence to the current field of artillery, to their modification process and it will at length identify how field artillery was effective in the battle. It will also be interesting to understand various roles people play in the battle, that is planning and implementation of offensives, and how their actions repeat to the success or failure of a troop in the battlefield. The paper provides a sequential sequence of events that supposedly led to the bloody clash between the Nazi German troop and the associated forces, what weapons were used and the consequences of the battle.
Mind Mapping

The Battle of The Bulge also identified as the Ardennes Offensive and Von Rundstedt offensive to the Germans occurred in the period between the 16th of December 1944 and 25th of January 1945. This was the period towards the end of World War II. This battle was fought in the heavily forested Ardennes mountain of Wallonia region in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.The following countries were involved in the battle; United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg and Germany. The later was to fight the United States and United Kingdom alliance. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the overall Supreme Allied Commander. Omar N. Bradley was the commander for the 12th U.S. Army Group, Courtney Hodges led the 1st U.S. Army Group, and George S. Patton led the 3rd U.S Army while United Kingdom was commanded by Bernard Montgomery. On the other hand, Adolf Hitler was the head of the army for the Nazi Germany. He was deputed by Walter model, Gerd Von Rundstedt, hasso Von Manteuffel, Sepp Dietrich and Erich Brandenberger.
Following the Operation Cobra of July 1944, the associated forces were able to advance further towards Germany, faster than it was estimated but the army men were exhausted because of continuous land combat. The thinning supplies deteriorated the situation. The allied forces supplies were quickly decreasing as the supply lines were quite overstretched and extremely thinned and considering the disappointing situation of the weakened manpower and low supplies, critical measures were taken accordingly. The supply lines were disturbed by lack of deep-water ports with cargo handling capability. (Delaforce, 78)
They had captured the harbor of Cherbourg and it was the only possible port that the associated forces could use, however, Germany had totally wrecked it and it was to take the allied forces many months to build up a cargo handling system. It was only at the end of September that The Allies were able to capture the port of Antwerp which was still intact but became operational on November 28 when Scheldt River was cleared of the German troops and Naval mines. The estuary of Scheldt River controls access to the port. The commander, Gen. Eisenhower and his staff decided that Ardennes region as a splendid area that could be captured by as few troops as possible and it was for the reasons that the terrain at Ardennes region was good for defensive positioning and there lacked an appropriate road system network and Germany used the area within Germany to the east as a resting and recharging area for her troops.
The Allied forces had effectively grounded Luftwaffe, German Air force, which was an added advantage as the German Army would not be able to gather intelligence about the battlefield. It was not also possible to interdict Allied Forces supplies while Germany’s movement at day time was quite noticeable and would attract prohibition of their supplies. To add to her devastation, there were the bombing of the Romanian Oil fields, starving her oil and gasoline. Adolf Hitler was confident that the army would be able to defend Germany if they could neutralize the Western Front. The strategy was to split the allied forces and force the Americans and British to settle for peace and with peace in the west, it would give Germany time to design and produce advanced weapons. Germany had low manpower for her troops and she believed that the best strategy would be to attack the West against the smaller Allied Forces instead of the vast Soviet armies.
Some of the senior German commanders such as Field Marshal Walter Model and Von Rundstedt were concerned with the attainment of the objectives of the offensive and they laid alternative plans but were flatly objected by the Nazi chief Adolf Hitler. The strategy was to gain from the unfavorable weath...