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The German counter-offensive, now known as the Battle of the Bulge, was aimed at splitting the Allies armies in half and recapturing the port of Antwerp, the Allies' most vital supply port.
The attacks, which began at dawn on 16 December took the Allies by surprise. However the plan was opposed by Hitler's Commander in Chief in the west, Field Marshal Rundstedt and Commander-in-Chief of Army Group B Walter Model, as unrealistic.

The first few days went well for the Germans - although the American forces held out in the north and south, troops defending the centre of the line were forced back, creating the "bulge" in the western front from which the battle takes its name.

The Allies were able to cling on to the strategic town of Bastogne which blocked the Germans' advance.

Low cloud and fog which had grounded Allied reconnaissance flights and fighters lifted on 23 December allowing the bombers to take to the skies again and shatter the German supply lines.

The Luftwaffe fought back in one last ditch assault on 31 December, attacking 27 Allied airfields, but they lost more than 300 planes in the process and the Luftwaffe never recovered.

The American ground troops thrusting forwards from the north and south eventually met in a pincer movement at Houffalize on 16 January.

Churchill called it the greatest American battle of the war which would be regarded "as an ever famous American victory".

More than a million men fought in the battle including some 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British.