By late 1944, the cream of the German army had been wasted on the Russian steppes after three years of bitter fighting against the Soviet Red Army. In order to carry out the offensive, new levies of manpower were called up. The code name for the operation, Wacht Am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine), was known to only a few high ranking officers in the German army. Hitler's initial plan was to launch a counter-offensive in the west in hopes of splitting the British and American lines and capturing the port of Antwerp with its vast stores of Allied military supplies, enough to re-equip the German's own dwindling stocks. Known as the Battle of the Bulge because of the wedge driven into the Allied lines, the campaign lasted for approximately five weeks, and it is generally agreed that the offensive officially ended on January 25, 1945. On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched his last great offensive on the Western Front through the Ardennes.
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