#Battle of the bulge maps code#

The German plan was simple: tear a wide hole in the American front and then to rush powerful panzer forces through the newly-formed gap. The German offensive that would later come to be called the вЂњBattle of the BulgeвЂќ had begun. As soon as the barrage lifted, the 250,000 men and 1,100 tanks of Field Marshal ModelвЂ™s Army Group B smashed into the dazed defenders of this thinly held section of the American line. HitlerвЂ™s вЂWacht am RheinвЂ™ offensive jumped off, as planned, at 5:30 am on 16 December 1944, with a violent, hour-long artillery bombardment along eighty-five miles of the Allied front line in the Ardennes region of Belgium.

#Battle of the bulge maps code#

The code name selected for this, GermanyвЂ™s last winter offensive, was вЂWacht am RheinвЂ™ which, when translated, meant вЂњWatch on the Rhine.вЂќ This desperate military вЂњthrow of the diceвЂќ would be HitlerвЂ™s last major effort to turn the tide of battle in the west. The German FГјhrer would attempt to repeat his earlier military triumph by again attacking through the Ardennes. In the forested section of the German frontier that bordered Belgium and Luxembourg - site of the GermansвЂ™ brilliant surprise offensive of 1940 - Hitler finally decided that he had found it. Despite these multiple catastrophes, Hitler poured over his maps frantically searching for one last offensive opportunity that might reverse this recent string of German defeats: a battlefield victory that could retrieve the Third ReichвЂ™s fortunes long enough for the new German вЂњwonderвЂќ weapons to make an impact on the war. Soon after the surrender of the вЂњEternal City,вЂќ the victorious Allies had resumed their northern advance up the Italian вЂњBoot.вЂќ The news was just as bad from the Russian Front: there another entire German Army Group, under Field Marshal Busch, had been shattered by the Russian Summer Offensive, вЂњOperation Bagration.вЂќ Only the speed and depth of the Russian advance and the length of the new Russian supply lines had allowed the Wehrmacht to restore some semblance of order to their front. British, American, and Canadian troops had broken out of the Normandy beachhead, destroyed the bulk of von KlugeвЂ™s army group, and were already pushing up against the Siegfried Line in the West in the South, Rome had fallen months earlier to an Allied force commanded by General Mark Clark. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND In the closing months of 1944, Allied armies were closing in on the Third Reich from all sides. This title was published by Avalon Hill as part of their вЂњSmithsonian Institute SeriesвЂќ of introductory conflict simulation games. Craig Taylor and published in 1991 by the Avalon Hill Game Co (TAHGC).

BATTLE OF THE BULGE вЂ™91 (2nd Edition) is a historical simulation of the last great German offensive on the Western Front during World War II.