The Battle of the Bulge and the U.S Air Artillery Forces

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The Battle of the Bulge and the U.S Air Artillery Forces
Introduction
“This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of war” was how the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the events of the Battle of the Bulge. Consequently, this has remained one of the greatest and bloodiest battles among all the battles that occurred during the 2nd World War. However, air power played a key role in achieving the American victory by effectively executing close air support, air interdiction, and strategic bombing. As a result, the Air Artillery Forces played a huge part in the success enjoyed by Americans during the battle of bulge. This paper seeks to give a historical background of the Battle of the Bulge and the role played by the U.S Air Artillery Forces in achieving success.
Background
On 16th December 1944, the Germans launched a massive attack on the U.S and allied forces that were located around the Ardennes forest in Luxembourg and Belgium. This was during the 2nd World War and most of the American forces were inexperienced and exhausted. The Germans had initial success as they completely pushed the Americans westward through the middle of their own line creating the “Bulge” thus the name “The Battle of the Bulge” However, the victory was short lived as the German Air Defense forces were unable to consistently attack due to fuel shortages (Merriam, 2014). On the other hand, the bad weather that had restricted American air forces cleared and air attacks resumed. Consequently, by end of December in 1944, the German forces were completely neutralized.
Importance of the U.S Air Artillery forces in the battle of bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was the first time air power was u...