The Battle of the Bulge (how accurate?

Question

I have seen this movie 3 times. But yet it never talks of the battles in the snow you see on PBS and other programs. it shows grassy fields, no snow at all.

Was there battles like the ones in the movies?

was there a gas storage area that the germans failed to take and were forced to walk back home?

Answer 1

The battle was most definitely fought in the snow. I have talked with men who lived through it, and they say it was much as pictured in the movie "Patton."

The basic idea was Hitler's own. He felt that a massive attack through the weakly held Ardennes at the worst time of years would be a suprise (it was) and would split the Allied Armies so they could be dealt with separately (not hardly).

While it was a terrible battle, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. The Allies were simply too strong to be defeated in detail. The result was a huge bulge in the lines containing the best troops and armour the Nazis had left, which was surrounded and defeated by the Allies in turn. It was a huge victory for Eisenhower, and broke the strength of the German army.

The German plan did require the German armour to capture fuel dumps so they could continue. The troops who withdrew both destroyed the fuel and concealed it beyond the abiltity of General von Manteuffel to discover. What is often overlooked is that, even had they found the fuel, the Germans were outnumbered and surrounded. They had the traditional two chances from the start, and slim was very slim indeed.

John Toland, a quality American historian, wrote a book called "Battle: the Story of the Bulge." It is a fine and readable book that will be available in your local library.

Answer 2

The Battle of the Bulge Movie with Henry Fonda-Telly Savalas-Robert Shaw and Robert Ryan-Charles Bronson is Pretty accurate to a point. The Movie though does not show Very Many Snow scenes this is where it was Inaccurate. December 1944 was a Bad winter. This Movie does not focus on the Battle of Bastogne but of the Battles of the Towns Of Malmedy and Ambleve. The Movie is accurate on the Tank Superiority of the Tiger VS The Sherman. But The Tanks That Telly Savalas used was an M-48 Patton in the Movie( A Korean War) Tank. Accurate on the Prisoner Scenes and the Machine Gunning of them. Accurate on American Troops being in Retreat in the Beginning.--Accurate on the Germans Fuel Shortage--Accurate on the Germans in American MP Uniforms--But To Your Point-- The German Tanks were slogging along on Frozen Snow Covered Ground not Rolling over Grassy Plains. The Movie Missed The True Ending Of the Actual Battle Completely--The Germans werent In retreat because of the Failed effort to take any Certain Fuel Depot--It ended BECAUSE THE WEATHER CHANGED-- The Sun came out and our Air Forces Bombed and Strafed the Crap out of them Forcing them to turn back!!!!! The Movie talks a little bit of the Weather Grounding the Allied Planes in the Beginning But Never AGAIN!!!!

Answer 3

david1 is quite right but, I would like to add that it was Patton and his tanks that made a maddening rush to stop the "bulge" and stop the invasion. If not for him and his men, Hitler may have suceded in creating a lot more then just havoc.

My brother-in-law was captured by the Germans here and escaped with his life, the Germans were taking no prisoners, some areas they machine gunned the prisoners.

My father was in a Division the helped close the "bulge" after many days of close vicious fighting.

This was a last stand for the Germans and they put everyone on the line including school children that were as young as 14 years old.

Answer 4

Yes, there were gas storage facilities that the Nazis desperately needed to capture if they were going to be able to continue the attack and reach Antwerp, their immediate objective. They were forced to abandon their equipment in order to retreat because there was no gas for the tanks, trucks, etc. The massacre at Malmedy, featured in the movie, also took place.

There was a lot of snow in Belgium in December, 1944; probably a lot of snow in December of any year. Perhaps they omitted that in the movie due to production constraints, maybe then it would have been more difficult or expensive to shoot in snow, or the schedule wasn't right, or they couldn't go on location to some place with snow.

I saw a documentary on the Battle of the Bulge and one soldier, now an old man who lives in a very cold state, said that whenever he goes to bed on a bad weather night in the winter he says to his wife, "at least I'm not in Bastogne."

Answer 5

I was talking to another librarian about trying to increase our video holdings on WW II once, and an older man was sitting next to me. He told me that the closest film he had ever seen to what really happened was a movie called Battleground with Van Johnson. He had been with one of the armored units around Bastogne, and since that film is about that very battle, I'd say he's a pretty good authority.

I don't remember the one they made in the seventies very well, did they have any instances of "tree splatter"? The vets I've heard talk about it say that that was one of the worst threats. The German artillery shells would explode in the trees and the sharp pieces of wood would come flying down at a very fast speed, fast enough to drive a shard of wood right through a man.

Answer 6

It took place in December 1944 through to January 1945 and the weather was thick snow with dense fog on some days which gave the germans an advantage because the Allied airplanes couldn't locate them to attack them
Hollywood is generally rubbish on the truth about anything

Answer 7

"The Battle Of The Bulge" film was pretty accurate when the upper hierarchy of each army was concerned, but lacked realism on the "grunt" level. For that, a far better movie was "Battleground" with Van Johnson, James Whitmore, and others.