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Dec 16, 2019 - Politics & Policy

Battle of the Bulge, 75 years on: U.S. delegates honor soldiers in Belgium

Rebecca Falconer
American troops manning trenches along snowy hedgerow in the northern Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive of WWII.

American troops manning trenches along snowy hedgerows in the northern Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Photo: George Silk/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a bipartisan congressional delegation to the Belgian town of Bastogne to join weekend-long commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of World War II's Battle of the Bulge.

Why it matters: The battle, which began Dec. 16, 1944, and ended Jan. 25, 1945, was the last major German Western front offensive of the war.

  • The Americans "suffered some 75,000 casualties" during the fighting and Germany up to 100,000 soldiers, per the U.S. Army Center of Military History, which notes the German strength "had been irredeemably impaired."

The big picture: Hundreds of actors re-enacted the battle, also known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, over the weekend, per Euronews.

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