72 years ago, the Allies beat back the last great Nazi offensive - 16 photos of the Battle of the Bulge
During the Battle of the Bulge, a US Army half track crosses a temporary bridge over the Ourthe River, in the war-torn Belgian city of Houffalize, in January 1945.
American soldiers check for identification on the bodies of dead US troops shot by the Germans near Malmedy, Belgium, during World War II's Battle of the Bulge, January 1945.
A dead German soldier, killed during the German counter offensive in the Belgium-Luxembourg salient, on a street corner in Stavelot, Belgium, on January 2, 1945.
During the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes region, a German soldier looks through American ration boxes and uniforms, somewhere in the Belgium-Luxembourg salient, on January 3, 1945.
American infantrymen of the 290th Regiment, armed with rifles and bazookas, move through fresh snowfall in a forest near Amonines, Belgium, on January 4, 1945.
Brussels residents view the wreckage of a FW 190 brought down by a Spitfire on the outskirts of the city. A white-helmeted Belgian policeman guards the wreckage, which is being examined by an RAF officer in Belgium on January 4, 1945.
Low flying C-47 transport planes roar overhead as they carry supplies to the besieged American Forces battling the Germans at Bastogne, during the enemy breakthrough on January 6, 1945, in Belgium.
During the last German counteroffensive on the western front, a German tank unit moves through a village in the Hohe Venn region, near Malmedy, Belgium, on January 6, 1945.
In this image provided by the US Army, soldiers of the 347th US Infantry in heavy winter gear halt their advance to La Roche, Belgium, for a short meal, January 13, 1945.
Members of a field artillery unit of the 30th US Division are seen moving along the front line in the Ardennes region near Stavelot, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, on January 14, 1945.
American infantrymen of an armored division march on a snow-covered road southeast of Born, Belgium, on January 22, 1945.
Troops of the American 7th Armored division are on the look-out for snipers in the streets of Saint Vith, Belgium, on January 23, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
German captives walk past a disabled tank as they are led into captivity by US troops, on January 25, 1945, north of Foy, Belgium, in the final days of the Battle of the Bulge.
The vehicles of an Allied platoon halt in a snow-covered field in the Ardennes area of Belgium, striped with wheel tracks and splotched with blackened shell craters, January 27, 1945.
Troops of the 82nd Airborne Division travel a snow-covered fire break in the woods as they move forward in the Ardennes region in Belgium, on January 28, 1945.
One American tank passes another, bogged down in a ditch at the side of the road in Belgium, January 25, 1945, at one the northern flanks of the von Rundstedt bulge near Amonines. By this point, the bulge had been all but eliminated with surviving Germans retiring behind their Siegfried line, when they began their desperate gamble.
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