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78 years ago, on December 17th 1944, the German Army succeeded in a breaking through Allied lines in an attempt to reach the Belgium port of Antwerp, which ultimately failed. If they had reached there, their plan was to invade Britain with the hope that both the U.S. and Great Britain would leave the war, thus allowing the German's to then attack the Soviets with full force. When General Eisenhower heard of the attack he ordered that not a single report on the battle be released to the British or American public until after the battle.

After the German attack, the 101st Airborne was airdropped into the area to hold Bastogne, Belgium which was very successful and quite possibly was the deciding factor in making the German offensive a failure. The German troops during the battle were armed with a new weapon, the StG-44, which was the world's first assault rifle. The Soviets later based the AK-47 off of the StG-44, which is still in use by many communist countries today. The battle was also fought in about eight inches of snow at a temperature of -7º F. On January 25th 1945, the battle ended in the Allies' favor. That was finally when the top leaders of Germany realized that the battle was the beginning of the end of the war.