Hitler orders Joachen Peiper’s 1st SS Panzer Division, which had long been preparing to take the port of Antwerp through the Ardennes forests, to launch an offensive. This is part of the larger Battle of the Bulge offensive. The Nazis number 1,500 tanks, and the American casualties are estimated at 35,000. The 101st allows itself to be surrounded to hold Bastogne and is liberated a few days later by Patton’s intervention.
