Battle of the Bulge Machine Gun Casing Trench Art

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This is a large 8 1/2 inch long trench art letter opener made by a soldier from cartridges picked up from the Battle of the Bulge. All shell casings and bullets contain no charge or powder and are all inert. Contains a rifle casing with the bullet split to accept a medium piece of relic brass that provides the cutting part of the opener. Two rifle bullets are soldered to the sides to form a sword like guard and primer hole is covered by a pistol bullet. Well made and strong. Very nice piece of trench art. Blade is tight in shell casing. Trench art as nice as this is becoming hard to find. Battle of the Bulge The Ardennes Offensive (called Unternehmen: Wacht am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine) by the German military (Heeresgruppe B), officially named the Battle of the Ardennes by the U.S. Army (and known to the general public as the Battle of the Bulge), started on December 16, 1944. Wacht am Rhein was supported by subordinate operations known as Bodenplatte, Greif, and Währung. The goal of these operations as planned by the Germans was to split the British and American Allied line in half, capturing Antwerp and then proceeding to encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis' favor. The Ardennes attack was planned in total secrecy in almost total radio silence. Even Ultra ( the Allies' reading of secret German radio messages) revealed nothing about the upcoming buildup and offensive. Moreover, the degree of surprise achieved was compounded by Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with their own offensive plans, poor aerial reconnaissance, and the relative lack of combat contact by the U.S. 1st Army. Allied intelligence failed completely to detect the upcoming offensive and almost complete surprise against a weak section of the Allies' line was achieved at a time of heavy overcast when the Allies' strong air forces would be grounded. The "bulge" refers to the salient the Germans initially put into the Allies' line of advance, as seen in maps presented in newspapers of the time. Most of the American casualties occurred within the first three days of battle, when two of the 106th Division's three regiments were forced to surrender. In its entirety, the " Battle of the Bulge" was the most bloody of the battles American forces experienced in WWII, the 19,000 American dead unsurpassed by any other engagement. For the U.S. Army, the Battle of the Ardennes incorporated more American troops and engaged more enemy troops than any American conflict prior to WWII. Although the German objective was ultimately unrealized, the Allies' own offensive timetable was set back by months. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, as German survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line. Background The breakout from Normandy at the end of August 1944, coupled with landings in southern France, saw the Allies advance towards Germany faster than anticipated.[4] The rapid advance, coupled with an initial lack of deep water ports, presented the Allies with enormous supply problems. Aside from the temporary Mulberry harbors established in Normandy and direct landing of LST's on the beaches, the only deep water port in Allied hands was at Cherbourg near the original invasion beaches. Although the port of Antwerp , Belgium was captured fully intact in the first days of September, it could not be made operational until November 28 when the Scheldt , which gives access to the port, had been cleared from German control. This delay had been caused by priority given to the Operation Market Garden which had mobilized the resources needed for expelling the Germans forces from the riverbanks of the Scheldt . German forces remained in control of several major ports on the Channel coast until May 1945; those ports that did fall to the Allies in 1944 were sabotaged to deny their immediate use by the Allies. The extensive destruction of the French railroad system prior to D-Day, intended to deny movement to ... read more

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