As this still from a captured German film shows, Adolf Hitler’s Blitzkrieg into the Ardennes left utter devastation in its wake. It also created a massive bulge in the unready US line. (National Archives)

Stunned 110th Infantry GIs pause to ponder the German waves that washed over their 28th Division positions east of Bastogne. (National Archives)

A strung-out American column bound for the ever-shifting Allied front advances into dense, snow-packed woods in the Ardennes. (National Archives)

A bombed-out Belgian church bears witness that virtually nothing is sacred in war. (National Archives)

Shot or clubbed to death by vengeful German troops, these frozen civilian corpses were discovered in Stavelot, Belgium, by counterattacking GIs shortly after Christmas 1944.

Carving foxholes out of the stiff, Ardennes tundra was no easy matter, as this worn-out corporal could attest. (National Archives)

English-speaking German commandos in American uniforms infiltrated US units to create havoc. When caught, however, they faced a speedy death by firing squad. (National Archives)

Short on clothing in the bitter Belgian winter, American soldiers enjoy the warmth of a rarely allowed fire. (National Archives)

Mess kits in hand, icy 78th Division GIs line up for rations—served cold!—in Germany’s Hürtgen Forest, near the Belgian border. A battle had raged there since September before becoming part of the Battle of the Bulge in December. (National Archives)

Corporal Tony D’Addio of Battery D, 460th Field Artillery Battalion, 106th Division, labors to sight a 75mm pack howitzer outside the Belgian town of Logbierme. (National Archives)

A lone GI braves the cold to shave, taking advantage of a break in the cloud cover late in the campaign. (National Archives)

US forces steadily drove back the Germans. But the enemy columns left thousands of mines in their wake to bedevil American engineers, such as these men of the 30th Division’s 270th Engineer Battalion. (National Archives)

A First Army mortar man surveys the tools of his trade while awaiting firing orders in his forest lair. (National Archives)

With the battle winding down, an 18th Infantry GI smiles as he helps lug a sled full of mortar shells through Bütgenbach, Belgium. (National Archives)

Draped in snowy camouflage, a line of M-4 Sherman tanks mans a ridge outside the embattled crossroads town of St. Vith, Belgium. (National Archives)

Taking cover in a hastily dug pit outside St. Vith, an American mortar crew services its weapon. (National Archives)

Reconnaissance men of the 7th Armored Division move into devastated St. Vith—the final prize wrested from withdrawing German troops. (National Archives)

Shattered Houffalize—yet another quiet Belgian town reduced to rubble during five weeks of bitter fighting. (National Archives)

Wary GIs inch forward to reclaim Wiltz, southeast of Bastogne. (National Archives)

With the grueling battle over, Technical Sergeant Joseph Gonzales of Buffalo, New York, delights Belgian children with a little music from his portable phonograph. (National Archives)