Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge (also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Von Rundstedt Offensive to the Germans) (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive (die Ardennenoffensive), launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, and France and Luxembourg on the Western Front. The Wehrmacht‘s code name for the offensive was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (“Operation Watch on the Rhine“), after the German patriotic hymn Die Wacht am Rhein. The French name for the operation is Bataille des Ardennes.

More on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge

Media coverage:

It’s been taken quite successfully on the big screen in 1965, in the eponym movie “Battle of the Bulge“, starring Henri Fonda and Robert Ryan.

There are also a variety of documentaries closely dealing with it:

• In “Generals at War” by National Geographics, Episode 3 is dedicated to it
• In “Greatest Tank Battles” by Discovery Channel, “Battle of the Bulge: The last stand“

Paperback Games:

Now, regarding games covering this campaign, we are probably going to break records here, just to highlight top titles:

• Battle of the Bulge – Avalon Hill – 1965
• Bulge – SPI – 1979 by legendary Jim Dunnigan, repurposed from “Wach Am Rhein” issued in 1977, and Battle for the Ardennes in 1978.
• Battle of the Bulge – Avalon Hill – 1981
• Attack in the Ardennes – GDW – 1982
• Hitler’s last gamble: The battle of the Bulge – World Wide Games – 1989
• Battle of the Bulge – Avalon Hill – 1991
• Panzer Grenadier: Battle of the Bulge – Avalanche Press – 2002
• Axis and Allies – Battle of the Bulge – Avalon Hill/Hasbro – 2006
• The Bulge – GMT – 2008

I’d like also to mention the rather unique and still unmatched Panzer Leader.

Digital games:

• Close Combat 4: Battle of the Bulge – SSI – 1999
• 1944: Battle of the Bulge – Monte Christo Multimedia – 2005
• Command Ops: Battle of the Bulge – Matrix Games – 2010
• Battle of the Bulge for iPad – Shenandoah Studio – 2012

We could of course mention the Panzer General series as well as Panzer-korp, which are both covering this battle as part of their Western Europe campains.