E101 - Battle of the Bulge

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2019

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

December 2019

After nearly 6 months of fighting from the beaches of Normandy, by early December 1944 the Allies’ front line stretched for 600 miles from the North Sea coast to the borders of Switzerland. The Scheldt estuary had finally been cleared, allowing the port of Antwerp to be opened and to start to ease their supply problems.

With one of the coldest winters on record taking hold and Christmas approaching many of the front line troops probably expected a respite for at least a few weeks. What they didn’t expect was for more than 400,000 German troops to come smashing through the Ardennes on a mission to recapture Antwerp and split the Allied forces in two.

Why was the Battle of the Bulge such a surprise? Was it Allied complacency or German ingenuity? In this “It Happened Here” episode, using contemporary archival documents, Bletchley Park’s Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham, will try to answer those questions.

Special thanks to Mr Ben Thomson for playing the role of our Intelligence Officer.

In memoriam, Eileen Younghusband BEM (1921-2016) WAAF Section Officer

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Bulge75

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The From the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:38.5	Welcome to this additional episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:43.0	Battle of the Bulge.
0:45.6	After nearly six months of fighting from the beaches of Normandy, by early December
0:49.2	1944, the Allies front line stretched for 600 miles from the North Sea coast to the borders of Switzerland.
0:56.2	The Scheldt estuary had finally been cleared, allowing the port of Antwerp to be opened and to start to ease their supply problems.
1:03.4	With one of the coldest winters on record taking hold and Christmas approaching, many of the frontline troops probably expected a respite for at least a few weeks.
1:12.1	What they didn't expect was for more than 400,000 German troops to come smashing through the Ardenne
1:17.4	on a mission to recapture Antwerp and split the Allied forces in two.
1:22.5	Why was the Battle of the Bulge such a surprise? Was it allied complacency, or German ingenuity?
1:28.7	In this It Happened Here episode, using contemporary archival documents,
1:32.7	Bletchley Park's research officer, Dr Thomas Cheatham,
1:35.4	will try to answer those questions.
1:37.8	Special thanks to Mr. Ben Thompson for playing the role of our intelligence officer.
1:43.8	Music of our intelligence officer.
1:58.2	This is Bletchley Park.
2:01.2	It happened here.
2:09.4	Our last It Happened Here episode looked at Operation Market Garden. Can you tell us what the situation was by sort of autumn, winter time in 1944? After Market Garden, really, the front
2:15.1	has largely stalled. The Allies are stuck against the German border.
2:19.6	There isn't much prospect of them actually being able to enter Germany before 1945.
2:25.5	But there are several operations in that period to sort of improve the position that they're in.
	...

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