Bastogne

I'm a couple of days late, but the Battle of the Bulge began on Dec. 16, 1944. Here's to the surviving veterans.

The Battle of the Bulge was the war's largest land battle involving U.S. forces. It drew in more than a million troops — 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans and 55,000 Britons — who fought in bitter cold from Dec. 16, 1944, to Jan. 25, 1945.

Some 81,000 Americans and 100,000 Germans were killed or wounded in the fighting, Nazi Germany's last offensive.

"No American knows where to find Belgium on the map, but they all know about Bastogne," the daily De Standaard said in Saturday's edition.

The battle began when Germany's panzer divisions broke through the thinly held American front in the Belgian Ardennes sector, catching the Allies by surprise and driving the front westward in a "bulge" that ran deep into Belgian territory.

There was so much destruction that it was impossible to know exactly how many were killed in action, how many went missing and how many were wounded.

The Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge in Arlington, Va., says 19,000 American troops died, making the battle the deadliest in U.S. history.

UPDATED to correct the date