The Battle of the Bulge – Arnhem and Bastogne
October 13, 2020
1:15pm
Presented by Dan Leclerc via Zoom webinar.
The program is free and open to the public, but you will need to sign up here.
1:15pm
Presented by Dan Leclerc via Zoom webinar.
The program is free and open to the public, but you will need to sign up here.
The Battle of the Bulge, the costliest battle fought by the US Army, was Hitler’s last, desperate attempt to stop the Allied advance toward Germany. On Tuesday, October 13, Dan Leclerc, historian and educator, will tell the story of Hitler’s surprise attack in the Ardennes Forest and the Allies’ eventual victory after ten days of fighting under conditions of arctic cold and snow, siege, and near starvation.
After the D Day Offensive on June 6, 1944, the Allies swept across the Normandy Sector of France. In September of 1944 they launched a major parachute offensive in the Arnhem sector of the Netherlands, only to be met with a vigorous and unexpected German defense that prevented the Allies from crossing several key bridges on the Rhine. Noting this weakness, Adolph Hitler decided, against the opposition of his top generals, to launch a massive and surprise attack across the heavily wooded Ardennes Forest in an effort to capture the port of Antwerp while dividing the British and the American forces.
The heroic and unexpected counterattack led by Field Marshall Montgomery, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton, stopped the German advance. The Battle for the Ardennes was a great German failure in which they lost 120,000 soldiers and 600 tanks. Hitler now had to face 300 Russian Divisions hurling into Germany from the East. The final act in this great tragedy saw Hitler and his loyal partner Eva Braun getting married and then committing joint suicide in their bunker in Berlin.
Dan Leclerc taught high school history for 20 years in the Chelmsford and Hingham public schools. He was a senior administrator for 12 years and retired as Assistant Superintendent of the Ashland Public Schools. A graduate of the Massachusetts Military Academy, he served in the National Guard as a 2ndLt. Executive Officer of an Infantry Company. He holds a Masters Degree in History from Northeastern University. He currently teaches in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes at UMass Boston and Tufts University, and Beacon Hill Seminars with a focus on World War I. He has made numerous trips to the Western Front in France and Belgium and to sites in Germany, Russia and Israel. An appointed member of the Massachusetts World War I Centennial Commission, Dan has presented to numerous historical societies and libraries.
After the D Day Offensive on June 6, 1944, the Allies swept across the Normandy Sector of France. In September of 1944 they launched a major parachute offensive in the Arnhem sector of the Netherlands, only to be met with a vigorous and unexpected German defense that prevented the Allies from crossing several key bridges on the Rhine. Noting this weakness, Adolph Hitler decided, against the opposition of his top generals, to launch a massive and surprise attack across the heavily wooded Ardennes Forest in an effort to capture the port of Antwerp while dividing the British and the American forces.
The heroic and unexpected counterattack led by Field Marshall Montgomery, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton, stopped the German advance. The Battle for the Ardennes was a great German failure in which they lost 120,000 soldiers and 600 tanks. Hitler now had to face 300 Russian Divisions hurling into Germany from the East. The final act in this great tragedy saw Hitler and his loyal partner Eva Braun getting married and then committing joint suicide in their bunker in Berlin.
Dan Leclerc taught high school history for 20 years in the Chelmsford and Hingham public schools. He was a senior administrator for 12 years and retired as Assistant Superintendent of the Ashland Public Schools. A graduate of the Massachusetts Military Academy, he served in the National Guard as a 2ndLt. Executive Officer of an Infantry Company. He holds a Masters Degree in History from Northeastern University. He currently teaches in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes at UMass Boston and Tufts University, and Beacon Hill Seminars with a focus on World War I. He has made numerous trips to the Western Front in France and Belgium and to sites in Germany, Russia and Israel. An appointed member of the Massachusetts World War I Centennial Commission, Dan has presented to numerous historical societies and libraries.