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50 free Battle of the Bulge trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Battle of the Bulge — Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein to the Germans, the Ardennes Counteroffensive to Allied planners — ran from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945 and was the largest and bloodiest single battle the United States fought in the Second World War. Hitler's plan was to punch through a thinly held American rest sector in fog and snow, cross the Meuse in four days, seize Antwerp and split the Allies into a negotiated peace. Fuel, roads, weather and stubborn GIs on Elsenborn Ridge and at Bastogne made sure it never got close. This quiz covers the planning at the Adlerhorst, the three German armies and their commanders, Kampfgruppe Peiper and the Malmedy massacre, the 18-man platoon at Lanzerath, Skorzeny's English-speaking commandos, the siege of Bastogne and McAuliffe's one-word reply, Patton's 48-hour turn, Montgomery taking over two US armies, the furthest German reach at Foy-Notre-Dame, Operation Bodenplatte, and the casualty figures on both sides. There is also the V-2 that hit an Antwerp cinema and Churchill's verdict on the 'greatest American battle of the war'. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play on your phone or print it for a history quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was the German codename for the Ardennes offensive?
Wacht am Rhein
'Watch on the Rhine' was chosen to suggest a defensive posture; Herbstnebel was Model's less ambitious alternative plan.
Q 02On what date did the German assault begin?
16 December 1944
A 90-minute barrage from 1,600 guns opened it at 05:30 across an 80-mile front.
Q 03Which Belgian port was the ultimate objective of the offensive?
Antwerp
Hitler wanted to deny the Allies its use and trap four Allied armies without supplies.
Q 04Which US formation was using the Ardennes mainly as a rest area when the Germans struck?
First Army
The line was held by fatigued troops and green replacements like the 99th and 106th Divisions.
Q 05What was the farthest west the German offensive reached?
Foy-Notre-Dame
The US 2nd Armored Division stopped it there, south-east of Dinant, on 24 December.
Q 06Whose Third Army reached Bastogne from the south on 26 December, ending the siege?
George S. Patton
Company D, 37th Tank Battalion of the 4th Armored Division was the lead element, arriving at 16:50.
Q 07Roughly how many men did the Germans commit to the offensive?
Over 410,000
They also sent just over 1,400 tanks and armoured vehicles, 2,600 guns and 1,000 aircraft; 63,000–104,000 became casualties.
Q 08At least how many Allied soldiers were killed in the battle?
8,600
Total Allied casualties ran from 77,000 to more than 83,000; it was America's largest and bloodiest battle of the war.
Q 09The only deep-water port the Allies had captured by autumn 1944, wrecked by the Germans, was which?
Cherbourg
Antwerp was taken intact in September but not operational until 28 November once the Scheldt was cleared.
Q 10What was the nickname of the Allied trucking system that supplied the front line?
Red Ball Express
It burned five times as much fuel to get supplies to the front near the Belgian border.
Q 11On what date did Hitler first outline his Ardennes counter-offensive to his generals?
16 September 1944
The plan called for reaching the Meuse by day three and Antwerp by day four.
Q 12Which field marshal commanded German Army Group B, the force tasked with the attack?
Walter Model
He and von Rundstedt proposed a joint 'small solution' that stopped short of the Meuse; Hitler refused to listen.
Q 13Who coined the phrase 'Battle of the Bulge'?
The contemporary press
It described how the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps.
Q 21From which command complex near Giessen did Hitler direct the offensive?
Adlerhorst
He had overseen the 1940 campaign against France from the same site and believed in its omens.
Q 22How many artillery pieces fired the opening 90-minute barrage on 16 December?
1,600
It fell across a 130-kilometre front on troops facing the 6th Panzer Army.
Q 23A V-2 that destroyed the Cine Rex cinema ten hours into the assault killed how many people?
567
It was the highest death toll from a single rocket attack during the war.
Q 24Which position's defence by the 2nd and 99th Divisions is called the decisive part of the battle?
Q 14Which SS commander led the 6th Panzer Army, given the lead role and the shortest route?
Sepp Dietrich
It contained the Leibstandarte and Hitlerjugend divisions and had priority for supply and equipment.
Q 15The Fifth Panzer Army in the middle sector was assigned to capture which city?
Brussels
In practice his army drove on the road junctions of Bastogne and St. Vith.
Q 16By which day of the offensive was the Meuse, the halfway mark, supposed to be reached?
Day 4
The staff estimated they had fuel for only a third to a half of the way to Antwerp in heavy combat.
Q 17German units assembling for the attack were issued what instead of wood for cooking fires?
Charcoal
It cut smoke and reduced the chance of Allied observers spotting the build-up.
Q 18Warned by SHAEF's intelligence chief of a possible attack, what was Omar Bradley's reply?
'Let them come.'
Brigadier General Kenneth Strong and Colonel Oscar Koch had both correctly predicted the blow.
Q 19Which SS commando, famous for rescuing Mussolini, led English-speaking Germans in US uniforms?
Otto Skorzeny
Operation Greif aimed to change signposts, misdirect traffic and seize Meuse bridges.
Q 20What was the codename of the night paratroop drop led by Colonel von der Heydte?
Operation Stösser
He gave it under a 10% chance of success; Model told him it must be tried as 'the last chance to conclude the war favorably'.
Elsenborn Ridge
It forced the German spearhead onto worse routes further south and slowed the whole advance.
Q 25Kampfgruppe Peiper's Tiger II heavy tanks burned about how much fuel per mile?
Two US gallons
The Germans had fuel for perhaps 90 to 100 miles, nowhere near enough to reach Antwerp.
Q 26How many men were in the 99th Division platoon that held up 500 German paratroopers at Lanzerath?
18
With four forward air controllers they held until about 16:00, inflicting 92 casualties.
Q 27At least how many American POWs were murdered by SS troops at the Baugnez crossroads on 17 December?
84
The killings became known as the Malmedy massacre; Peiper and Dietrich were tried for it after the war.
Q 28The Wereth 11, tortured and shot by SS men on 17 December, were what kind of troops?
Black American soldiers
The perpetrators, from Schnellgruppe Knittel of the 1st SS Panzer Division, were never punished.
Q 29Peiper seized a US fuel depot in Büllingen holding roughly how much gasoline?
50,000 gallons
It was a major prize, but retreating Americans elsewhere blew bridges and emptied dumps ahead of him.
Q 30Peiper's advance from the Eifel to Stavelot took 36 hours; how long had the same move taken in 1940?
Nine
Stiff resistance and blown bridges kept him behind his timetable throughout.