The Battle of the Bulge: Hitler's last stand
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}American troops man trenches along a snowy hedgerow in the northern Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944. (George SilkTime & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
American GI, Battle of the Bulge. (George SilkTime & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
German POWs, Battle of the Bulge, January 1945. (George SilkTime & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Soldiers explore a frozen tank during the Battle of the Bulge. (John FloreaTime & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
A blindfolded prisoner is securely bound, hand and foot, to a stake in front of a concrete wall. A large white paper target is pinned over his heart. American MPs stand at attention until the firing squad's commanding officer inspects the final arrangements. Belgium, 1944. (John FloreaTime & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Some of the 115 Americans who, LIFE reported, were "massacred at point-blank range" in a field after being captured by Germans in the early days of the Battle of the Bulge, 1944. The soldiers were herded into a field and machine-gunned; when found, many of the frozen bodies still had their hands above their heads. (John FloreaTime & Life Pictures/Getty Images)