Scott Lester Jr., Age 17, of Portland, Ore., for his question:

WHERE WAS THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE?

The Battle of the Bulge is a name given to the last German offensive in the west during World War II. In happened in the Ardennes area of northeast France and in Belgium and Luxembourg. The battle took place from December 1944 to January 1945.

Following the Normandy invasion (June 1944), Allied forces swept rapidly through France but became stalled along the German border in September and thereafter made little progress. On December 16, taking advantage of bad weather that kept Allied aircraft on the ground, the Germans suddenly launched a counteroffensive through the hilly and wooded Ardennes country and quickly advanced about 50 miles into Belgium and Luxembourg.

The German aim was to divide the Americans and the British and retake the vital seaport of Antwerp. They created a "bulge" in the Allied lines, but their advance was halted near the Meuse River in late December.

Managing to avoid being cut off by an Allied pincer movement, the Germans withdrew to their own lines in January, but suffered heavy loses including some 220,000 casualities, that contributed to their final collapse in the spring.