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>Swift advance is totally blocked by Walter Model's forces
>Initial German forces were understrength with no artillery or tanks
>Americans expected the enemy to be weak and withdraw
>American losses about 1.5-2.0 times higher
>Allied advantages in armour and aircraft negated by forest
>German tactic "exploding trees" where artillery was detonated above the trees so shrapnel and wood splinters would hit the enemy troops
>German snipers picked off American troops who got lost against the snow
>The battle was so costly that it has been described as an Allied "defeat of the first magnitude," with specific credit given to Model.
>Successful defence of the area enabled the Ardennes Offensive - which in its own right caught the Allies by complete surprise
>German medics were noted for saving the lives of many injured Americans (of which I'm sure wasn't reciprocated)
>Described by an American veteran as "...a misconceived and basically fruitless battle that should have been avoided."

You'd think having millions of soldiers from a conglomerate of countries with superior numbers, matériel, and firepower would make easy pickings of one nation that had been blown to smithereens for the last half-decade and is fighting a total war on two others fronts. In fact, they did. But that notion was put out from their minds when it was blown apart by an MG-42.