Secrets of America's Bloodiest WWII Battle Revealed by Drones

Archaeologists have uncovered previously hidden details about the bloodiest battle the United States fought in World War II.

With the help of drones, a team of experts identified almost a thousand previously unknown archaeological features at the site where the Battle of the Bulge took place, according to a study published in the journal Antiquity.

The battle occurred in the densely forested Ardennes region, between Belgium and Luxembourg, between December 1944 and January 1945 during the final stages of the war in Europe. It was one of the war's most important battles, marking the final major offensive on the Western Front by the Nazis.

It was also the bloodiest battle that the United States fought in during the war, resulting in roughly 80,000 American casualties, including around 19,000 fatalities, according to the National WWII Museum.

With more than 600,000 American troops participating—not to mention hundreds of thousands of German soldiers—it remains among the largest battles ever fought by the U.S. Army in its history.

"The Battle of the Bulge was a turning point in the war," Birger Stichelbaut, an author of the study who is at Belgium's Ghent University, told Newsweek.

"Although initially very successful, the [Nazi] advance was halted eventually, leading to the retreat of the German forces and contributing to the depleting of German resources and troops," he said.

To date, dense forest cover has made the battlefield difficult to survey, meaning most traces of the battle in the landscape have remained hidden. Aerial photographs are unable to see through the trees, and the battlefield is too large to survey entirely on foot.

As a result, little research regarding the material remains of the battle has been published even though it has been intensively studied by military historians while also the subject of significant attention in museums and the popular media.

"The Battle of the Bulge is a high-profile, key battlefield of WW II," Stichelbaut said. "This is in stark contrast with the knowledge of the landscape where it happened. Almost nothing was known about the actual preservation of features in the forests where it happened. This discrepancy was one of the driving forces behind our research."

He continued: "Prior to our study, there was only very limited knowledge about the archaeological preservation of the landscape of the battle. Thanks to our research...we are beginning to get a view of the density, variety and distribution of archaeological traces of the conflict."

To address the gaps in our knowledge, Stichelbaut and colleagues conducted a high-resolution survey using LiDAR technology mounted on drones to survey a portion of the battlefield from a new perspective. LiDAR involves laser imaging and essentially enables scientists to "see through" the forest canopy, revealing hidden features below.

The team members used LiDAR to produce high-resolution maps of the study area. They then extrapolated this knowledge to the wider battlefield to better understand features visible on a low-resolution national LiDAR dataset.

Using this method, the team identified hundreds of previously unknown features. These included dugouts, foxholes, trenches, bomb craters and even artillery emplacements. The team then visited the newly identified features on the ground and subsequently managed to link them to specific events, shedding new light on the battle.

For example, the team discovered German objects at U.S. artillery embankments, leading it to determine that Nazi forces made use of abandoned American fortifications during the battle.

The techniques the team used could be applied to other forested areas of Europe and could have significant implications for our understanding of World War II battlefields. The application of these techniques could also help protect battlefield landscapes from destruction via deforestation.

"We are more than 75 years after this battle," Stichelbaut said. "Its last personal witnesses have disappeared. Today, however, the landscape of the battle remains as the very last witness of the war."

Correction, 08/19/23, 1:51 p.m. ET: This story was updated to make it clear that the Battle of the Bulge was not the largest battle in American military history in terms of U.S. troop involvement.