Aarushhh/wikipedia-simple-splitted huggingface dataset:
Spiritual gifts 
On the topic of spiritual gifts, Piper believes that supernatural gifts such as miracles, healings, and speaking in tongues are around today. He does not believe that the job of apostle is worked today. He also believes that the gift of prophecy in the church is from God, (that is inspired by Him) but is not infallible because of the medium (namely men). Thus, while prophecies are to be embraced scripture reveals that they be sifted or tested in order to decipher that which is good (i.e.in accord with God's revealed word, the Bible).
Books by Piper 
 Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Multnomah, 1986; 2nd edition, 1996, 3rd edition, 2003).
 The Pleasures of God (Multnomah, 1991; Expanded edition, 2000).
 Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of God in Missions (Baker, 1993, 2nd Edition 2003).
 Future Grace, or, The Purifying Power of Living By Faith In Future Grace (Multnomah, 1995).
 Brothers, We Are Not Professionals (Broadman & Holman, 2002).
 Don't Waste Your Life (Crossway, 2003).
 When I Don't Desire God (Crossway, 2004).
 God Is the Gospel (Crossway, 2005).
 What Jesus Demands from the World (Crossway, 2006).
 The Future of Justification (Crossway, 2007).

Most of Piper's books can be read online for free at Desiring God.org

References

Other websites 
 Desiring God - 27 years of sermons for free. Also books, articles, and more
 Desiring God Blog - This has updates on new sermons, articles, and blogposts
 Desiring God Radio - Piper's official radio broadcast
 John Stephen Piper  - At Ondoctrine.com
1946 births
Living people
American Baptist ministers
American Calvinists
American Christian writers
Writers from Chattanooga, Tennessee
Writers from South Carolina
William Henry Gates III  (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and the co-founder and former chairman of Microsoft. He is the third-richest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in net worth as of January 2021.

Biography 
William Henry Gates III was born on October 28, 1955 at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, U.S.  He has British and German ancestry. His father William H. Gates, Sr. was a lawyer. His mother Mary Maxwell Gates served on the board of directors for First Interstate Banksystem and the United Way. His parents wanted him to be a lawyer. At the age of 13, Bill went to Lakeside High School.
College career and the Founding of Microsoft 
He was a freshman at Harvard University in 1973. He left Harvard to make software.  Bill Gates saw an opportunity to transform the personal computer, which was expensive and difficult to use.  He decided that computers could be made less expensive and easier to use.  Gates started Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gates then went on to develop the Windows operating system, which at first wasn't well-received but with time became the most used system in the world.
Retirement, philanthropy and charity work 
In 2006, Gates announced he was going to quit his job at Microsoft. This was so he could do more charity work with his wife, Melinda. Their charity is called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates' philanthropy projects have included vaccination of children in sub-Saharan Africa, scholarship programs in the United States, and a mission to help organize other billionaires to redistribute their wealth. He likes to give money and support to human rights, education, and technological innovation.
Gates stepped down from his CEO position in Microsoft in 1998 and Steve Ballmer did the job instead. On June 16, 2007, Microsoft said that Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, will come in on a day-to-day schedule to continue working with his charity organization full-time for the years to come. On 2014, Satya Nadella became the new CEO of Microsoft and Bill Gates came back as the Chief Technology Adviser. On March 13, 2020, Bill Gates completely left Microsoft so that he can focus on charity work. He is now focusing on charity work for climate change, global health and development, and education.

He was awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 for his services to philanthropy and charity. As an American citizen, he cannot be called "Sir Bill Gates", but can use the letters "KBE" after his name.

Melinda French divorced with Bill Gates since May 3, 2021. Even though they divorced, they stated that they will keep working on charity events.
Net worth 
In 1986, Gates took Microsoft public. The company's stock was worth $520 million. Gates owned 45 percent of the stock himself, which was worth $234 million. The company continued its rapid growth and the stock price soared. At one point, Gates' stock was worth over $100 billion. This made him the richest man in the world, until October 2017, when Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos became even richer than him.

He was the richest man in the world. In October 2017, his net worth was surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion compared to Gates's net worth of US$89.9 billion at the time. As of January 2021, Gates had an estimated net worth of US$163 billion, making him the third-richest person in the world. And now, he is the third-richest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in net worth as of January 2021.
Personal life
Bill Gates enjoys reading. He owns a large home library, and its ceiling is decorated with a quote from The Great Gatsby. He also enjoys playing bridge, tennis and golf. Every day, he writes down a daily schedule for every minute of the day, similarly to the U.S. president's schedule. Even though Gates is rich and frequently travels to work, he formerly flew in an economy class aircraft until 1997. Since 1997, the year when he bought a private jet, he travels in his private jet instead.

In 2016, he revealed that he was color-blind.

On May 10, 2022, Gates said that he tested positive for COVID-19. He was experiencing mild symptoms of COVID-19. Gates has received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Related pages 
 Steve Jobs, founder of Apple
 Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook
 Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

References

Other websites 
 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
1955 births
Living people
American agnostics
American billionaires
American chief executives
Philanthropists from Washington (state)
 
Harvard University alumni
Microsoft people
Writers from Seattle
Businesspeople from Seattle
Recipients of the Order of the Aztec Eagle
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun
Time People of the Year
American company founders
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire
A Fibula is an ancient brooch.  (Plural: fibulae).  Technically, the latin term fibulae meant Roman brooches, but the term is widely used for brooches from the entire ancient and early medieval world.  Unlike modern brooches, fibulae were not only decorative, they originally served a practical function: to fasten clothes, including cloaks.  Fibulae replaced straight pins that were used to fasten clothing in the Neolithic period and Bronze Age.  In turn, fibulae were replaced as clothing fasteners in the Middle Ages by buttons.  Their descendent, the modern safety pin, remains in use today.

There are hundreds of different types and variations of fibulae.  They are usually divided into families or groups based on historical period, geography and/or cultural grouping.  Fibulae are also divided into classes based on their general forms.

Further reading 

 Hattatt, Richard.  A Visual catalogue of Richard Hattatt's Ancient Brooches.  Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2000.

Archaeology
Jewelry
The Supreme Court building is home of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is in Washington, D.C. It was designed in the neoclassical style by an architect named Cass Gilbert.

References

Buildings and structures in Washington, D.C.
Bethlehem Baptist Church can mean:
Note: Some of these are on the National Register of Historic Places
 Bethlehem Baptist Church (Phoenix, Arizona)
 Bethlehem Baptist Church (Minneapolis), Minnesota
 Bethlehem Baptist Church (Barnwell, South Carolina)
The Bethlehem Baptist Church (BBC) is a megachurch in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The church was started in 1871 as the First Swedish Baptist Church of Minneapolis. Since 1980, their pastor has been John Piper.

Other websites 
Bethlehem Baptist Church

Baptist churches
Churches in the United States
Minneapolis
1871 establishments in the United States
19th-century establishments in Minnesota
A megachurch is a large church. It usually has around 2,000 or more people come every week. About 1,300 Protestant churches are megachurches.

Other websites 
 Database of Megachurches in the U.S.

Churches
"T.N.T." is a 1976 song by Australian hard rock band AC/DC and was taken from their second studio album of the same name. It went to number 19 in Australia. It was covered by American heavy metal band Anthrax in 2013.

1976 songs
Hard rock songs
AC/DC songs
Anthrax (band) songs
The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) or Medieval Climate Optimum was a time of unusually warm climate in the North Atlantic region. It was not a planet-wide phenomena. It lasted from about the tenth century to about the fourteenth century. In discussions of global warming this period is often mentioned. 

Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly because this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important.

Related pages
Little Ice Age

References

Further reading 
 M.K. Hughes and H.F. Diaz, "Was there a 'Medieval Warm Period?", Climatic Change 26: 109-142, March 1994

Other websites 

The Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period 

Middle Ages
Climate
Motor sports are sports where the people taking part use a motor vehicle. The usual vehicles are a car, motorcycle or boat. Some motor sports use aircraft or snowmobiles.

Motor sports can be based either on speed (the first one to reach the finish line wins) or on skill (the one with the least amount of penalty points wins). Speed-based motor sports are often called races. Motor sports based on skill are often called trials.

Well known motor sports are rally, Formula 1 and Nascar.
The Niagara IceDogs are a Canadian ice hockey team. They began playing in 1998. The team currently plays in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). They play their home games in St. Catharines, Ontario at the Meridian Centre.

Other websites
Official website

Canadian Hockey League teams
Ice hockey teams in Ontario
Ontario Hockey League
1998 establishments in Canada
Haan is a town of the district of Mettmann in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Since 1975, Gruiten belongs to Haan.

Population

Twin towns 
Haan is twinned with:
  Eu, France, since 1967
  Berwick-upon-Tweed, United Kingdom, since 1982
  Bad Lauchstädt, Germany, since 1990
  Dobrodzień, Poland, since 2004

The local Gymnasium is also twinned with Liceo Scientifico of  Forte dei Marmi, Italy.

References

Other websites 

 Official site 

Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia
Mettmann Rural District
A gas chamber is an airtight room used for killing people or animals with poison gas.  The people or animals are put into the gas chamber, the door is sealed airtight from the outside, and a gas, such as carbon monoxide or hydrogen cyanide, is put into the chamber. The victims die from inhaling the poisonous gas.

In the United States 

In the United States, prisons have used gas chambers to execute prisoners who have been sentenced to death.  The first person in the United States to be executed in a gas chamber was Gee Jon, in a prison in Nevada, in 1924.  The government of Nevada did not want to use an electric chair, and thought hanging was cruel and inhumane.
Recently, there have been proposals and a law has been enacted in Oklahoma for a variation, so-called nitrogen gas, either by chamber or a mask. It is believed to be less painful and anxious than the method previously used. In the beginning, actually, the idea of a gas chamber was to let the prisoner condemned to death sleep in a cell which would then be exposed to lethal gas during the night, without the prisoner's knowledge. However, because of poor isolation techniques it was too difficult and so the gas chamber was introduced instead. It was introduced in several states, including Mississippi, North Carolina, Missouri, Colorado, California, Arizona and New Mexico, but it never was as popular as the electric chair and later execution by injection. The method is in fact expensive and thought to be painful because the prisoner must breathe deeply to hasten the death, which is difficult when the body wants to reject the fumes
. (With nitrogen, it is different because the body doesn't reject it as strange or fatal.) It is also extremely dangerous to the audience and personnel in case there is a leak, and impossible to halt in case there is an attempt to stop the execution, such as in the cases of Caryl Chessman and Burton Abbott. In the case of an electric current or injection the switch can be turned off and the needle ripped out, and while it might not be enough there is no risk for the people trying to save the prisoner. In one case, when the mechanism jammed, the executioner had to drop the pellet into the acid (producing the deadly fumes beneath the chair where the prisoner was sitting) and jump out of the chamber as the warden stood ready to slam the door and tighten it.
By the 1990s, the gas chamber had become unpopular in the United States.  It never became as popular as execution by electric chair or (more recently) lethal injection. When Donald Eugene Harding was executed in Arizona in 1992, witnesses described his death as "violent" and an "ugly event". The last prisoner to be executed in the gas chamber in the United States was Walter LaGrand, in Arizona in 1999. All states that still have the death penalty use lethal injection.

However, in April 2015, Oklahoma made a law using nitrogen gas to execute people. It's not certain whether the gas would be used by a mask or similar contraption or in a gas chamber.  They approved this after it took over an hour to execute Clayton Lockett by lethal injection.

In Nazi Germany 

During The Holocaust, Nazi Germany used gas chambers to kill between two and three million people.
Nazi Germany first used gas chambers to kill people with disabilities.  The Nazis thought that people with disabilities were "life unworthy of life," and did not deserve to live.  Between 1939 and 1941, the Nazis killed 70,273 people with disabilities at hospitals like Hartheim Euthanasia Centre.

Nazi Germany planned to kill all of the Jewish people. They called this plan the Final Solution.  In 1942, the Nazi regime held a meeting where it was decided to kill all Jewish people that fell under German control.  After this, they started constructing death camps with gas chambers.  In 1942, the Nazis started killing hundreds of people at a time in gas chambers at the Belzec, Sobibór, and Treblinka death camps.

The Nazis also built gas chambers at some of the concentration camps that already existed, like Auschwitz (Auschwitz II, called "Birkenau") and Majdanek.
However, most killings took place elsewhere, including other camps and by shooting. Gas was thought to be a better method because it involved fewer people and the ones who helped could be Jews who were replaced gradually. After gassing, the victims were dragged out and quickly burned in large ovens, and the gas chambers cleaned and fanned. After the war and the destruction of the camps, the method was probably disgraced because of the association with the Nazis.

Historians estimate that the Nazis killed around three million people in these camps, mostly by use of gas, but also by shooting and through disease and starvation.  These people included:

In other countries 
The gas chamber has also been used in Lithuania, a small country in the Baltics, before it was annexed (taken over by) the Soviet Union in 1940. After that, Lithuania executed prisoners by the Soviet method of a bullet shot into the back of the head.

References

Torture
Capital punishment
Impact Wrestling is a professional wrestling company founded in 2002 shortly after World Championship Wrestling closed down. They are the main rivals for World Wrestling Entertainment.  They made a video game called TNA iMPACT! and a sequel to it called TNA Impact! 2011 after it's weekly program which was of the same name before it was renamed Impact Wrestling.

Jeff Jarrett left the company in December 2013 and announced that he was starting his own professional wrestling promotion called Global Force Wrestling. It was later clarified that he still remains an "investor" of TNA.
On November 19, 2014, it was announced that TNA would be ending their relationship with Spike, and that they would instead partner with Discovery Communications to distribute their shows beginning in January 2015. In the United States, TNA programs, which include Impact Wrestling, will move to Destination America. Discovery will also hold rights in selected international markets. Spike's outreach at the time was estimated to be more than 97 million homes while Destination America was only estimated to reach 59 million households.

On October 21, 2023 during Bound for Glory, it was announced that the company would be rebranding and would be going back to their previous name Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), starting at the Hard To Kill event on January 13, 2024.

Champions

References

Other websites

 Official website

2002 establishments in the United States
Impact Wrestling
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German attack near the end of World War II, in Belgium, France and Luxembourg. The attack surprised Allied forces. It was the worst battle in terms of casualties for the United States. It also used up huge amounts of Germany's war-making resources. 

The press made up "Battle of the Bulge" to describe the way the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps and became the best known name for the battle.

The German attack was supported by several other operations. Germany's goal was to split the British and American Allied line in half, capture Antwerp, and then encircle and destroy four Allied armies. They hoped this would force the Allies to make a peace treaty with Germany. If they did this, Hitler could focus on the eastern front of the war.
The attack was planned in secret. Germany moved troops and equipment in the dark. United States intelligence staff predicted a major German attack, but this still surprised them. The Allied forces were overconfident and too focused on their own attack plans, and they also did not have good aerial reconnaissance.

The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line. They attacked while there was bad weather. This was because the Allies could not use planes if the weather was bad. Violent resistance blocked German access to important roads. The thick forests helped the defenders. This slowed down the German advance and allowed the Allies to add new troops. Better weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces, which led to the failure of the attack.
After the defeat, many experienced German units lacked men and equipment. The battle involved about 610,000 American men, of whom some 89,000 were casualties, including 19,000 killed.   It was the largest and most deadly battle fought by the United States in World War II.

Background 

After moving from Normandy at the end of July 1944 and landing in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced toward Germany more quickly than expected.

Allied troops were tired from weeks of continuous fighting and supplies were very low. While the supply situation improved in October, the lack of troops was still a major problem.

General Eisenhower and his staff chose the Ardennes region, held by the First United States Army, as an area that could be held by as few troops as possible. The Ardennes were chosen because the terrain offered good defence and there were not many roads.
The speed of the Allied advance and a lack of deep-water ports made it hard for the Allies to supply their troops. Beach supply operations using the Normandy landing areas could not supply enough provisions. The only port the Allies had captured was Cherbourg, near the original invasion beaches, but the Germans had wrecked and mined it.

It took the Allies many months to build up their ability to move cargo. The Allies captured the port of Antwerp, Belgium, fully intact, in the first days of September, but it was not working until 28 November. The Scheldt River had to be cleared of both German troops and naval mines.

The limitations led to disagreements between General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery over whether Montgomery or American General Omar Bradley in the south would get access to supplies.
German forces remained in control of several major ports on the English Channel coast until May 1945. The destruction of the French railway system prior to D-Day made it hard for the Germans to respond to the invasion. It was also a problem for the Allies, as it took time to repair the tracks and bridges.

A trucking system brought supplies to front-line troops, but transportation took huge amounts of fuel to reach the front line near the Belgian border. By early October the Allies stopped major attacks to improve their supply lines.

Montgomery and Bradley both asked for delivery of supplies to their armies so they could continue to attack the Germans. Gen. Eisenhower wanted Montgomery's northern forces to open the port of Antwerp and capture the Ruhr area, the industrial part of Germany.

With the Allies paused, German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt was able to reorganize the German armies into an organized defense.
Field Marshal Montgomery's Operation Market Garden only achieved some of its goals. Its gains in territory left the Allied supply situation worse than before. In October the Canadian First Army fought the Battle of the Scheldt, opening the port of Antwerp to shipping. As a result, by the end of October the supply situation got better.

Despite a pause in fighting after the Scheldt battles, the Germans had serious problems. While operations continued in the autumn, notably the Lorraine Campaign, the Battle of Aachen and fighting in the Hürtgen Forest, the situation in the west changed little.

The Allies were slowly pushing towards Germany, but they did not get there. The Western Allies already had 96 divisions at or near the front, with ten more divisions coming from the United Kingdom. Additional Allied airborne units remained in England. The Germans had a total of 55 divisions.
Adolf Hitler promised his generals 18 infantry and 12 armored or mechanized divisions. The plan was to use 13 infantry divisions, two parachute divisions and six panzer divisions from reserves. On the Eastern Front the Soviets' Operation Bagration during the summer had destroyed much of Germany's Army Group Center.

The operation ended only when the advancing Red Army forces ran out of supplies. By November, Soviet forces were preparing for a winter attack.

Meanwhile, the Allied air attacks of early 1944 had made the German Air Force unable to fly. This meant that the German Army had little battlefield intelligence and no way to stop Allied supplies. The daytime movement of German forces was easily noticed and stopping supplies combined with the bombing of the Romanian oil fields meant Germany had no oil and gasoline.
One of the few advantages held by the German forces in November 1944 was that they were no longer defending all of Western Europe. Their front lines in the west had been shortened and were much closer to the German borders. This reduced their supply problems despite Allied control of the air.

Additionally, their telephone and telegraph network meant that radios were no longer necessary for communications, which lessened the effectiveness of Allied Ultra code breaking. Nevertheless, some 40—50 coded messages were sent per day by ULTRA. They recorded the quadrupling of German fighter forces and noticed that an attack was planned. ULTRA also picked up information about a lot of rail and road movements in the region.

Drafting the offensive 
German leader Adolf Hitler felt that his mobile reserves allowed him to do one major attack. Although he realised nothing could be accomplished in the Eastern Front, he still believed an offensive against the Western Allies could succeed.
Hitler believed he could split the Allied forces and make the Americans and British to settle for a separate peace, independent of the Soviet Union.

Success in the west would give the Germans time to design and produce more advanced weapons (such as jet aircraft, new U-boat designs and super-heavy tanks) and permit the build-up of forces in the east. 

Given the reduced manpower of their land forces, the Germans believed that it was better to attack in the West against the smaller Allied forces rather than against the vast Soviet armies. Even the destruction of entire Soviet armies would still have left the Soviets with more soldiers.
Several senior German military officers, such as Field Marshal Walter Model did not think the attack would work. They offered different plans, but Hitler would not listen. The plan needed bad weather, including heavy fog and low-lying clouds, which would make it hard for Allied planes to fly. Hitler originally set the attack for late November, before the start of the Russian winter offensive.

In the west supply problems began slowing down Allied operations, even though the opening of the port of Antwerp in late November improved the situation. The positions of the Allied armies stretched from southern France all the way north to the Netherlands. The Germans wanted to attack the thin line of Allied forces. They thought this would stop Allied advances on the Western Front.
Several plans for major Western attacks were prepared. A first plan was for an attack on the U.S. forces around Aachen, to encircle the U.S. Ninth Army. A second plan was for a blitzkrieg attack through the weakly defended Ardennes Mountains. This aimed at splitting the armies along the U.S.—British lines and capturing Antwerp.

Hitler chose the second plan. He liked the idea of splitting the Anglo-American armies. There were many disputes between Montgomery and Patton. Hitler hoped he could make use of these disagreements. If the attack captured Antwerp, four complete armies would be trapped without supplies behind German lines.

Both plans aimed at on attacks against the American forces. Hitler believed the Americans were not able to fight well. He thought that the American people would lose hope upon hearing of an American loss.

Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) Walther Model and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt were ordered to lead the attacks.
Model and von Rundstedt both believed aiming for Antwerp was too difficult, given Germany's lack of resources in late 1944. At the same time they felt that being just defensive would only delay defeat.  They developed plans that did not aim to cross the Meuse River; Model's being Unternehmen Herbstnebel (Operation Autumn Mist) and von Rundstedt's Fall Martin ("Plan Martin").

The two field marshals showed their plans to Hitler, who rejected them in favor of his "big solution".

Operation names 
The phrase "Battle of the Bulge" was  made up by contemporary press to describe the way the Allied front line bulged inward on wartime news maps.

After the war ended, the U.S. Army issued the Ardennes-Alsace medal to units that took part in operations in northwest Europe. The medal covered the Ardennes sector where the battle took place and units further south in the Alsace sector.

Planning
Planning 

OKW decided by mid-September, on Hitler's orders, that the attack would be started in the Ardennes, as was done in 1940. Many German generals objected, but the attack was planned and carried out. In 1940 German forces had passed through the Ardennes in three days before attacking the enemy, but the 1944 plan called for battle in the forest. The main forces were to advance westward to the Meuse River, then turn northwest for Antwerp and Brussels.

The thick forests of the Ardennes would make movement difficult. There was open ground beyond the Meuse where the Germans could move quickly to the coast.

Four armies were selected for the operation. First was the Sixth Panzer Army, under SS General Sepp Dietrich—newly created on 26 October 1944, it used the most senior and the most experienced Waffen-SS: the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler as well as the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. The 6th Panzer Army was the northernmost attack force. It was ordered to capture Antwerp.
The Fifth Panzer Army under General Hasso von Manteuffel was ordered to capture Brussels.

The Seventh Army, under General Erich Brandenberger, was ordered to the southernmost attack. This Army was made up of only four infantry divisions, with no armoured groups. As a result, they made little progress throughout the battle.

Also participating in a secondary role was the Fifteenth Army, under General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen. It was located on the far north of the Ardennes battlefield. It was ordered to hold U.S. forces in place. It could also attack if conditions were right.

For the attack to be successful, four elements were needed: the attack had to be a complete surprise; the weather conditions had to be poor to stop Allied air superiority; the progress had to be rapid. Allied fuel supplies would have to be captured because the Wehrmacht was short on fuel. The General Staff estimated they only had enough fuel to cover one-third to one-half of the ground to Antwerp.
Although it retained most of its armor, there were not enough infantry units because of the defensive needs in the East. These 30 newly rebuilt divisions used some of the last reserves of the German Army. Among them were Volksgrenadier units formed from a mix of veterans and recruits formerly regarded as too young or too old to fight. Training time, equipment and supplies were inadequate during the preparations. German fuel supplies were inadequate. Materials and supplies that could not be transported by rail had to be horse-drawn to conserve fuel. The mechanized and panzer divisions would depend heavily on captured fuel. As a result, the start of the attack was delayed from 27 November to 16 December.
Before the offensive the Allies were not aware of German troop movement. During the liberation of France, the French resistance had provided information about German movements. Once they reached the German border, this information was not available. In France, orders had been relayed within the German army using radio messages coded by the Enigma machine.  These could be picked up and decoded by Allied code-breakers  at Bletchley Park, to give the intelligence known as ULTRA.

In Germany such orders were typically transmitted using telephone and teleprinter, and a special radio silence order was made on all communications about the attack. The major crackdown in the Wehrmacht after the 20 July plot to kill Hitler resulted in much tighter security and fewer information  leaks. The foggy autumn weather also prevented Allied reconnaissance aircraft from seeing the Germans on the ground.
German units in the area were given charcoal instead of wood for cooking fires to cut down on smoke and reduce chances of Allied observers realizing a troop build up was underway. 

Allied High Command considered the Ardennes a quiet sector. Allied intelligence services said that the Germans were unable to launch any major attacks this late in the war. The Allies thought that the Germans were getting ready for defence. The Allies thought that a new defensive army was being formed around Düsseldorf in the northern Rhine. The Germans tricked the Allies by increasing the number of flak batteries in the area and making more radio transmissions in the area.

The attack, when it came, completely surprised the Allied forces. The U.S. Third Army intelligence chief, Colonel Oscar Koch, the U.S. First Army intelligence chief and the SHAEF intelligence officer had warned that the Germans might attack the U.S. VIII Corps area. These warnings were ignored by the U.S. 12th Army Group.
Because the Ardennes was considered a quiet sector, the Allies used it as a training ground for new units and a rest area. The U.S. units deployed in the Ardennes thus were a mixture of inexperienced troops (such as the U.S. 99th and 106th "Golden Lions" Divisions), and veteran troops sent to that sector to rest (the 28th Infantry Division).

Two major special operations were planned for the attack. By October it was decided that Otto Skorzeny, the German commando was to lead a task force of English-speaking German soldiers. These soldiers were to be dressed in American and British uniforms. They would go behind American lines and change signposts, misdirect traffic, cause disruption and seize bridges across the Meuse River between Liège and Namur.
By late November, another special operation was added: Col. Friedrich August von der Heydte was to lead a Fallschirmjäger (paratrooper) Kampfgruppe in Operation Stösser, a night-time paratroop drop behind the Allied lines aimed at capturing an important road near Malmedy.

German intelligence had set 20 December as the expected date for the start of the upcoming Soviet attack.

After the 20 July plot attempt to kill Hitler's life, and the advance of the Red Army, Hitler and his staff left the Wolfsschanze headquarters in East Prussia. After a brief visit to Berlin, Hitler travelled on his Führersonderzug (train) to Giessen on 11 December, taking up residence in the Adlerhorst command complex at Kransberg Castle.

Von Rundstedt set up his operational headquarters near Limburg, close enough for the generals and Panzer Corps commanders who were to lead the attack to visit Alderhost.
In a personal conversation on 13 December between Walther Model and Friedrich von der Heydte, who was put in charge of Operation Stösser, von der Heydte gave Operation Stösser less than a 10% chance of succeeding. Model told him it was necessary to make the attempt.

Initial German assault 

On 16 December 1944, at 5:30 am, the Germans began the attack with a 90-minute artillery attack using 1,600 artillery pieces. The Americans thought was that this was an attack resulting from the Allies' recent attack in the Wahlerscheid sector to the north.

In the northern sector Dietrich's 6th Panzer Army was held up for almost 24 hours by a single platoon and four U.S. Forward Artillery Observers. They then attacked Losheim Gap and Elsenborn Ridge to get through to Liège and Antwerp.
Heavy snowstorms occurred in the Ardennes area. This kept the Allied aircraft grounded, but it also slowed the German advance. There were massive traffic jams and fuel shortages.
 
von Manteuffel's Fifth Panzer Army attacked towards Bastogne and St. Vith. In the south, Brandenberger's Seventh Army moved towards Luxembourg.

Only one month before 250 members of the Waffen-SS had tried to recapture the town of Vianden from the Luxembourgish resistance during the Battle of Vianden. The SS lost.

Attack on the northern shoulder 

The battle for Elsenborn Ridge was an important part of the Battle of the Bulge. The attack was led by one of the best equipped German divisions on the western front, the 1st SS Panzer Division (LSSAH).

The division made up the lead unit for the entire German 6th Panzer Army. SS Obersturmbannführer Joachim Peiper led Kampfgruppe Peiper, consisting of 4,800 men and 600 vehicles.
The attacks by the Sixth Panzer Army's infantry units in the north did badly because of strong resistance by the U.S. 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions.

On the first day, a German battalion of 500 men was held up for 10 hours. The infantry of the 9th Fallschirmjaeger Regiment, 3rd Fallschirmjaeger Division had been ordered to attack the village first.

A single 18-man platoon from the 99th Infantry Division and four Forward Air Controllers held up the battalion of about 500 German paratroopers until sunset causing 92 casualties among the Germans.

This stopped the German advance. Kampfgruppe Peiper, at the head of the SS Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich's Sixth Panzer Army had been ordered to take the Losheim-Losheimergraben road. Peiper did not begin his advance until nearly 4:00 pm, more than 16 hours behind schedule.
Kampfgruppe Peiper reached Bucholz Station in the early morning of 17 December and captured portions of the 3rd Battalion of the 394th Infantry Regiment. They seized a U.S. fuel depot at Büllingen, where they refuelled before continuing westward.

To the north, the 277th Volksgrenadier Division attempted to break through the U.S. 99th Infantry Division and positions of 2nd Infantry Division.

The 12th SS Panzer Division, reinforced by additional infantry (Panzergrenadier and Volksgenadier) divisions, took Losheimergraben and attacked the villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt.

Their intention was to control the villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt which would clear a path to Elsenborn Ridge. This would give the Germans control of the roads to the south and west and ensure supply to Kampfgruppe Peiper's armored force.
The American defense prevented the Germans from reaching the supplies near the Belgian cities of Liège and Spa. After more than ten days of battle, they pushed the Americans out of the villages, but were unable to move them from the ridge. The V Corps of the First U.S. Army prevented the German forces from reaching the roads to their west.

The 99th Infantry Division was outnumbered but it caused a lot of German dead and wounded. The division lost about 20% of its strength, including 465 killed and 2,524 evacuated due to wounds, injuries or fatigue. German losses were much higher. In the northern sector, this included more than 4,000 deaths and the destruction of sixty tanks and big guns. Historian John S.D. Eisenhower wrote, "... the action of the 2nd and 99th Divisions on the northern shoulder could be considered the most decisive of the Ardennes campaign."
Kampfgruppe Peiper drives west 
Kampfgruppe Peiper entered Honsfield, one of the 99th Division's rest centres. They killed many, destroyed a number of American armored units and vehicles, and took several dozen prisoners who were murdered. Peiper easily captured the town and  of fuel for his vehicles. Peiper then advanced north-west towards Büllingen. Peiper turned south to detour around Hünningen.

Malmedy massacre 

At 12:30 on 17 December, Kampfgruppe Peiper was near the hamlet of Baugnez when he met the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, U.S. 7th Armored Division. After a battle the Americans surrendered. They were sent to stand in a field. The SS troopers suddenly opened fire on the prisoners. A few survived, and news of the killings of prisoners of war was sent through Allied lines. Following the end of the war, soldiers and officers of Kampfgruppe Peiper, including Joachim Peiper and SS general Sepp Dietrich, were put on trial at the Malmedy massacre trial.

Chenogne massacre
Chenogne massacre 

Following the Malmedy massacre, on New Year's Day 1945, after having previously received orders to take no prisoners, American soldiers shot sixty German prisoners of war near the Belgian village of Chenogne (8 km from Bastogne).

Germans advance west 
By the evening the Germans had pushed north to fight the U.S. 99th Infantry Division. Peiper's forces were late because of the American resistance and because when the Americans fell back, they blew up bridges and emptied fuel storaged.

Peiper's unit was delayed and his vehicles needed fuel. They took 36 hours to advance from Eifel to Stavelot. 

Kampfgruppe Peiper attacked Stavelot on 18 December but was unable to capture the town before the Americans emptied a large fuel depot. Three tanks attempted to take the bridge, but the lead tank was disabled by a mine. 60 grenadiers advanced forward but were stopped by American fire. After a tank battle the next day, the Germans entered the village when
Peiper rushed toward the bridge at Trois-Ponts, leaving the most of his force in Stavelot. When they reached it at 1130 on 18 December, retreating U.S. engineers blew it up.

Peiper went north. At Cheneux, he was attacked by American fighter-bombers, destroying two tanks and five halftracks. The group got moving at dusk at 1600. Of the two bridges now remaining between Kampfgruppe Peiper and the Meuse, the bridge over the Lienne was blown by the Americans as the Germans approached.

Peiper turned north and stopped his forces in the woods between La Gleize and Stoumont. He learned that Stoumont was strongly held and that the Americans were bringing up new troops from Spa.

To Peiper's south, the advance of Kampfgruppe Hansen had stopped. SS Sturmbannführer Knittel crossed the bridge at Stavelot, but the Americans recaptured Stavelot. Peiper and Knittel both were at risk of being cut off.
German advance halted 
At dawn on 19 December, Peiper attacked the American defenders of Stoumont. He sent infantry from the 2nd SS Panzergrenadier Regiment in an attack and a company of Fallschirmjäger. He followed this with a Panzer attack, gaining the eastern edge of the town.

An American tank battalion arrived but Peiper finally captured Stoumont at 1030. Knittel joined up with Peiper and reported the Americans had recaptured Stavelot to their east. Peiper ordered Knittel to retake Stavelot.

He thought Kampfgruppe did not have enough fuel to cross the bridge west of Stoumont. On the same evening the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division under Maj. Gen. James Gavin arrived at La Gleize.

Kampfgruppe Sandig, which had been ordered to take Stavelot, launched another attack without success. Sixth Panzer Army commander SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich ordered Hermann Prieß, commanding officer of the I SS Panzer Corps, to help Peiper's Kampfgruppe, but Prieß was unable to break through.
Small units of the U.S. 2nd Battalion of the 119th Regiment attacked the Kampfgruppe Peiper during the morning of 21 December. They were pushed back and a number captured, including their battalion commander, Maj. Hal McCown.

Attempting to withdraw from Cheneux, American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division engaged the Germans in violent fighting. The Americans shelled Kampfgruppe Peiper on 22 December.

Although the Germans had run out of food and had no fuel, they continued to fight. A Luftwaffe resupply mission went badly, parachuting supplies to American troops in Stoumont.

In La Gleize, Peiper set up defences. He decided to break through back to the German lines on 23 December. The men of the Kampfgruppe abandoned their vehicles and heavy equipment.

Operation Stösser 

Operation Stösser was a paratroop drop into the American rear in the High Fens (; ; ) area. The goal was the "Baraque Michel" crossroads.
It was the German paratroopers' only nighttime drop during World War II. The II Parachute Corps sent 100 men from each of its regiments. They had little time to train together.

The parachute drop was a failure. Von der Heydte ended up with around 300 troops. Their force was too small and too weak to counter the Allies. They withdrew towards Germany and attacked the rear of the American lines. Only about 100 of his tired men finally reached the German rear.

Wereth 11 

Another, much smaller massacre was committed in Wereth, Belgium, on 17 December 1944. Eleven black American soldiers, after surrendering, were tortured and then shot by men of the 1st SS Panzer Division, belonging to Kampfgruppe Knittel. Men from Third Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion were responsible.

Attack in the center
The Germans did better when the Fifth Panzer Army attacked positions held by the U.S. 28th and 106th Infantry Divisions. The Germans lacked the strength that they had in the north, but they still had more troops and weapons than the 28th and 106th divisions. They surrounded two regiments (422nd and 423rd) of the 106th Division and forced their surrender.

The official U.S. Army history states: "At least seven thousand [men] were lost here and the figure probably is closer to eight or nine thousand."

Battle for St. Vith 
In St. Vith, it was hard for von Manteuffel's and Dietrich's forces. The defenders resisted the German attacks. This slowed down the German advance.

Montgomery ordered St. Vith to be evacuated on 21 December. U.S. troops got into trenches, which made the German advance hard. By 23 December, U.S. troops were ordered to retreat west of the Salm River. Since the German plan called for the capture of St. Vith by 18:00 on 17 December, they were behind schedule.

Meuse River bridges
To protect the river crossings on the Meuse, Montgomery ordered units to hold the bridges on 19 December.

The German advance in the center was the most successful. Fifth Panzer Army was led by the 2nd Panzer Division while Panzer Lehr Division came up from the south. The Ourthe River was passed at Ourtheville on 21 December.

Lack of fuel held up the advance for one day, but on 23 December the attack continued towards the towns of Hargimont and Marche.

Hargimont was captured the same day, but Marche was defended by the American 84th Division. Gen. Lüttwitz, commander of the XXXXVII Panzer Corps, ordered the Division to turn west towards Dinant and the Meuse. 2nd Panzer Division was still advancing quickly.

On 22/23 December the woods of Foy-Notre-Dame were reached, near Dinant. On 24 December the furthest point was reached. Panzer Lehr Division took the town of Celles. Farther north, parts of 2nd Panzer Division were close to the Meuse.
An Allied force prevented the German forces from approaching the Dinant bridge. By late Christmas Eve the advance in this sector was stopped by Allied forces.

Operation Greif and Operation Währung 

For Operation Greif, Otto Skorzeny got English-speaking Germans in American uniforms behind the Allied lines. Although they failed to take the bridges over the Meuse, they caused confusion  and rumors spread quickly. Even General George Patton was worried and described the situation to General Dwight Eisenhower.

Checkpoints were set up all over the Allied rear, greatly slowing the movement of soldiers and equipment. American MPs at these checkpoints asked troops about things that every American was expected to know.
The tightened security made things very hard for the German soldiers to move about, and a number of them were captured. Even during interrogation, they spread lies. when asked about their mission, some of them claimed they had been told to go to Paris to either kill or capture General Dwight Eisenhower.

Security around the general was greatly increased, and Eisenhower was kept in his headquarters.

Because Skorzeny's men were captured in American uniforms, they were executed as spies. This was the standard practice of every army at the time. Skorzeny said that he was told by German legal experts that as long he doesn't order his men to fight in combat while wearing American uniforms, such a tactic was a legitimate trick.

Skorzeny and his men wore their German uniforms underneath their American ones in case of capture. Skorzeny was tried by an American military tribunal in 1947 at the Dachau Trials for violating the laws of war from his leadership of Operation Greif, but was acquitted.
In Operation Währung, a small number of German agents went behind Allied lines in American uniforms. They tried to bribe rail and port workers to cause problems with Allied supply operations. However, this operation was a failure.

Attack in the south 

Further south attacking divisions crossed the River Our. The 112th Infantry Regiment kept German troops from using the Our River bridges around Ouren for two days, before withdrawing.

The 109th and 110th Regiments of the 28th Division did badly. They had so few troops that the Germans got around their positions. Both resisted and slowed down the German schedule by several days. Panzer groups captured villages and advanced near Bastogne within four days.