Dec. 16-27.Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes. Waffen SS murder 81 U.S. POWs at Malmedy. Patton relieves Bastogne. Jan 1-17 Germans withdraw from the Ardennes. U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies link up after a month long separation during the Battle of the Bulge.
Soviet troops capture Warsaw.
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta. Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids. Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary. Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.