In what became known as The Battle of The Bulge, allied armies were caught by surprise as the Germans, hoping for some miraculous turn of events, staged what was to become the last great offensive of the European segment of World War 2. News reports were naturally slow in coming because of a total blackout imposed by, not only the Allies, but the Germans. However, news did trickle in and reports from the front, under heavy censorship, gave some idea of how badly things were going - but it was necessary to read between the lines in order to get some accurate picture of what was happening.

Here are two news broadcasts; one from the evening of December 19th and the other from mid-day on the 20th.

Further evidence that, on this day in 1944, the end of the war was far from reality.