Celebrated for the 78th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge

The Wehrmacht returns to the Ardennes: A parade of historic vehicles in Belgium

A few weeks ago, the elderly residents of the Ardennes would have been scared to see Wehrmacht vehicles driving on their roads.

The famous Jeep Willys MB from the WWII era and its little-known radioactive components
The epic combat of armored vehicles that started the Battle of Arracourt in 1944

In May 1940, the German Army invaded that part of Belgium to surround the defenses of the Maginot Line and attack France from the north. In December 1944, the Germans carried out another offensive in the Ardennes, in an attempt to reach Antwerp and divide the Allied forces. That offensive led to the Battle of the Bulge, which ended in January 1945 in a German defeat.

Last December, 400 reenactors and 200 historic vehicles gathered in the Ardennes to commemorate that battle. The channel Tanks & More has published this video of the parade of German vehicles that could be view during that event:

In the video you can see, among other vehicles, the famous Volkswagen Kübelwagen, an all-terrain vehicle developed in 1940 from the Volkswagen Beetle and which was the German equivalent of the American Jeep, with the difference that the vast majority of Kübelwagen did not have four-wheel drive.

A couple of Volkswagen Schwimmwagen also appear in the video. It was an amphibious vehicle developed by the Germans in 1941 from the Kübelwagen. Unlike its predecessor, all Schwimmwagens had four-wheel drive.

Here we see a Sd.Kfz.2 Kettenkrad motorcycle tractor, developed by the Germans in 1941 as a small artillery tractor for airborne troops. A total of 8,345 units were manufactured during World War II.

Another classic vehicle from that war: a BMW R75 motorcycle with sidecar. Its production began in 1941 and more than 20,000 were manufactured. It was the standard sidecar motorcycle of the Wehrmacht, along with the Zündapp KS 750.

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