This is the first of a new series of DVDs that will build into a collection covering all the highlights of this massive and controversial campaign. One that caught the Allies off guard and was fought in terrible weather conditions by some of the best German and Allied troops fighting in the West. In this section we examine the background to the campaign with a leading American historian before following the advance of one of Hitlers most successful panzer commanders, Hasso von Manteuffel, Fifth Panzer Army. We will travel in wintery conditions from the German border into the lightly held US front line. From the outset small groups of GIs did their best to delay the advance of the panzers, buying time for the vital crossroad town of Bastogne to be reinforced by 101st US Airborne Division. Under the cloak of bad weather, the Germans initially advanced successfully but more slowly than planned However, Germanys chronic lack of fuel hamstrung the advance. The British XXX Corps deployed to the River Meuse amidst controversy over Montgomerys role and injudicious words but the panzer spearheads were halted short of the river as the skies cleared and the feared fighter bombers returned. In the usual BHTV style, a selection of the countries most respected and knowledgeable experts take to the fields where the battles were originally fought almost 70 years ago to explain the conflict in meticulous detail.