Ardennes

The Ardennes (also known as Ardennes Forest) is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges formed by the geophysical features of the Ardennes mountain range and the Moselle and Meuse River basins. The trees and rivers of the Ardenne provided the underlying charcoal industry assets that enabled the great industrial period of Wallonia in the 18th, 19th centuries, when it was arguably the second great industrial region of the world, after England. The greater region maintained an industrial eminence into the 20th century after coal replaced charcoal in metallurgy.

Ardennes in Southern Victory
The Ardennes was a heavily wooded area between France, Belgium and Germany.

When the Second Great War began in 1941, the French Army managed to bypass the German Army in the provinces of of Alsace and Lorraine, by driving through the rugged wooden country of the ardenns, and liberating the whole province.

The loss here forced the Germans to retreat back into Germany and behind the Rhine River.

Ardennes in The War That Came Early
The Ardennes was a heavily wooded area between France, Belgium and Germany.

In the late winter of 1939, the German Army attempted to outflank the allied armies in Belgium by driving through the wooded region of the Ardennes. However, doing this through the snow proved difficult, and the Allied armies were able to retreat back into Northern France before they were cut off.