TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is honoring veterans of World War II’s Battle of the Bulge and commemorating the 70th anniversary of its end.

Brownback signed a proclamation designating Friday as “Battle of the Bulge Day.”

Joining him for the brief Statehouse ceremony were four veterans in their late 80s and early 90s who served in the Army when the battle was fought in Belgium and Luxembourg in December 1944 and January 1945.

The veterans were Bob MacLeay of Lawrence and Paul Scheid, J.D. Sexton and Henry Wanke of Topeka.

The six-week battle arose from the last major German offensive planned by Adolf Hitler himself, which created a bulge in American lines. More than 600,000 American troops fought in freezing temperatures to throw the Germans back.