And that means it is the 63rd anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge:
In December 1944 Adolph Hitler directed an ambitious counteroffensive with the object of regaining the initiative in the west and compelling the Allies to settle for a negotiated peace.
Hitler’s generals were opposed to the plan, but the Fuhrer’s will prevailed and the counteroffensive was launched on 16 December by some 30 German divisions against Allied lines in the Ardennes region. Allied defenses there had been thinned to provide troops for the autumn defensive. Hitler’s intention was to drive through Antwerp and cut off and annihilate the British 21st Army Group and the U.S. First and Ninth Armies north of the Ardennes.
Aided by stormy weather which grounded Allied planes and restricted observation, the Germans achieved surprise and made rapid gains at first, but firm resistance by various isolated units provided time for the U.S. First and Ninth Armies to shift against the northern flank of the penetration, for the British to send reserves to secure the line to the Meuse, and for Patton’s Third Army to hit the salient from the south.
During the battle, 19,000 Americans gave their lives for the liberty of the world – the 101st Airborne was surrounded at Bastogne and received this message from the Nazis:
To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.
The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Our near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.
There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.
If this proposal should be rejected one German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hours’ term.
All the serious civilian losses caused by this artillery fire would not correspond with the well known American humanity.
The German Commander.
General McAuliffe’s reply?
Nuts!
Blogs For Victory 
My Grandfather fought in that War. Growing up I heard many of he stories. He said the German MG-42 machineguns cycled so fast it would split our guys right in half. Many of the American troops would piss their pants when they heard them going off. His unit got shelled, he was injured then captured, they thru him on a train and sent him to a prison camp. On the way American warplanes drew near, the prisioners excited thought they would be rescued, but the fighter planes not knowing the cargo opened fire on the train and cars. I could go on and on for hours. His unit patch had the Lion’s Head on it. To tie it into politics I think the American forces in Iraq have reach a similar point where the (al qaida and enemy foreign fighters) have been dealt a blow they can’t recover from. The Shiite/ Iran and their extended alliance situation is still a delicate issue, hopefully it can remain peaceful.
Eric T,
Your grandfather sounds like he had a lot of interesting stories. In December of 1944, at nearly thirty years old, my grandfather was on patrol with the 3rd Marine Division against the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean before eventually landing on Iwo Jima on February 21st (day three). Unfortunately, he did not talk about his time in the Marines very much. I have his discharge papers and some other artifacts that I received after he passed away in 1989. I have the utmost respect for men like my grandfather that volunteered to serve their country and fight when called upon.
“NUTS!”
My grandfather fought at the Bulge. He was part of the 4th Division, 9th Armored (I just found this out a few months before his passing). He rarely talked about his experience. Mostly, he talked of his recovery after being injured. He was in a building, the warning of a Stuka dive-bomber making a run. While rushing down the stairs to evacuate the building, the building was hit. Fortunately, the outside wall had a gaping hole in it. He was blown out the building through the hole. He suffered a broken ankle after hitting the ground. He and a number of soldiers rejected their Purple Hears, because they were giving the same medals to German Shepherds in the canine corps.
He did mention the cold nights where lines were so close you could hear the Germans. That was all I could get from him. He would not talk about any more than that.
I have seen documentaries, movies and played first person shooters about the Bulge. The game has a mission in the Ardennes Forest where you have to perform certain tasks during the heavy shelling the Germans through at our troops. Then you were subject to Germans trying to break through the lines. Those missions were intense! I know these pale in comparison to what my grandfather and others went through in that battle.
The hell soldiers go through are ignored unless the libs can take political advantage of it. They must endure countless accusations of war crimes, murder, etc. etc. with little or no proof by those who will stop at nothing to end a conflict. It is not fair to them nor to their families to put up with such b.s.. Today, soldiers get the blame for civilian casualties even though those casualties were a result of indiscriminate fire from the terrorists. Just as those Germans who fired their artillery into Bastogne without a care of the civilians still there. It would have been unheard of in WWII. But today, they would get the blame because they should not have been there in the first place.
MY uncle too fought against the ultra right Nazis.
My father fought in the Pacific aginst the right wing milatrists of Japan.
Of course the American entry into WWII came about only because of Japan’s need for the oil demand of their Navy, many Americans at that time did not want war especially against Germany.
John,
The author Mark states in the beginning, “Hitler’s Generals were opposed to the plan.”
. Their was many times during that war that Hitler took command of military operations against the advice of his generals. His inability to seek wise and experianced council was actually a good thing for all of us. Had he listened when generals when they pointed out weakness in the stratigies, and defenses. They may have decided to build a good navy to stop American and Canadian ship coming across the Atlantic, or put several tank divisions on the beach heads at Normandy. They may have decided to not split the war and fight on two fronts by keeping the non aggression pact with Russia. The may have adopted the rifles that were more comparable to the M1 that we had instead Hitler insisted on the K-98 bolt action that was the same thing they used in WW1. Many times over and over Hitler put himself in charge of decisions best to be made by the generals and their staff.
My uncle was the tailgunner of a flying fortress bombing Germany. My dad was too young to fight in WW2, but served during the ensuing occupation as a teletypist. Both were in the Army Air Corps, before it was split off to become the Air Force.
December 16 has another significance for me, also having to do with Germany (and Austria), but of a very different nature. It’s the birthday of my favorite classical composer, Ludwig van Beethoven.
My uncle passed away just under five years ago. He was one of the paratroopers portrayed in the book and mini-series “Band of Brothers”. I have met several of the more famous people from that book.
They are dieing off now. But their spirit is alive in today’s 101st. And in the rest of the Army and the Marine Corps.
In 2004, SEAL lieutenant and Medal of Honor recipient Mike Murphy stood on a mountainside with the other three men in his team. They looked up the hillside at hundreds of Taliban forming an arc above them. He turned to his men and said “f*#k surrender”.
I agree.
After my dad died my mom married a guy who was an Army Ranger in WWII. He was 101 Airborne, dropped behind the lines the night before DDay. I never met anyone famous (not on that account anyway). He never talked about his experiences very much, but he did mention that those German machine guns “sounded like a ’38 Ford with huge balls”. He was something of a motorhead. He liked working on cars. But he couldn’t bring himself to go to a dirt track race because, well… because of the noise.
His son (technically my step-brother) was a chopper pilot in ‘Nam. I knew the guy pretty much all my life. He went out with my sister in high school. But he was a different person when he got back. He adjusted better than most of the ‘Nam vets I’ve known, but he’s still a little tweaked — to this day. You can’t walk off a battlefield and just leave the war behind you. Not most folks anyway. Whatever else you can say about those wars, you have to feel for the guys who fought them. It can’t be otherwise. It just can’t.
Likewise, no matter how you feel about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you have to feel for the guys who fought there, and will fight there. You have to feel for those guys (and girls). It can’t be otherwise. It just can’t.
A couple of hours ago my sweetie’s daughter’s fiancee’s family left to go back home to Maryland. It sounds terribly tenuous to say “my sweetie’s daughter’s fiancee’s family”. And though that is technically correct, there’s more to it than that: my sweetie’s daughter has pretty much adopted me as her father figure. Anyway, she and her fiancee, who is headed to Iraq shortly, decided at the last minute not to get hitched. To (almost) everyone’s great relief they decided to wait until he gets back.
It sounds like a soap opera. And to a certain extent it is. In fact, the whole situation would make a GREAT soap opera. But it is also very real. And whatever else can be said, my sweetie’s daughter’s fiancee is likely to be a very different person when he comes back. If their love withstands that test, then it is likely to endure. Granted, I’m looking at it from my own crusty, cynical old vantage point. But they’re so beautiful together. I want so very much for them to deserve each other on the most transcendent level.