Back in March, my girlfriend and I spent a couple of days in Bastogne, Belgium, visiting museums and sites related to the Battle of the Bulge.
We went to the 101st Airborne Museum, the Battle of the Bulge Museum, and the town of Foy, so famously depicted in the mini-series Band of Brothers.
The two museums were very interesting, with numerous artifacts
, and dioramas depicting actual events. (The figures of Patton and McAuliffe in the 101st Airborne Museum looked almost alive!)
The most poignant part of our visit was seeing the foxholes in the Bois Jacques, where Easy Company endured terrible artillery shelling, where Alex Penkala and Warren Muck were killed, and where Bill Guarnere and Joe Toy each lost a leg. And it was downright eerie driving into Foy, and seeing the pockmarks in the buildings there from the battle for the town.
Some surprises: if you've seen Band of Brothers, Foy looks nothing like the way it was depicted in the mini-series. And the Bois Jacques woods, the starting point for Easy Company's attack on the town, is more than 2000 feet from Foy...those guys covered a lot of open ground! And while Shifty Powers did take out a sniper, the circumstances were much different than depicted in BoB.
I took a lot of photos, and will attach them in subsequent posts.
We went to the 101st Airborne Museum, the Battle of the Bulge Museum, and the town of Foy, so famously depicted in the mini-series Band of Brothers.
The two museums were very interesting, with numerous artifacts
, and dioramas depicting actual events. (The figures of Patton and McAuliffe in the 101st Airborne Museum looked almost alive!)The most poignant part of our visit was seeing the foxholes in the Bois Jacques, where Easy Company endured terrible artillery shelling, where Alex Penkala and Warren Muck were killed, and where Bill Guarnere and Joe Toy each lost a leg. And it was downright eerie driving into Foy, and seeing the pockmarks in the buildings there from the battle for the town.
Some surprises: if you've seen Band of Brothers, Foy looks nothing like the way it was depicted in the mini-series. And the Bois Jacques woods, the starting point for Easy Company's attack on the town, is more than 2000 feet from Foy...those guys covered a lot of open ground! And while Shifty Powers did take out a sniper, the circumstances were much different than depicted in BoB.
I took a lot of photos, and will attach them in subsequent posts.
