Battle Of The Bulge

[max]

76 years ago the battle began. It was the coldest Winter ever in Europe. My dad was there and came home almost deaf in both ears due to the artillery. He never talked about it much. He worked outside most of his life, but he never cared for cold.

25 years later to the day, I landed in Vietnam, the weather could not have been more different.

 

[crazyphil]

Thank you and your Dad for serving our country.
My BIL was in the Battle of the Bulge also, and never had a lot
to say about it, except it was very cold. He wore hearing aids,
so maybe he got too much artillery too.

 

[CQB27]

Despite somes popular opinion.....TWO great generations of fighting men answering their countries call and laying it all on the line for something greater than themselves.

God bless all who go and have gone, answering their country's call with a willingness to give the last great measure for the love of freedom. And God bless the families of the lost, who are reminded every minute of every hour of every day of the great sacrifices sometimes required to preserve freedom and our great country.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

...NUTS!...

 

[PPS1980]

...NUTS!...

The story of the NUTS! reply | Article | The United States Army

 

[Rudi]

Talk about a major malfunction for US military intel. G2 was OTL. I knew one vet from that battle. He didn't talk about it much either.

 

[dmn57]

Had an uncle that received a Bronze Star for his participation. The only thing I recall him saying was 'I did what I was asked to do'. My mother said he left home a boy at 17 and returned a hardened man at 21, and they were afraid of him for about a year.

 

[Absalom]

A book recommendation. John McManus has written several excellent WW II book. This one I came across last year.

Everybody knows about Bastogne. So this book is instead dedicated to the story of the US troops who faced the first onslaught, delayed the Germans with tenacious defenses, and made the stand at Bastogne possible. It's available in all formats including kindle.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

When you are a 19-20 year old kid, freezing your butt off, sleep deprived, trying to eat cold C or K rations, a new replacement thrown in with a bunch of strangers...those are the things you remember.

 

[Texas Star]

Watch, Patton to learn a lot about this.

That battle made a legend of the 101st Airborne and of Patton's rescue of them.. Great gallantry from both.

 

[jpage]

I wonder how many MOH-level sacrifices we will never know about, in the first few days of the German offensive. Very humbling to think about. I read somewhere that Stalin knew about the Ardenne Offensive beforehand, and refused to notify us.

 

[Beemerguy53]

The main square in Bastogne, Belgium, is named for General Anthony McAuliffe, and just outside of town is a large memorial and museum dedicated to the battle. I've been there several times, as well as to the American military cemetery in Luxembourg, where more than 5000 of our boys were buried...it's profoundly moving and sadly inspiring...

I'll post some photos from my visits there. First, the square in Bastogne...

 

[Beemerguy53]

These photos are from one of several private museums in Bastogne, where artifacts from the battlefield are exhibited...

 

[PALADIN85020]

My next door neighbor when I was a kid after the war was a fella named Moe. Moe had just married in 1947 following his return from the European theater as an Army enlisted man. He was a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, in a tank destroyer outfit in the Hurtgen Forest.

Tank destroyers deployed in groups of three, two forward and one in reserve. In one battle, Moe was in the reserve destroyer, while the other two in his group drove forward under an intense German artillery barrage. Those two destroyers were obliterated, with the Americans in them all killed. Moe thanked his lucky stars that he made it through the war.

This picture of a Ruger old model Blackhawk .30 carbine revolver shows 3 rounds of .30 carbine ammo. They were given to me by Moe in his later years; he brought them back from the Battle of the Bulge. They are headstamped LC43 - from Lake City Arsenal, made in 1943.




Moe took this picture of some visiting generals later in the war. You may recognize some of them.

John

 

[cmort666]

Another delusional hail Mary by Hitler.

If you kept your nerve, Hitler would usually bail you out with one of his decisions.

And right afterward, the Luftwaffe metaphorically threw itself on the barbed wire, never to recover.

Operation Bodenplatte

 

[Beemerguy53]

Just north of Bastogne, on its outskirts, is the memorial at Marmelon. It's a huge, star-shaped structure, with each point of the star oriented toward one of the major engagements during the Battle of the Bulge. You can go up on top of it and see the Belgian countryside. Underneath the Memorial is a non-denominational chapel for religious services.

The pillars supporting the structure tell the story of the battle. I always get choked-up when I read the sentence: "The uniformed ranks of the United States...fought for this soil as if it had been their homeland. The Belgian civilians, unarmed, refused to abandon it in the face of the oncoming enemy."

 

[bigwheelzip]

I'll post some photos from my visits there. First, the square in Bastogne...

Here's hubby at that tank in Bastogne's square about 40 years ago. It was appropriately, miserably, bone chillingly cold, damp, and snowy. Glad as heck we had a warm bed instead of a cold foxhole!

 

[Beemerguy53]

If you watched or read "Band of Brothers", you will recall that heartbreaking moment when Warren Muck and Alex Penkala were killed by an artillery round that landed in their foxhole. Both men are buried in the Luxembourg American Military Cemetery, along with General George S. Patton...

 

[Kurusu]

Here's hubby at that tank in Bastogne's square about 40 years ago. It was appropriately, miserably, bone chillingly cold, damp, and snowy. Glad as heck we had a warm bed instead of a cold foxhole!

It must have been very foggy that day. I cannot see the picture.

 

[dave1918a2]

First job in Denver I worked with a man who was there. Only thing He would say was He learned how to dig a deep foxhole.