Battle of the Bulge A Christmas Eve Story

YouTube ^ | Dec 25, 2015 | Ashley Wiesner; James Hobart

[WhiskeyX]

A class project where our group took first hand accounts of the men at Bastogne and the Battle of Bulge. Thank you to the service men for their sacrifices and efforts.

[yarddog]

By the time of the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans had no chance of winning. I guess in desperate situations you take desperate chances.

It was Hitler’s idea and a bad one but I sort of see why he did it. It ended up wasting a lot of resources and getting a lot of Germans killed. A lot of Allies were also killed but we had so many that it didn’t matter.

Peiper was stopped short of his goal but so what. Even if he had made it to Antwerp, what could they have done? They at least would have probably had plenty of fuel for a while.

[rlmorel]

True story: Germans and Americans spend Christmas Eve 1944 together in the Ardennes

Pretty intense...and wonderful. I think I will watch the movie now.

[Retain Mike]

It looks like this would be an appropriate place to post my story that I send to papers each year.

Why General McAuliffe said “Nuts”

Seventy one years ago on December 16, the Germans launched the Ardennes Offensive, which proved the bloodiest American battle of WW II with 89,000 casualties including 19,000 dead. At the center of the offensive beleaguered Bastogne featured the 101th Airborne withstanding the German siege.

However, these 10,000 paratroopers did not alone forge the severe impediment presented to 500,000 Germans troops attacking with tanks. Contributions from the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions, and the 28th Division’s 109th and 687th Field Artillery Battalions provided need firepower. Remnants of the 9th Armored CCR including the 73rd Armored Field Artillery retreated into the town. The CCB of the 10th Armored was detached and ordered to occupy Bastogne ahead of the Nazi’s. It took heavy casualties along the way, but arrived with 30 tanks and the 420th Armored Field Artillery Battalion. The 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion was ordered forward and arrived with 36 powerful 76mm long cannon. Overall General Anthony McAuliffe, as former division artillery commander, directed eleven artillery battalions and tanks from two armored divisions as well as his paratroopers.

No wonder at the Battle of the Bulge McAuliffe could say “nuts” when the Germans demanded his surrender.

A Time for Trumpets by Charles B. MacDonald
Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in WW II by Belton Y. Cooper
WWII Armored Division
http://xbradtc.com/2008/10/24/wwii-armored-division/

10th Armored Division (United States)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._10th_Armored_Division
http://www.combatreels.com/10th_Armored_Division.cfm

9th Armored Division (United States)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._9th_Armored_Division

Battle of the Bulge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge

Siege of Bastogne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Bastogne

705th Tank Destroyer Battalion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/705th_Tank_Destroyer_Battalion

[maddogtiger]

it was so cold they stacked the dead up like cord wood.So testified a great friend.

[tflabo]

A lot of Allies were also killed but we had so many that it didn’t matter.

My grandfather's brother died at the Bulge. Just one of too many perished heroes.

[golux]

Excellent! Love Dr Jerome Corsi’s book on the subject.

[Sasparilla]

Christmas 1944: Battle of the Bulge.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3240218/posts

[Chgogal]

BTTT

[beaversmom]

For your interest, G:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3376748/posts

[Daffynition]

An obscure Bulge hero...

Col.Norman Vaughn 1905 - 2005 ; his motto: **DREAM BIG AND DARE TO FAIL** and the other was **YOU HAVEN*T FAILED UNTIL YOU QUIT** In 1945, as the Battle of the Bulge was being fought and heavy snows blanketed the Western Front, Col. Vaughan argued for a month that dogs were the only transport that could rescue and return the wounded to the rear of the battle for medical treatment. Finally, General Patton issued the order **Send in the dogs.**

With impressive coordination, Vaughan quickly assembled 17 drivers and 209 dogs to a training camp in Maine, then deployed them to France. Because of administrative delays, the dogs did not arrive before the snows melted and so did not participate in the Battle; however, the operation proved the ease with which dog teams could be assembled and dispersed whenever the need arose. Dogs were used in this way until helicopters realized their full potential in the 1950’s and took over those functions. Later, beginning at age 72, he participated in thirteen 1100-mile long Iditarod sled dog races in Alaska, where his last finish was in 1990 at the age of 84.

[FrdmLvr]

My dad turned 19 on Dec. 28, 1944 as he and his infantry unit, 26th Infantry Yankee Division joined forces in Ardennes. He received a Purple Heart in battle. He initially had a big red X stamped on his papers after his physical and he asked what that was for. He was told the huge scar his thigh that he received as a young boy disqualified him, but he protested saying he intended to fight for his country as his two older bothers were doing and besides that, he had run track in high school and that scar hadn’t bothered him. He managed to persuade them and the decision was reversed.

He will be celebrating his 90th birthday with his wife of 65 years, his three children, 11 grandchildren, six great grandchildren and all of their spouses at a surprise party in his honor on Monday the 28th. Among his grandchildren are one Marine, one Navy corpseman, and one active duty in the Navy.

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the post. Funny, I finally found the history of my Father's combat engineer battalion this past evening. His life was tragic and he ended up a hemiplegic from multiple anorisims when I was six. He was bedridden until I was 18. We didn't discuss the war much and it wasn't until a decade later I started looking into his service.

He was with an organic unit during the war and the St. Louis fire destroyed most of their records. The unit was active from October 1943 to May 24, 1945 when it was rolled up into the 244th. It was not active again until the Iraq War.

Tonight I was finally able to track down most of the unit history. The end of the war is a bit sketchy, however I have all the pieces now to put it together.

the 277th CEB history is found in a word document HERE (doc 2MB) and I finally learned what this was and why. The second ironic information was how the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge became the George Marshal Railroad Bridge over the Rhine at Manz.

They were all heroes.

[Tarasaramozart]

I always remember this After Action Report I read from the Nat Archives after the Normandy Invasion. Several American tanks were in an attack and 4-5 got knocked out right quick and the attack withdrew leaving burning tank crewmen and unknown to the other tankers and infantry some crew had escaped injured into the brush. One tank commander was blown out of the top of his tank and one of his drivers escaped and they were both badly injured, the driver more so. So here these two guys are and the commander pulls the driver away from the burning tanks which are still have ammo exploding. Later that night the Germans advance and a squad of German infantry find these two and patch them up real quick and pull them out of the attacking German armors path and tell them to stay here that likely the Americans would be coming along in a day or so and will find them. Apparently the Germans were just counter attacking as a rear guard delaying action and were not going to hold the ground. Later in the early morning the commander gets worried about the drivers injuries and decides to leave to find help and he crawls away due to his injured legs crawling is all he could do. After a bit he hears laughing and looks up and he’s crawled down the barrel right to within a few feet of a German mg42 machine gun nest and these 5 German have been watching him crawl right to them. They point to him and in broken english tell him to go the other way to the American lines. He drops his head and decides to hell with it just shoot me already and these two Germans come out and drag him off and back to where the driver was and give him some sausage and water and tell them to wait there. Hours later the American infantry escorting mechanics looking to see what could be salvaged from the tanks finally come across them and they are rescued.

The Ardennes Offensive failed due to not only the allied fighting spirit but also pure bad luck for the Germans. They actually came to within a couple hundred yards of the largest fuel dump in Europe and didn’t know it, that could have supplied their armor all the way to the coast easily. Also a dozen or so American engineers are 50% responsible for stopping the German armor when they blew up a few small bridges when they happen to be at the right place at the right time and left the far superior German armor wandering around the backroads and towns looking for a way to pass until they just ran out of fuel and had to be abandoned.

[Rebelbase]

Bump!