[OKSooner]

Instead of links and/or comments, all are invited to provide their own, except of course a certain 'pedia site is on a certain list around here so please don't use it.

[109ACS]

My Dad was there, 82nd Airborne, 508 PIR. He’s still around, but suffering from dementia. He survived the war from D-day until the end without major injury. During the Bulge, his toes turned black from frostbite, but he managed to keep all of them.

He never talked about the war until later in life.

[crazydad]

Thank you for the thread, it is sickening how many people do not realize significant days in history. God Bless the men from Bastogne to Wereth, Elsenborn Ridge,St.Vith, Schoenburg, Malmady to many others. You stopped Hitler Cold but at the highest cost to Americans in WW2. God Bless our last WW2 Vets.

[CatherineofAragon]

My daddy was there....a young private. His nerves were shot for a while when he got back home. I cry whenever I see footage of that battle, knowing he was there.

[cll]

Nuts!

[FlingWingFlyer]

I’ve been to the Ardennes twice spending 3 or 4 days there each time to visit each battle site. Bulligen, Krinkelt-Rocherath, Stavelot, St. Vith down to Bastogne to name a few. I’ve read everything I could find about the battle and have a good sized library of the best books. It’s nice how the people there still care for the area at Five Points. (Malmedy). When I was last there, nothing had ever been built in the massacre field. I’m fascinated how the privates, sergeants, lieutenants and young captains made all of the right decisions, sometimes unknowingly, during all of the confusion to stop the Germans.

[ken5050]

And the debate still continues over what Gen McAuliffe (division commander at Bastogne) actually said to the German commander, when he was asked to surrender..

[PGR88]

My dad had a childhood friend who I would see occasionally, who lost toes to frostbite as he and his company were lost/isolated in the woods somewhere in the Ardennes for a week

[Huskrrrr]

Thank you so much to all the brave survivors of that terrible battle.

[Vigilanteman]

Proof positive that Hitler preferred the horrors of Marxist Bolshevik ism to be visited on his own people than the horrors of western style Democracy or Republicanism . . .

The German war machine could no longer keep up with the bombings and these were the finest and best units which Hitler had to throw into the war. Thanks to the ill-timed firing of General Patton (who was reactivated in time to turn the tide), the Allies were digging in to await the spring thaw before going back on the offensive.

The Russians, meanwhile, were advancing on the eastern front. Proper military protocol would have dictated that these armies be employed in the east, but Hitler's choice was telling: Nazi ism is a much closer cousin to Bolshevik ism. And, despite their disagreements in methodologies, their end game is the same.

[cripplecreek]

History of the 113th antiaircraft artillery battalion. My grandfather wrote the history of battery D. He lost a toe to frostbite and hearing in 1 ear to German 88mm artillery shells in Belgium.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/158942992/113th-Antiaircraft-Artillery-Gun-Battalion-History-All

[centurion316]

When I was a young Captain stationed in Germany, our corps commander was LTG William Desobry who had commanded Team Desobry in the defense of Noville on the outskirts of Bastogne. The Belgians were building a new museum in Bastogne and Desobry arranged for a restored M4 Sherman tank to be donated to stand in front of the museum.

He presented the tank at the dedication of the museum, but the bronze dedication plaque was not yet ready. When the plaque was finished, I became part of a delegation sent to Bastogne to present the plaque. We were treated like kings by the people of Bastogne, given tours of the battlefield by civilian survivors, and were guests of honor at a banquet held at the city hall. In the entry of the city hall stood a life sized statue of an American Soldier and an American flag on permanent display. Those people remember.

[Sequoyah101]

My Dad’s doctor was a young surgeon there. You being OKSooner would know where he was from. The stories of frozen amputated limbs and frozen bodies are true but it was true in many places that winter.

Every two weeks was pay day and to deposit the check we went to the bank in a town an Okie would know. At the bank, without fail, without saying a word, he made a donation to the little VA box at the bank and put a small paper poppy in his lapel then we would walk down the street to JM’s Cafe for payday lunch. Of course he donated and wore the poppy for his buddies who would never be the same.

One terribly cold day he brought a little man home in the evening. A hitchhiker who was headed for the sailor’s and soldiers home somewhere in Michigan if I remember right. I remember three things in particular. Mom welcomed him and made a great dinner, he said he was warm for the first time in days, he was merchant mariner and had been torpedoed twice in the war. Dad bought him an ticket and put him on the bus for Michigan the next morning. I don’t see how we survived, wouldn’t these days, Dad did this with some regularity.

Dad started hitchhiking and riding the rails when he was 13 during the depression. He had noting but will and a good mind. He made it and made it well. He was a great engineer, a professor and a Naval Aviator in the war. Dad demonstrated to us that it takes a will, a hand up and not a handout to change your station in life.

Dad was a very tough man on the outside. Kind, fair and honest in everything but he had a hard edge. He was grudging with praise or complement but when it came we knew it had been earned and that he was proud of us.

[Gamecock]

My dad fought across Southern Germany, didn't get tangled up in this battle.

Three years ago some members of my unit did a staff ride along the north shoulder of the battlefield. Very cool stuff. Great and horrible stories.

At one site there was an old German Tiger tank. As we were checking it out someone noticed an old (in his 80s) guy accompanied by a couple of guys in their 50s, who were his nephews. It turns out the old guy was in the battle as an anti-aircraft gunner.

My commander shook his hand and gave him one of our unit coins. As boss did this we spontaneously fell in line behind our commander and each of us shook the man's hand and then gave him a salute. The old vet had tears in his eyes as he recieved 50 individual salutes, as do I now thinking about these brave men.

[crazydad]

Here is a video tribute I made for a pitch for my screenplay. I cannot think of a better day to share it with my fellow freepers. It’s a bit long but well worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJvqsUaU8W8

[Daffynition]

One of the backstory heroes of the Battle: Col. Norman Vaughan

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.”

[I believe Norman said, they were able to use the dog sleds to get much needed food to the troops on the front]

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.

Norman was well-celebrated accompanying Adm. Byrd on the first Antarctic Expedition (1928-1930)

*Dream big. Dare to fail.*

[CodeToad]

One of the best modern films ever made of WWII, IMHO, is Band of Brothers. Maybe not perfect, but it seems Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, notorious liberals as they are, tried to do a credible job of presenting the life and times of Army soldiers, "Easy Company", 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Army's 101st Airborne Division. Part of the story covers their efforts at Bastogne, a part of the Battle of the Bulge.

The mini-series starts with their paratrooper training, something new at the time for the Army, and ends at the end of the war with the men contemplating their disposition at the end of the war in Germany but facing going to the Pacific to fight the Japanese.

The mini-series also includes interviews with the actual soldiers from Easy Company.

It is an 11 hour mini-series presentation available on DVD.

Band of Brothers

A few images of the Bastogne scenes:

[meadsjn]

One of my uncles was wounded at the Bulge.

Out of a family of eight children, he's the only one still living.

[GreyFriar]

yep, don’t forget about the 99th Infantry Division that held the north shoulder of the bulge, with the 2nd Infantry, 1st Infantry falling in on its right. The 75th Inf Div had its regiments attached to the 3rd Armored Division and to the 82nd Airborne division. A member of our congregation was a private in the 75th ID and has a Mauser bullet as a “souviner” that was dug out of him from the battle.

I’ve been over that terrain many times during my 7 years with the 3rd Armored Division.

[ExGeeEye]

My uncle was there. Earned his PH. It became a funny family story b/c or the nature of the wound and how it happened—scary at the time, but funny in retrospect.

[HossB86]

My Dad.... He was fortunate and made it home.

Hoss