Christmas 1944: Battle of the Bulge

The American Catholic ^ | December 23, 2014 | Donald R. McClarey

[SunkenCiv]

General McAuliffe issued a memorable Christmas message to his troops:

Headquarters 101st Airborne Division Office of the Division Commander

24 December 1944

What’s Merry about all this, you ask? We’re fighting – it’s cold – we aren’t home. All true but what has the proud Eagle Division accomplished with its worthy comrades of the 10th Armored Division, the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion and all the rest? just this: We have stopped cold everything that has been thrown at us from the North, East, South and West. We have identifications from four German Panzer Divisions, two German Infantry Divisions and one German Parachute Division. These units, spearheading the last desperate German lunge, were headed straight west for key points when the Eagle Division was hurriedly ordered to stem the advance. How effectively this was done will be written in history; not alone in our Division’s glorious history but in World history. The Germans actually did surround us. their radios blared our doom. Their Commander demanded our surrender in the following impudent arrogance...

Allied Troops are counterattacking in force. We continue to hold Bastogne. By holding Bastogne we assure the success of the Allied Armies. We know that our Division Commander, General Taylor, will say: Well Done!

We are giving our country and our loved ones at home a worthy Christmas present and being privileged to take part in this gallant feat of arms are truly making for ourselves a Merry Christmas.

A. C. McAuliffe

[SunkenCiv]

---

KEYWORDS: 3rdarmy; generalpatton; georgespatton; jameshoneill; patton; pattonsprayer; pattonsweatherprayer; thirdarmy; weatherprayer; worldwareleven; worldwarii; wwii

---

[EvilCapitalist]

He also issued a memorable statement to the Germans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8mb3O5u6ig

[SunkenCiv]

• GENERAL GEORGE PATTON'S CHRISTMAS PRAYER [12/05/2002]
• General George Patton's Prayer [03/03/2003]
• General Patton's Prayer at Bastogne [03/24/2003]
• The True Story of The Patton Prayer ("...we humbly beseech Thee...Grant us fair weather for Battle") [04/12/2004]
• The True Story of The Patton Prayer [07/19/2004]
• For Faith In Action: Patton, the Priest, and the Power of Prayer [01/20/2011]
• Patton on Prayer [12/19/2014]
• AMERICA Prayer Vigil -- (12/20/2019) [Prayer] [12/19/2019]
• AMERICA Prayer Vigil -- 16 December 2022 [Prayer] [12/15/2022]

[ASOC]

Some tough folks back in the day

[Kaiser8408a]

Unlike what Biden claimed, my uncle actually fought in the Battle of the Bulge, received 2 Purple Hearts and an individual Silver Star for bravery. Promoted to Master Sergeant by the end of WWII. Attrition was horrible.

[VideoPaul]

WHT?? Nothing about Slow Joe’s uncle earning a purple heart at this battle? Revisionist history!!

[Levy78]

My great uncle had damage to his toes for the rest of his life due to frost bite from the Bulge. He died in a boating accident in the early 80’s.

[magyars4]

NUTS!

[Roadrunner383]

The father of a good friend of mine fought in the Battle of The Bulge. He was about 5’5”, a farm boy from south Alabama, named Festus. He offered a pretty Belgian girl some Coca-Cola, who always said it was the worst beverage she had ever tasted. She married him anyway, because she knew character when she saw it. Those guys of that generation are gone now, and we’re worse off for it.

[AppyPappy]

Same as my cousin and he was a star tennis player before the war. He needed custom made shoes for the rest of his life. His daughter married a guy from Germany and he and his SIL’s dad spent time trying to figure out if they shot at each other.

Mel Brooks was in Bastogne during that time.

[chajin]

1) No relation to former VA Governor Terry McAuliffe

2) One person who almost fought in the Battle of the Bulge was pulled at about the last minute by the Red Cross in Paris. They were looking for a piano player, and took a private named Dave Brubeck out of the ranks.

[Carriage Hill]

My Dad volunteered in 1943, as 16+ million other Americans had, and did the nearly-impossible in hundreds, if not in thousands of situations, saved hundreds of civilian lives, took thousands of enemy lives, with Patton’s 3rd Corps in World War II, from March, 1943 to December, 1945. America fought WWII on 2 fronts: in Europe and the Pacific.

He was a Platoon Sergeant, responsible for 33 soldiers in several squads, and served with the 101st Combat Engineers, 26th Infantry Division, attached to Patton’s 3rd Army Corps in the European Theater. They built and blew bridges and buildings, built HQs, de-activated landmines, and fought in ferocious combat; basically, whatever needed to be done.

He received the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal w/ 4 Clusters for Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes, Central Europe, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor w/ Bronze Clusters for saving other US Soldiers from Nazi machine gun fire, along with the Purple Heart Medal for Nazi sniper wounds he received in The Battle of The Bulge at Ardennes and Bastogne, Good Conduct Medal, European Theater Service Medal and the WW II Victory Service Medal.

His sniper wound was his “ticket home” on a US Hospital Ship. His family back in Emigsville hadn’t heard if he was dead or alive, even after a US Army Officer personally notified them he’d been shot. They didn’t get a letter from Dad for over a month. There was very little Trans-Atlantic call activity back then.

Dad passed on August 26th, 2018, at 95. May he RIP. I miss you, Dad.

[xzins]

Doing war at Christmas is supposed to be some kind of surprise.

It’s happened so often, it isn’t a surprise at all. It’s when I would expect something to happen.

[combat_boots]

RIP indeed.

[foundedonpurpose]

It’s worse. We now openly supporting Nazis in Eukraine. Go write that in an an American text book. Even Obama wouldn’t support them, and I sure as hell was not an Obama fan.

[MCSETots]

If you look in the Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of “hero” would likely include your dad.

Thanks to him and all like him, of which there were thousands . . .

[SunkenCiv]

The version I'd read goes something like this: the German commander was given the reply, "Nuts", and asked the translator, does he want to give us food or something, I don't understand. "No, sir, he's telling you to go to Hell."

The movie version of Patton has him receiving word of the exchange on the road to Bastogne. Not sure it happened quite that way, but Patton had sent word to the Bastogne commander that they'd share a Christmas toast.

The 3rd Army didn't break through on Christmas Day, although some elements managed to locate a way in very early on the 26th. Bastogne had full continuity with the rest of the Allied forces on the 27th.

The German offensive was something like 26 divisions (none of them at full strength or fully equipped -- but still, 26 divisions, with experienced troops and leaders in their tnaks) seemingly conjured up out of thin air. The European road system was still often old, medieval lanes and such, and to make rapid movements in force, the Germans needed to use their best roads, which converged in larger towns (like Bastogne).

Stopping their offensive dead was the US practice of tying up major crossroads until reinforcements arrived. Sometimes it was engineering battalions whose normal jobs were finding and building bridges and repairing cratered roads and so on -- they were put to work destroying every bridge, blowing and blocking roads, and engaging in what we'd now call asymmetrical warfare.

Not long ago I ran through an audiobook about 3rd Army and the Bulge/Bastogne, and picked up an interesting thing I'd not heard or considered before -- the US use of handheld radios in all WWII theaters gave US infantry a huge advantage in both field intel and coordinating movements. Also, during the fighting around Bastogne, US forces encountered Sherman tanks that had been captured / repaired and painted up by the Germans, that was of help to them since they were running out of armor.

[SunkenCiv]

Nice.

[EvilCapitalist]

This might be closer to what you’re looking for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LXCnsBo8Vs

[SunkenCiv]

One of my late mother's cousins was in the 84th "Railsplitters" division, in fact, looking up stuff about him today was pretty productive. He died a couple of years ago, but once when I asked if he'd been in the Bulge, he said, "we had to go up and help out up there." OMG. I just laughed again. Anyway, he mostly told me about the trip over the Channel, and getting arthritis in his knees from frog-walking the 75 (or so?) pound rounds over to their gun many hours a day, and I think about this guy, whom he knew well and served with and described in humorous ways:

Fritz Kraemer