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

[choctaw man]

Dad was there, 82nd Airborne, RIP, Papa.

[Rummyfan]

Heckuva man. RIP to your soldier father.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks. [snip] What do you do when you're in charge of 35,000 men, you're lacking basic supplies, ammunition, food and medical equipment--and the town you occupy is surrounded by an invading army that outnumbers you 5 to 1?

But wait, there's more! 4 enemy soldiers personally deliver a written ultimatum to you just before Christmas: Surrender or be annihilated. How do you respond? If you're Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, you reply with just one word. What came next would be one of World War II's seminal moments.

From Arlington National Cemetery, here's the story of General Anthony C. McAuliffe. 75 years later. I thought you'd like to know... [/snip]

Nuts! The General who Refused to Surrender
John Fenzel | 592 subscribers | 60,191 views | March 1, 2019

[SunkenCiv]

Turns out the Red Cross was looking for more than one, but ten was too many because of the demands of the war, so they decided to take five instead.

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree. OTOH, it's not unlikely that most of them kept voting D for the rest of their lives.

[WomBom]

God bless him

[SunkenCiv]

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

- George S. Patton

[EvilCapitalist]

Good video.

[SunkenCiv]

They've got us surrounded again, the poor bastards.

Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.

[Carriage Hill]

Thank you.
He was my hero.

[Levy78]

Interesting... As you surely know, the Bulge was a very ‘dirty’ battle by Western front standards with prisoner executions, etc. Wonder if there was any animosity between your cousin and the German you reference? Surely with their kids being married, that was in the past?

Both of my grandfathers were ww2 combat vets... one in the European theatre the other in the Pacific. The ET vet hated Germans until the day he died. I made the mistake of taking the PT grandpa vet to a Japanese steakhouse where he refused to eat and didn’t say a word the entire dinner. I apologized to him later... he was a very kind man and told me “don’t worry about it, old feelings sometimes never go away”. We lost him in 2018 at 97 years old... the greatest man I have ever known (and that’s saying something) I miss him every day.

[logi_cal869]

I heard a very tall tale told by ‘big guy’ biden this morning on the radio about the Battle of the Bulge.

It was quite the whopper of a lie (or the imagination of a demented old man).

[combat_boots]

He was there? As a toddler?

[colorado tanker]

My Mother-in-Law was a girl living at the family home during Christmas 1944. She very clearly remembers it. She said the whole country was worried about those boys trapped in Bastogne and it put a damper on the celebration

The Army commissioned a group of historians to write a multi-volume history of WWII, the so-called "Greenbooks" because of the color of the covers They are now available online for free. IMHO the best is the history of the Battle of the Bulge.

It is the biggest battle ever fought by the Army in terms of the number of US soldiers involved and was fought over a huge area. While many focus on Bastogne, there are lots of interesting stories.

[Bratch]

[Tucker39]

Would that be Emigsville, York County, PA? God bless the memory of your Dad and all his comrades. My uncle Elwood was a Timber Wolf in Europe. His brother uncle Rodger was MIA after the Bulge and was in a stalag for a while. My brother Don was an MP in occupied Germany, and my brother Ken was with the Corps of Engrs on Okinawa. 15 years later, I served 3 years on Honshu, Japan. Go Army!

[nomorelurker]

These threads on WW2 veterans are always good. I know this is a Battle of the Bulge thread but others have posted their family stories so I will do mine.
Dad was the “second son” so he knew when they enacted the draft he was going. He joined the Navy just before the War started. Watched overloaded PBYs head out from San Diego.
Spent the war on a seagoing tug from Portland Maine to the Panama Canal then Portland Oregon. And Back again. Only time he was scared was a hurricane. Did not get released until Wright Patman a Texas Dem Congressman got a law passed to get them out of the service. That had implications for Korea.

Will follow up in a bit with another relative

[Sequoyah101]

forgot the german who said it but when he spoke of American Engineers they were never just Engineers but always Those Damned Engineers who at the Bulge blocked german attempts to move forward time and time again.

Forgot the Engineer outfit that this was all in reference to.

[Carriage Hill]

“Would that be Emigsville, York County, PA? God bless the memory of your Dad and all his comrades.”

Yes, that Emigsville.
Thank you.

[Carriage Hill]

God Bless your Dad.