Why General McAuliffe Could Say “Nuts”

self | 12/13/24 | Self

[Retain Mike]

Eighty 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 101st Airborne withstanding a 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 needed 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, acting division commander and division artillery commander, directed eleven artillery battalions and tanks from two armored divisions as well as his paratroopers. He developed a plan allowing many of the artillery units 360-degree coverage for points of attack. The paratroopers alone would probably have been annihilated and not withstood the siege. The tanks and artillery alone could not have prevailed against the combined arms of the German assault without this airborne infantry support.

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

Partial Bibliography:

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

Why the General Could Say, ‘Nuts!’

http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-general-could-say-nuts-letters-to-the-editor-1419984120

[Larry Lucido]

Amazing accounts. Thanks for posting!

[Rinnwald]

...so that I could sleep in a warm, dry bed this December night in 2024.

You'd probably still have a warm, dry bed. It would just be under the heel of a Paper Hanging Sonofabitch.

Working a in little Patton humor there.

[cowboyusa]

My Grandfather was an pontoon Bridge buldiwr in Paton’s 3rd Army, and was wounded during the Battle.

[ABN 505]

My Dad was in the 502nd PIR. of the 101st Abn. Div during the Battle of the Bulge and that was what he told me. He and his platoon were starving and frozen at the same time along with low ammo and constant artillery bombardments. He never thought they would get out alive. His Boots and dogtags are in the Paratrooper museum in Caraten France. If you are ever in France visit the museaum it is really a great place for anyone who likes history.

[This_Dude]

That’s how I got my Walther p38. I’m the 3rd generation owner. My grandpa said it was a luger, but I guess he just saw the skinny barrel and didn’t know the difference and thought all German pistols were lugers.

Cool piece, though. It’s one of my concealed carry guns and it has never jammed on me even once

[Hebrews 11:6]

Fifty years ago I played golf on a 108° day, and all of us were bitching about the heat--except one middle-aged fellow. So I asked him, "Doesn't this heat bother you?"

"I fought at the Battle of the Bulge. And I was so cold there that I swore I would never again complain about hot weather."

[irish guard]

My mom’s twin brother was 82nd airborne. Flew into Normandy in DDay….ended up well behind enemy lines. It took he and his platoon fourteen days to hook up with American troops. He later rode a glider into Holland for Operation Market Garden, barely getting out and then was relieved by the 101st in Bastogne…..he marched to St. Vith……his time in Europe wasn’t easy. He rarely spoke of any of his time there other than to say when he was behind enemy lines in Normandy they had to eat rats they cooked in the darkness…..

[SaxxonWoods]

Nice! That’s a good pistol. My dad got his Luger when he disarmed a Chief of Police as the war was ending. I think it is a .40 caliber. He said they would lay hundreds of rifles on the curbs into the gutters and then run over them with his tank, the Germans had run away and left their weapons behind at that point. Soon after that they liberated the Death Camp at Ebensee, Australia. Read about that, horrifying. Dad never talked about it, and didn’t write about it in his memoir. Another tank commander told me only teenagers were alive. He gave one a piece of bread. The kid took a bite and dropped dead. They figured out they could only give them ice chips for hours, then water, then food.

[IAGeezer912]

I also visited Batogne in the mid 90’s. Went to a restaurant for dinner and was given a menu in French.

I asked for a menu in English and when the waiter realized I was an American he pulled the menu and I was told that they have a special meal for Americans. It was a huge 7 course meal that I had trouble eating it all. It cost me $5.

[Fiji Hill]

Soon after that they liberated the Death Camp at Ebensee, Australia. Read about that, horrifying

Ebensee, a satellite camp of Mauthausen, was near the Alps and had beautiful scenery. However, although Mauthausen was one of the worst Nazi camps, Ebensee was worse, and inmates at Mauthausen dreaded being sent there.

[Retain Mike]

Not that it is a great source, but Wikipedia says:

During the Battle of the Bulge:

The United States suffered over 80,000 casualties, including 19,246 dead and more than 23,000 American troops taken prisoner.

Allied losses numbered 20,876 killed, 42,893 wounded, and 23,554 captured/missing.

Approximately 19,000 American soldiers were killed in action, with 47,500 wounded and 23,000 missing.

At least it doesn't have any incentive to be dishonest.

[KingLudd]

“Not that it is a great source, but Wikipedia says:”

Thanks for clarifying.

[laplata]

God bless every soldier and veteran who has served as a Screaming Eagle!

><

Thank you! C 1/501 101st. - RVN 1971-72

Thank you for your service.

[Retain Mike]

The casualties for Battle of the Bulge reminded me of my essay about dropping the atomic bombs.

Yet even early estimates were over three times the casualties suffered by Americans during D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa combined. Through these and other battles the American people had absorbed a profound shock caused by over a million combat and combat related casualties since June 1944 compared to a quarter million in the previous two and a half years. After VE day Stimson perceived the first signs of war weariness as many felt the war was over and he had to answer critics in Congress who could not understand why the Armed Forces continued to demand more men and women enter service. He said, “the country will not be satisfied unless every effort is made to shorten the war”.

I remember reading about one young man who worked for Western Union. The government notified wives and parents of serviceman deaths by telegram. He quit his job, because he was fed up with being the death angel.

[Midwesterner53]

And to you my brother, as for me, HHB, 1/3 ADA, 101st ABN, (Air Assault) April 1981 to April 1984.

[laplata]

Thanks much.

You had Ronald Reagan as your CIC. He loved our military and did all he could to improve it and look out for the troops.
You guys were kick ass.

[SunkenCiv]

"He wants to give me food?" "No sir, he's telling you to go to hell." Heh heh heh...
Thanks RM.

[SaxxonWoods]

“Australia” must have been a flub-autofix, that should have been Austria of course!

[OKSooner]

Thank you for an excellent post!

"Before The Battle of the Bulge, there was a Battle of The Bulge."

"To Save Bastogne: The Untold Story of The Battle of The Bulge",

Robert F. Phillips

Robert Phillips was a rifleman in the 110th Regiment, 28th Division.

Phillips writes from the perspective of an individual soldier, with emphasis on his own unit and the 687th FABN, which served as artillery support for the 28th Division at the time of The Bulge.

Unfortunately, there is no published unit history for the 687th FABN because the officer who was the designated unit historian was killed in a night attack at a place that 687th veterans called "The Crossroads".

The action at The Crossroads was east of Bastogne, as the 28th Division was fighting rear guard action and withdrawing to the west, toward a defensive line that included St. Vith to the north, and Bastogne. This delayed the krauts just long enough for the 101st Airborne and other aforementioned assets to arrive in Bastogne.

After the war, the 687th FABN received a unit citation for this action before being disbanded. The only unit history that exists is the occasional mention in history written by other observers, such as Robert Phillips.

[SunkenCiv]

The key to the allied defense during the Bulge was to tie up the crossroads on the better roads, as the heavier tanks etc of the German armed forces moved significantly worse on the medieval cowpaths and rabbit-warren village streets, even when they were wide enough. The zigzag pattern used by both sides relied on the crossroads being available.

Despite the fact that Hitler conjured 26 divisions up as if out of thin air, they were underequipped and were relying on speed of movement under the overcast skies of that winter to achieve their objectives. The delays and obstacles set in their paths basically just ran them out of everything they needed to get there in a timely manner.

The Damned Engineers
by Janice Holt Giles
Paperback – April 1, 2019
https://www.amazon.com/Damned-Engineers-Janice-Holt-Giles/dp/1948986094