Why General McAuliffe Could Say “Nuts”

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.

Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in WW II by Belton Y. Cooper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._10th_Armored_Division http://www.combatreels.com/10th_Armored_Division.cfm

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

His dad wasn’t anywhere near infantry combat, he was a PBY pilot scouting for German submarines, but somehow he ended up with a P38.

Air bases were places were front line troops often traded their trophies. I had an uncle how flew R4D (C-47/DC-3 navy variant) in the Marines. He had accumulated quite a collection of Japanese war trophies. Much of it did not make it home due to a continuous poker game on the troopship back home.

Charles MacDonald , an accomplished historian, provides what I am sure is an accurate description of the event in his book about The Battle of the Bulge. He said, "Major Jones asked to see McAuliffe personally. Saluting, he said he had a message from the German commander, an ultimatum, and passed the papers to McAuliffe’s chief of staff, Lt. Col. Ned D. Moore. ‘What does it say, Ned?’ asked McAuliffe. ‘They want you to surrender,’ said Moore. ‘Aw, nuts!’ said McAuliffe.

When McAuliffe got around to composing a rely to the ultimatum, he was at a loss as to what to say. ‘That first crack you made,’ said his G-3 harry Kinnard, ‘would be hard to beat.’ ‘What was that?’, asked McAuliffe. ‘ You said, ‘Nuts!’ With a pen McAuliffe wrote: ‘To the German commander: Nuts!. From the American commander.’

By that time, the commander of the327 Glider Infantry, Colonel Harper, had arrived at the headquarters and insisted on taking the reply back himself. When he reached Company F’s command post, he ordered the German officers to be put in a jeep and driven, still blindfolded, to Lieutenant Smith’s platoon headquarters at the Kessler farm. To the immense relief of the Germans, their blindfolds were removed.

Lieutenant Henke told Harper that he and his companions were authorized to negotiate details. Would he be so kind as to give them the answer from the American commander. ‘The answer,‘ said Harper, ‘is Nuts1’

Although Henke had spent years in the import business and spoke excellent English, the reply perplexed him. He translated literally for the major. But neither of them understood. ‘Was the reply,’ asked Henke, ‘negative or affirmative?’

‘The reply,’ answered Harper, ‘is decidedly not affirmative, and if you continue this foolish attack , you losses will be tremendous. ‘If you don’t understand what ‘Nuts!’ means, Harper continued, in plain English is means the same as ‘Go to hell!.’ We will kill every goddamn German that tries to break into the city’”

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