December 16th, 1944: Battle of the Bulge begins

Today marks exactly 65 years since The Battle of the Bulge began. AKA "The Ardennes-Alsace Campaign" by the US Army, and called "Watch on the Rhine" by the krauts who planned it.

Recommended additional reading: "To Save Bastogne", by Robert Phillips, veteran of the 110th Regiment, 28th Division. It describes "The Battle of the Bulge before The Battle of the Bulge", the delaying action beginning on this day that made it possible for the 101st Airborne Division and other units to have a Bastogne to go to.

Yes, my father, who was 19 years-old at the time, was captured at this time and would spend the rest of the war a in German prison. When the troops were liberated, he was in such bad condition that he had to be kept in a German hospital for several more months before being able to come home.

He did not discuss the details of this ordeal during his lifetime, other that to say that they had to lay their rifles down without ever firing a shot. I think that pained him more than his physical wounds. He died nineteen years ago.

106 Infantry Division, a brand new formation. If I recall correctly, many of the men had just graduated from high school the prior June, and of course been drafted immediately afterward. They were put into the line in the rough terrain of Schnee Eifel a day or two before the German offensive to get them into contact with the Germans in a "inactive area" so they could start getting needed combat experience. The Germans attacked down two roads that met behind 2/3rds of the division, cut right through and immediately they were hopelessly trapped. As you say, they had to surrender without having fired a shot. Absolutely not their fault, but the humiliation would be extreme, and made worse by the deprivations of captivity.

All who put on the uniform to fight for America are heroes, and some have a more painfully service than others. Your father had the misfortune to be one of those. God rest his soul.

I know that my husband’s grandfather was at the Battle of the Bulge and my mother-in-law has the notification from the Army to her grandmother that he was MIA afterwards (my husband knows more details than I do, obviously). IIRC, he got stuck behind enemy lines, ended up with severe frostbite in his feet and had problems with them the rest of his life. He also helped liberate a concentration camp, and he rarely spoke of his service during WWII.

He died five years ago at age 79. Our youngest son’s middle name Dugan is in honor of his great-grandfather’s last name (originally O’Dugan when the ancestors came over from Ireland).

If I recall correctly, many of the men had just graduated from high school the prior June...

I read an account not long ago that said these troops were led by the youngest officers in the history of the U.S. Military. I believe the average officer's age was between 23 and 24.

you're the one who stated the following: Had the Germans actually reached Antwerp and held their flanks, little would have been accomplished aside from a lengthening of allied supply lines due to the loss of the major port city.

True but I wrote that not for you but for the many who try to point out what a blunder it was of Hitler not to release those panzer divisions to Normandy when first requested. It was irrelevant to the thread topic and I shouldn't have mentioned it.

You seem to not understand the level of the disaster had the Germans reached Antwerp. Which happily, was extremely unlikely, and in fact never even came close to happening.

If whole armies in Belgium and Holland were cutoff intact, to say that would be massive problem for the Western allies would be an understatement. However, I can't see Western commanders issuing Hitleresque orders of no retreat.

If poor flying weather prevailed, once the Germans crossed the Meuse, I believe Allied commanders would have gone into strategic withdrawal mode and made every effort to escape the pocket before it closed.

Eventually, the weather would have cleared, the German fuel problem only gotten worse and the USAF and RAF would have filled the sky.

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