Posted on 05/04/2014 3:36:52 PM PDT by navysealdad
Breathtaking new photographs, including several vivid full-color images, offer a never-before-seen look at the war-weary soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge who fought through the frozen Ardennes Forest in a mountainous region of Belgium in the dead of winter.
(Excerpt) Read more at angelfire.com ...
Where do we get such men?
The majority of the Battle of the Bulge took place in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg - in the north where the Ardennes mountains are. It began in Bastogne, Belgium [where they is a wonderful memorial to our US Soldiers], then moved eastward as our 3rd Army under Gen. George Patton, pushed the German Panzer units out of Luxembourg. Then there was a resurgence of the German army, but eventually the US troops liberated northern Luxembourg a second time. The US had also liberated southern Luxembourg earlier in 1944.
If you drive the road from Bastogne through Wiltz, Diekirch, Clervaux, etc. you will see many museums and statues honoring the US Army and General Patton [who actually has his own museum. I think it is in Ettelbrueck].
The country of Luxembourg remains fiercely pro-USA to this day. The US Military Cemetery in Hamm has about 6,000 graves of American soldiers who died in Luxembourg during the long, cold winter of 1944-1945. Gen. George C. Patton is also buried there.
My Dad would not / could not listen to Bing’s White Christmas.
And he walked out on Dr. Zhivago.
Timberwolf, 385th Field Artillery.
I’ll take that question...:-)
As a movie, it was just OK, but as history, it was awful.
The setting is wrong, the tanks are wrong, it’s full of small details that are wrong, the events in the film are only barely based on actual events.
Instead of the Americans fighting desperate delaying actions at great cost, the battle was decided by detective work and the Germans running out of gas, or getting run over by it.
It’s a shame that they spent that amount of money and star power on what could have been a tribute to the men who fought and died there. Instead, it was merely a mediocre 60’s action adventure flick loosely based on events that pales compared to other war films of the time like “The Longest Day”.
Well done!
That is how I see it, I enjoyed it when it came out and to me it was a part of what used to be a huge producing of war films, that seemed almost as numerous as westerns.
It is a long, long, way from the worst war movie ever, for someone who has seen hundreds, and people who can enjoy a “Dances with Wolves” can sure tolerate Battle of the Bulge.
Yeah, that teacher had a Son who was as big a jerk as he was.
Look at the second picture - Hitler at the table. Those who saw the movie “Downfall” will know what I mean. For those who did not - think of the Internet funnies “Hitler learns... ...” They were more realistic that we knew.
That 15 year old kid didn’t realize how lucky he was yet when that photo was taken, or maybe he did and was crying tears of relief.
Factually completely wrong. Tactically completely wrong. Shot in the wrong weather and geography. In point of fact, the movie story line has almost nothing to do with the actual battle of the bulge. Movie ends with Germans abandoning their tanks and walking home, for lack of fuel.
Resembled the actual Battle of the Bulge about as much as an episode of Rat Patrol.
A backstory note: Col. Norman Vaughn... Persuaded top brass [Patton] to risk a brilliant scheme to evacuate wounded soldiers by dog sled from the Battle of the Bulge with 209 dogs and 17 drivers.
I believe I recall Norman saying he also brought food to the troops on his runs in to the battle...and took out the wounded.
Here’s a lengthy explanation, including why Eisenhower hated it.
http://m.voices.yahoo.com/worst-world-war-ii-movies-ever-part-one-battle-of-13608.html
Here’s another:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/_mobile/technology/digital/fact-vs-fiction/the-best-and-worst-war-movies-of-all-time-15#slide-15
And another:
http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0058947/reviews
And here is a simplified list of issues with it from wiki:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge_(film)
Yeah, I can google too, like that guy at popular mechanics who loved “Jarhead” and “Hurt Locker” and hated the Green Berets.
I also know some of the issues that make it fall short of perfection, but you haven’t explained how you described the 50 year old movie as the worst war movie ever made, Ben Affleck thanks you, but it still doesn’t explain how a movie that most of us would still watch on DVD and enjoy, is the worst war movie in history.
Perhaps the only factual scene in the movie. On 24 December, Kampfgruppe Peiper abandoned their vehicles in the forest near La Gleize and the 800 survivors walked back to German lines near Stavelot. The Spanish countryside that was used for the film might have worked pretty well for Rat Patrol. Bad, bad movie.
You are correct, these vehicles are M36 Jackson Tank Destroyers, not M4 Sherman. Tank Destroyers of all types, tracked and towed, enjoyed their finest hour during the Battle of the Bulge. Overall, the vehicles and the tank destroyer concept was not a great success during World War II. However, the Battle of the Bulge was an exception and many tank destroyer units performed heroic feats stopping German attacks. Their open turrets made them very vulnerable to artillery and mortar attack.
Acting- horrible.
As a supposedly fact based film- totally wrong
As cinema- a regular Planet 9, again a list of glaring mistakes and bad film making- http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0058947/goofs
As entertainment- well, if you love the Rat Patrol, and don’t know anything at all about WWII, then hey, it’s your kinda movie
Of course that was just one German element and the ground lost wasn’t retaken for a month. Bad movie at every level.
If it is the worst war movie that you have ever seen, then you haven’t seen many war movies, including the dumping on us of tons of Vietnam movies that none of us can even name and the large number of bombs from the recent wars, and countless B films about WWII.
Perhaps you can share the realism of 95% of any war films, especially Vietnam and the Indian fighting wars.
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