Replies

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’”