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Posted on 12/31/2006 5:51:17 AM PST by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Jan 1 - 7, 1945 The campaign star on the European Theater ribbon for the bitter winter combat during December 1944 and January 1945 is titled "Ardennes-Alsace". Over the past 50 years the "Battle of' the Bulge" in the Ardennes region in northern France and Belgium has received as much publicity as Gettysburg.  The German First Army launched its initial attacks on schedule a few hours before New Year's Day, with Simon's XIII SS Corps pushing south over the Sarre River valley and Petersen's XC and Hoehne's LXXXIX Corps heading in the same general direction through the woods of the Low Vosges. In both cases the leading German echelons began to hit the main American lines about midnight. In the Sarre valley the assault force was met by determined resistance from the 44th and 100th Infantry Division troops, who were well dug in and deployed in depth. Expecting the major attack in this area, Patch and Haislip had jammed the XV Corps zone with three infantry divisions buttressed by the two regiments of Task Force Harris and-if the theater reserve units are counted-two armored and another infantry division in reserve, with a third armored division arriving. The Germin attack barely made a dent in the beefed-up Allied line. In some cases the SS troopers advanced in suicidal open waves, cursing and screaming at the American infantrymen who refused to be intimidated. The infantry of the 36th Volksgrenadier did little better. Although Simon's forces finally managed to poke a narrow hole, about two miles in depth, at Rimling on the right wing of the 44th Division, the 100th Infantry Division held firm. In the days that followed the Germans saw their small advances continuously eroded by repeated counterattacks from the 44th, 100th, and 63d (TF Harris) Division infantry supported by elements of the French 2d Armored Division. Allied artillery and, when the weather broke, Allied air attacks, together with the bitter cold, also sapped the strength of the attackers. On 4 January the German high command formally called off the effort. As General Simon, the attacking corps commander, caustically observed, the Sarre assault had shown only that the German soldier still knew how to fight and how to die, but little else. Blaskowitz, with Hitler and von Rundstedt's approval, obviously chose not to throw the German armored reserves into the battle there, as planned, and sought weaker links in the American lines.  During Operation NORDWIND, the last German offensive on the Western Front, three German divisions attempted to encircle and annihilate the 100th Infantry Division. Near Lemberg, on the Division's right, the XC Corps attackers were stopped by the 399th and elements of the 398th Infantry Regiment after three days of ferocious fighting. On 5 January, after NORDWIND's main effort had failed, Himmler's Army Group Oberrhein finally began its supporting thrusts against the southern flank of Brooks' VI Corps, with the XIV SS Corps launching a cross-Rhine attack north of Strasbourg. Two days later, south of the city, the Nineteenth Army launched Operation SONNENWENDE ('WINTER SOLSTICE'), attacking north, astride the Rhone-Rhine Canal on the northern edge of the German-held Colmar Pocket. These actions opened a three-week battle, whose ferocity rivaled the Ardennes fighting in viciousness if not in scope and threatened the survival of the VI Corps. SONNENWENDE sparked a new crisis for the 6th Army Group, which had too few divisions to defend every threatened area. With Brooks' VI Corps now engaged on both flanks, along the Rhine at Gambsheim and to the northeast along the Low Vosges mountain exits, Devers transferred responsibility for Strasbourg to the French First Army, and de Lattre stretched his forces to cover both the city and the Belfort Gap 75 miles to the south. But the real danger was just northeast of Strasbourg. There, the XIV SS Corps had punched out a 10-mile bridgehead around the town of Gambsheim, brushing off small counterattacks from Task Force Linden. Patch's Seventh Army, reinforced with the newly arrived 12th Armored Division, tried to drive the Germans from the Gambsheim area, a region laced with canals, streams, and lesser watercourses. To the south de Lattre's 3d Algerian Division defended Strasbourg, while the rest of the French First Army kept the Colmar Pocket tightly ringed. But the fate of Strasbourg and the northern Alsace hinged on the ability of the American VI Corps to secure its besieged flanks.  Having driven several wedges into the Seventh Army, the Germans launched another attack on 7 January. The German XXXIX Panzer Corps, with the 21st Panzer and the 25th Panzergrenadier Divisions, attacked the greatly weakened VI Corps center between the Vosges and Lauterbourg. Quickly gaining ground to the edge of the Haguenau Forest 20 miles north of Strasbourg, the German offensive rolled along the same routes used during the successful attacks of August 1870 under Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke. Moltke's successors, however, made no breakthrough. In the two Alsatian towns of Hatten and Rittershoffen, Patch and Brooks threw in the Seventh Army's last reserve, the 14th Armored Division. Assisted by a mixture of other combat, combat support, and service troops, the division halted the Germans. While the VI Corps fought for its life in the Haguenau Forest, the enemy renewed attacks on both flanks. During an intense battle between units of the 45th Division and the 6th SS Mountain Division in the Low Vosges, the Germans surrounded an American battalion that had refused to give ground. After a week's fighting by units attempting its relief, only two soldiers managed to escape to friendly lines. Although gaining ground the enemy had achieved no clear-cut success. Hitler nevertheless committed his last reserves on 16 January, including the 10th SS Panzer and the 7th Parachute Divisions. These forces finally steamrolled a path along the Rhine's west bank toward the XIV SS Corps' Gambsheim bridgehead overrunning one of the green 12th Armored Division's infantry battalions at Herrlisheim and destroying one of its tank battalions nearby. This final foray led Brooks to order a withdrawal on the twenty-first, one that took the Germans by surprise and was completed before the enemy could press his advantage.  Forming a new line along the Zorn, Moder, and Rothback Rivers north of the Marne-Rhine Canal, the VI Corps commander aligned his units into a cohesive defense with his badly damaged but still game armored divisions in reserve. Launching attacks during the night of 24-25 January, the Germans found their slight penetrations eliminated by vigorous counterattacks. Ceasing their assaults permanently, they might have found irony in the Seventh Army's latest acquisition from SHAEF reserves-the "Battling Bastards of Bastogne," the 101st Airborne Division, which arrived on the Alsace front only to find the battle over.
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They call themselves the Commemorative(?)Air Force now.
Sheesh
The whole Confederate AIr Force name started out as a joke IIRC. A couple of guys in Harlingen TX started trying to collect up some of the WW-II planes in the early 60's before they all disappeared. One of the other folks at the airport wanted to know if they were trying to start up a Confederate Air Force. Of course the name stuck :-)
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
I always thought the Confederate Air Force name was pretty funny and don't see how anyone could take offense over it. And my great, great, great, great grandpappy fought for the Union!
Howdy Wneighbor!
I hope the new year brings you good health and happy family. We have been taking turns being sick over here. I am the last and am on the mend.
I guess working for yourself is kind of like homeschooling for the first time. It is extremely liberating and while a challenge at times, it is also very fulfilling. Plus, a side effect is that the kids get along with each other better than they would if they were in public school.
Thanks for the New Year's wishes! Sorry to hear that the bug has gone around ya'll's house too. I walked right into the tail end of it when I got to Alabama and am not over it yet either. Gees, I haven't been in a bouncing cold/flu household in years!
Yes, it sounds like your homeschool experience is paralleling my self-employment experience. Liberating and challenging are both great descriptions and it's given me a new lease on life that I really needed. and i was skeered to do it!!! ;-) worked out purdy darned good. I've heard a lot of home school parents say the exact same thing.
Howdy Miss Feather! Great to hear from you. Many many happy new year greetings heading your way.
Now that New Year's Day is passed I'm looking forward to those first flowers. :-)
Well, mom just called and my brother had to put his puppy to sleep last night. He had distemper. My brother took the puppy deer hunting again over the weekend and this is the first we heard back from him. Shoot! We have the worst luck with dogs. I'm not telling the kids anything yet.
I'm thinkin my brother needs a cat. Well, technically, he has a cat - "Bear" lives at my mother's house. Bear is b/w long haired tuxedo. My mother says he is a comma-tail cat because his tail is always shaped like a comma. He is really her cat.
Ah darn that is a shame.
We are sorry to hear this. I had second thoughts when I got Sarge, it's so hard to lose a dog but it is better to have loved them and given them a good home than to have not.
A year already, wow. It doesn't seem that long ago that you started out on your own. Glad to hear you are doing well. Happy New Year!
January 6, 2007
READ: Mark 12:41-44
She out of her poverty put in all that she had. —Mark 12:44 Mr. Branon, I have to talk with you about something really important," said the voice on the other end of the line. It was 2 days before a small group of teens and adults were to leave for Jamaica on a special missions trip. We had been planning for months to go to a school for deaf children to build a much-needed playground. So, when this teen called, I thought, Oh, no. She can’t go.
But when she, her mom, and I met for lunch that day, I found out how truly special this young lady was. She told me she was donating her entire savings to help pay for the trip—money she had been saving to buy a car. "As I was praying the past couple of nights," she explained, "I felt that God was telling me to give all of my money." That day we had tears of joy with our burgers and fries.
What a picture of how much of ourselves we should offer Him! God wants total sacrifice—as difficult as that can be—not just 10-percent giving. If Jesus is indeed our Lord, we must give our entire being to Him. Our speech. Our time. Our choices.
Jesus praised the widow who "out of her poverty put in all that she had" (Mark 12:44). Imagine the influence we could have if we practiced giving our all.
Good evening feather.
Hi snippy!
How's in going, got lots of rain.
Our temps took a plunge this afternoon, colder now and we have rain and snow mix. Gonna be that way for a while.
Y'all have a great day
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Good morning everyone.
January 10, 2007
READ: Luke 23:32-43
Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise. —Luke 23:43
On my husband’s T-shirt is a cartoon of a sheep walking on two legs and addressing a wolf who is barring the sheep’s passage through a gate.
Standing by the sheep is a familiar-looking man. He has a beard, compassionate eyes, and a look of authority. The sheep speaks to the wolf as he gestures toward the man and says, “I’m with Him.” The sheep’s trust in his Shepherd gives him great confidence.
On the day Jesus died, three crosses were raised. Jesus hung on the center one between two criminals. One of the men mocked Jesus, but the other said to Him, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus answered, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).
Imagine the man’s thoughts as he took his last breath. He had paid a horrible penalty for his crimes. But now, because he put his faith in Jesus, he was welcomed into heaven as a child of God. Perhaps he said with confidence, “I know I don’t deserve to be here, but I’m with Him!” gesturing toward Jesus. And Jesus would have confirmed it: “He’s with Me.”
Like the thief on the cross, we all face a choice. Have you made the decision to trust Jesus? Can you say with confidence, “I’m with Him”?
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