[msnpatriot]

FWIW, if you dig a little deeper into that story about McAuliffe you may find that he never really gave that historical reply to the the Germans. That the ‘Nuts’ was made up to raise our moral.

Because of the debacle and loss of St. Vith, the main German drive initially to the Meuse, and Antwerp, and the fact that the 106th division was encircled in positions near there and two regiments surrendered, Bastogne needed to be ramped up for a rallying point which worked well, and served to make it an 'American' victory.

***McAuliffe sent back to Lüttwitz his now-famous reply: “NUTS!”***

[patriciaruth]

I thought the “nuts” was a substitute for what he really said which was expletive deleted.