Ardennes Offensive 1944

[PringleTree]

Battle of the Bulge started on this date in 1944.

[1967redrider]

Praise the Lord we were victorious, prayers to those who fought for our freedom.

[Gunsil]

My father was captured by the Germans there, spent a few days including Christmas in a cattle car with too many POWs and no heat on the way to prison camp. He was interned in Stalag 9B, one of the worst. When he got liberated in April he weighed 77 pounds and was 5'11" tall, he was captured with 105 other Americans in his unit, he said only five survived the starvation in the camp. He said the Americans had it good compared to the Russians in the camp who the Germans shot 20-30 every day just for the hell of it. It took six months in a stateside hospital to regain his weight and strength before he was allowed to go home. He hated Eisenhower his whole life for the mistakes he made allowing the Bulge to happen. Rough way to spend Christmas!!

[Froe]

My dad was in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge at the age of 19. He wouldn’t talk much about it and suffered nightmares the rest of his life in which he relived the experience. It was very late in his life before he finally told me stories of the war. Some not until hospice care. They ranged from proud recounts of success and funny anecdotes to descriptions of horror, cruelty and loss.
My thanks to not just his generation, but to all of you that served.
Froe

[OLDE CUTLER]

And General Anthony's McAuliffes famous reply to the German demand to surrender...........NUTS