Last year, a military foot locker arrived at the Faith, Family and Country Heritage Museum that was part of the estate of my last surviving aunt who had been living on the family farm in Northeastern PA.
Among the papers and clothing items was a World War II scrapbook that included newspaper clippings my aunt had kept on the war since she had three older brothers in service - my father Joseph and his two twin brothers, Martin and John.
Catching my interest was a small square photo showing a soldier standing in a snowy field. Carefully removing it, the back-side carried a riveting notation: “Martin, Bastogne, Belgium, Dec. 1944.” To any military historian or World War II researcher, the words echoing from 80 years ago were lottery gold.
Bastogne was a key engagement in the Battle of the Bulge, the largest on the European front during World War II which resulted in an estimated one in 10 American combat casualties during the entire war. The Bastogne area saw 25,000 German and 23,000 American deaths and an estimated 3,000 local German deaths.
When the German army launched a last-ditch attack in the Ardennes Forest on Dec. 16, 1944, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, including my uncle Martin’s airborne artillery unit, were rushed to the Belgian town of Bastogne to defend the intersection of five strategic roads. Within two days, the division, outnumbered by more than 4 to 1, found itself surrounded by German tanks and infantry.
The Americans were unprepared for fighting in the bitter cold and were pounded relentlessly by artillery.
The scrapbook picture shows my uncle standing in a field in front of a tree line. The book “Screaming Eagle Gliders” has a similar photo, identifying this tree line as an area which offered protection for artillery soldiers when they were not at their guns.
In the first days of the siege, blizzards and freezing rain often reduced visibility to almost zero, prohibiting Allied planes from flying in supplies, including much-needed ammunition and food rations. Frost covered much of the soldiers’ equipment, and tanks had to be chiseled out of ice after they froze to the ground overnight.
One soldier told of digging a small hole in the frozen earth, pulling the tin from a grenade and dropping it in. The explosion loosened the surface of the frozen ground, enabling gun crews to quickly excavate a pit for their 75 mm pack howitzer with picks and shovels.
On Dec. 22, the Germans sent two officers and two noncommissioned officers into Bastogne with a white flag and a typewritten demand that U.S. forces surrender, the "one possibility" of saving American troops from "total annihilation." Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe's instinctive response was to laugh and exclaim, "Us surrender? Aw, nuts!"
After consulting with staff, he called in a typist and dictated: "To the German Commander: Nuts!" and signed, "The American Commander."
The skies cleared on December 23, allowing Allied aircraft to drop supplies to the encircled soldiers, an operation that was known as the "Christmas miracle.”
Resupplied by the air drop, the 101st Division was able to repulse a German assault in the early morning of Christmas Day. Along with having to fight back the last major German offensive of World War II, thousands of soldiers spent Christmas in temperatures that hovered around zero, in knee-deep snow. It was so cold that soldiers cut blankets into strips and wound them around their frozen feet. Thousands of American GIs were eventually treated for cases of frostbite and trench foot. Many wounded soldiers froze to death before they were rescued.
In a Christmas message sent to his troops, Gen. McAuliffe stated: “We are giving our country and our loved ones at home a worthy Christmas present and being privileged to take part in this gallant feat of arms are truly making for ourselves a Merry Christmas.”
And in his assessment of the Bulge - the last major German offensive of World War II - Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, noted: “This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.”