The Battle of the Bulge commenced in central Europe. It was the last gasp of a desperate Third Reich. The Wehrmacht had not launched a winter offensive since Frederick The Great. So many brave men died on both sides. Please take a moment today to think of them. The Ardennes Offensive lasted from 16 December 1944 - 25 January 1945. Here is a link to it:
I called to check on a friend since 1970 to find he moved on to much greener pasture in August. A veteran of the 82nd Airborne in WWII, he told me once he spent 18 months overseas, 14 in the hospital recovering from wounds. One round took off his left ring finger; another passed through his scrotum. Loved to fish spent lots of time on the Tennessee River fling hardware.
Someone told him panty hose were warm; he asked wife to get him the largest pair she could find. Pete got up the next morning put on his pantyhose over his BVD’s, then his slacks, work coveralls and a snowmobile suit before he got in the boat. Pete always prepared a thermos of coffee the night before and sipped on it as long as it last. He had been fishing and sipping coffee for a couple of hours when mother nature called; unzip the snowmobile suit; unzip the coveralls; unzip the slacks; panty hose do not have zipper! Reach down into the right front slacks pocket dig out a 3 bladed Case stainless steel stockman pocket knife, sharpened to a razors edge. The standing on the edge of the bow of a bass boat bobbing up and down with the waves, gingerly trying to cut a hole in extra tall queen sized panty hose and nothing beyond.
Good memories of a great man gone on to his greater reward.
Remember what these did for us and the ones who are out there now so we can sleep at night in peace.
The one man that I admired that flew in my plane some time after the Bulge was Gen McAuliffe. Most will never know that he answered the Germans with NUTS when they asked him to surrender. Eric your post and the article brought back memories both sad and glad times when the sun came out and Troop Carrier C 47s could finally drop supplies.
Our local high scool has a WWll history class—at first they came with pad and pencil then tape recorders and lately lap tops. Has it really been 64 years?? I"ll enjoy reading the article a few more times-- BILL