The Battle of the Bulge
Bastogne and the Ardennes Forest
The Battle of the BulgeBastogne and the Ardennes Forest |
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US Government map of Belgium
A friend of mine organized a World War II history trip. We started in Normandy at the D-Day beaches, then stayed in Bastogne for a couple of days seeing the area where the Battle of the Bulge was fought.
There are some good books on the history. Steven Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers is outstanding. It starts where his D-Day leaves off and continues through the end of the war.
The battle itself was a major German offensive and Allied counter-offensive lasting 16 December 1944 through 25 January 1945.
I had a preconception of the Ardennes area of southern Belgium as being largely rural, wooded and hilly. Then I would think about what little I knew of Belgium, which was the flat, wide open and heavily settled northern part. I would assume that my assumptions were wrong.
But the Ardennes area is rural, wooded and hilly!
Below are a number of public-domain U.S. military maps from the Wikipedia article on the battle. First, the situation in December 1944 immediately before the German push west:
The German push to the west, 16-25 December 1944, what they called Wacht Am Rhein. The "Bulge" westward in the German line and the source of the common name for the battle is obvious here.
A detail shows how Bastogne was almost entirely surrounded and cut off:
The Allied push back to the east 26 December 1944 through 25 January 1945:
As Steven Ambrose describes it, "The 101st Airborne still had a complaint. As the story of the Battle of the Bulge is told today, it is one of George Patton and his Third Army coming to the rescue of the encircled 101st, like the cavalry come to save the settlers in their wagon circle. No member of the 101st has ever agreed that the division needed to be rescued!"
Here we are at the museum outside Bastogne. That's me on the left, Jeff in the middle, and Tim on the right.
We had crossed into Belgium after driving across France most of the day and then spending the night in a cheap hotel near the Luxembourg airport.
Before crossing the border we stopped at the nearby U.S. cemetery, where George Patton is buried along with 5,075 other American service members, most of whom died in the Battle of the Bulge.
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Here you see the square in Bastogne.
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There is a nice museum on the edge of town (see the picture of us sitting on the tank above).
Next to the museum is the large star-shaped Mardasson Memorial, honoring the memory of the 76,890 American soldiers wounded or killed during the Battle of the Bulge.
The memorial has great views over the surrounding countryside.
Foy was a small village occupied by the Germans.
The American 101st Airborne Division held the Bois Jacques (Jacques Woods), part of the Ardennes Forest, just outside Foy and up a slight rise toward Bastogne.
Steven Ambrose's Band of Brothers and the mini-series based on it describes how Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division spearheaded the assault to capture the town.
Looking out of the Bois Jacques to the north of Foy.
Looking out of the Bois Jacques toward Foy.
Foxholes remain in the forest.
Someone has laid downed branches over a foxhole.
A view through the Bois Jacques toward the field overlooking Foy.
A view through the Bois Jacques.
This area of Bois Jacques is regularly cut for timber and has been for many decades.
Relatively fast-growing pines are replanted in rows.
The edge of the forest, overlooking Foy.
Looking back into the forest.
The side roads lead through the forests.
Houffalize is a small town north of Bastogne.
Generals Montgomery and Patton met up here in a counter-attack against remaining German forces.
The town has an abandoned German Panzerkampfwagen V (Panther) tank on display.
Me, Jeff, and Tim with the Panzer.
A view to the north over Houffalize.
A view to the south over Houffalize.
See: Largely rural, wooded and hilly!
Just as I assumed it would be but then assumed I was wrong....
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We would always ogle the pastry and the girls at the patisseries.
In Houffalize I realized that I had been in Belgium for a while but I had not yet had a Belgian waffle!
To the waffle store!
Here is my Belgian waffle overlooking Houffalize.
The German combat unit Kampfgruppe Peiper, part of the 1st SS Panzer Division, executed about 90 unarmed American prisoners of war at a crossroads outside the town of Malmedy on 17 December 1944.
This massacre along with others committed by the same unit the same day and on following days was the subject of a war crimes trial in 1946.
Television blowhard Bill O'Reilly repeatedly described this in 2005 and 2006 as a massacre of German prisoners by Americans. Fox "News" initially changed their transcripts to cover up what O'Reilly really said. Way to take the Nazi side, Fox.
Yet another interesting town in Belgium.
We visited Saint Hubert on our way back to Brussels.
It is said to be where Jägermeister was invented. See the statue of the hart inside the big church.
We had a rented car, which would be vital to see much in the area without spending many extra days waiting on bus transport.
In Bastogne we stayed right on the central square where we got a triple room in a nice hotel for €105.
Brussels is very well connected by rail to the rest of Europe, and there are direct flights from North America. We had a Europcar rental and picked it up at Brussels Midi Station where the Thalys and Eurostar international trains call.
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