Nineteen thousand Americans were killed fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, the second deadliest campaign in American history, with the Meuse- Argonne Offensive in World War I in first place.
Lest We Forget
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Godfather and Uncle, Joseph Taylor, survived the Battle of the Buldge. My mother described his post war challenges, what we now call PTSD. His only occupation, after the war, was long haul trucking. Uncle Joe and Aunt Gloria….Rest in God’s Peace. Uncle Joe. Thank you.
He was a tank driver.
My dad’s Uncle Mike saw action in both D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
A friend of my family, a car mechanic, passed away some years ago. It was only later that we learned he was in the 3rd army at the Battle of the Bulge.
It’s said when Patton was asked how he got his 3rd army to move so fast, he answered: “I had an army of mechanics, who could fix anything!”
Tangential comment, which I’ve probably shared here before: A great friend of our family in NW Illinois, and a veteran of the Third Army’s 1944 and 1945 campaigns, never wore anything heavier than a wool suit or sport coat in winter, despite some extended below-zero temperatures being common in January and February. When asked about this, he said that it was so cold inside his Sherman tank (of which he was the commander) that by the spring of 1945 he no longer needed an overcoat.
Wait…wait..What!?
I thought Monty won the Battle of the Bulge.
I’m sure those 19,000 Patriots are giving Monty an earful right now.
My (late) Belgian father-in-law was a child during the battle. He grew up almost directly along the German line, about 5 km from Bastogne. His family owned a farm, and they had to house German soldiers, teenage boys who did not want to be there.
During the battle, his family went into the cellar, and they could hear the fighting all around them. The lines shifted during the battle, with German soldiers holding the farmhouse at one point, then American soldiers at another point.
In the springtime, after the snow melts, my father-in-law and his older brother would find weapons, including grenades. They gave the guns to their father, but they kept a couple of grenades to go fishing.
Anyone here who hasn’t read “Seven Roads to Hell,” by 101st Airborne paratrooper and Bulge survivor Donald R. Burgett (pub. 2014, 204 pp’s, available now in paperback) is denying themselves a gripping, can’t-put-it-down eyewitness account of the savage, and oftentimes incongruous, events of a bitter total war situation like “The Bulge.” (Burgett passed away in 2017. He also authored 3 other books, sequential accounts of his experiences from D-Day to war’s end.)
Burgett claimed to be an atheist but during lulls in the battle, he recounts being deeply disturbed by the sight of the enemy dead, laying frozen and starting to decompose in the woods or fields: he felt it was intolerable that a human being should not receive final respectful treatment in death, even during total war, and despite the desperate circumstances of Bastogne and the Ardennes offensive.
Steve Phoenix.
Thank you for your suggestion.
I just ordered the book a moment ago.
God receive Your faithful servants who laid down their lives for the freedom You gave all men.