Battle of the Bulge


 
Very cool. I'm gonna have to see if I can find a way to share this with my technologically challenged wife. At 17, her father lied about his age and enlisted. He fought and was shot and separated from his unit in the battle of the bulge and lived to tell the tale. He was ultimately able to link back up with them a couple days later, but was almost shot as he approached. Fortunately, a few guys recognized him. My mother-in-law still has some journals he wrote in the days following.
 
JimK said:
Very cool. I'm gonna have to see if I can find a way to share this with my technologically challenged wife. At 17, her father lied about his age and enlisted. He fought and was shot and separated from his unit in the battle of the bulge and lived to tell the tale. He was ultimately able to link back up with them a couple days later, but was almost shot as he approached. Fortunately, a few guys recognized him. My mother-in-law still has some journals he wrote in the days following.
Click to expand...

That was very common. There were many green replacements in the American lines, after the Huertgen Forest had depleted our force. Mass confusion among men who had never seen combat and weren't adequately trained.

But on the positive side ............ they regrouped quickly and fought like mofos.
 
Its all I got.

Twitter has its good side, if you stay out of politics. I try to keep the politics to a minimum, I'm mostly interested in energy issues and I get current energy news and views from Twitter. I can follow people that I would normally not hear what they have to say.

With my interest in WW II, it keeps me in contact with a lot of historians, here in the US , the UK, and in Europe. Its really expanded my world. I also follow barbecue people. They post some great barbecue **** and news.
 
Yeah just too bad you can't simply cut and paste the actual stuff. I love the history around WWII as well. But not gonna join twitter to see it. One SM platform is more than enough for me
 
My first reaction when I saw the thread title was someone complaining about their waistline.

On a serious note, hats off to the brave men who fought in one of the toughest conflicts of the war. One of my father-in-law friends was in this battle but never wanted to discuss what happened. Sadly, there aren’t too many survivors left as everyone is in their 90s and older.
 
My father in law was there. He lied about his age and enlisted in the Marines. One of my uncles was in the army and fought there as well. Took a bullet through the arm. They patched him up and sent him back out. I guess it didn't matter his arm healed a bit crooked. He could still shoot. He was from Sicily btw (my uncle not my father in law). The old man was just some hard a$$ guy from Minnesota
 
Gen Patton never minced his words 😄

My 8th Air Force POW Dad was liberated by the 12th Armored Division of Patton's 3rd Army. The Germans had marched the " Kriegies " from Stalag 17 for 18 days to the west, 281 miles, to run from the Russians . They were " camped " in wood covered hills on the banks of Inn River near Braunau , Austria . They knew something was up, when they woke up one morning and the German guards were gone. Soon , three Sherman tanks showed up. A Captain got out of his tank and stood on a tree stump and said " men, you are no longer POW's , you are now soldiers of the US 3rd Army " . And of course, that got a huge cheer.

Dad was in the 3rd Army for a few days before the AAF sent C-47's to fly all 4,000 of them out. Dad said the 3rd Army soldiers said about Patton , that yeah, Patton was " Old Blood and Guts , but it was our blood and his guts "

https://twitter.com/x/status/1340574911354454016
 
One of the greatest regrets I have in life is not getting my father to talk about his experiences over there in WWII. Thinking back now I truly believe that he suffered from what we mow call PTSD. But back then the men, and women fought in horrific battles. Saw and experienced terrible things, than came home to try and pick up the pieces of their lives. They really were the Greatest Generation. The only real idea of what my father went through is from a war souvenir he brought home. An artillery model German Luger pistol with original leather holster. There is still blood stains on the holster. He gave it to me without a word about how he got it. I sure miss that man.
 
Today being the shortest day of the year played to the German's advantage. In Belgium this time of year, it gets light at 8 am and is dark at 4 pm. Allied air superiority forced them to operate at night. Their troop and supply transport by train or truck could not move in the daytime. The longer nights helped them.

This along with mostly cloudy over cast days , with rain or snow, kept the Allied air forces grounded.

The German's planned this out very well. Even though the idea of this counter attack came from Hitler's demented mind and really had no chance of success, the German generals did a good job of executing the attack, considering what they were up against.
 
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