12 October 2010 - 17 October 2010
Field Trip to Strasbourg, the Alsace, Trier, and Bastogne
Bastogne
At the very end of our trip we stopped in the Belgian village of Bastogne. For those familiar with the history of World War II, you may remember that Bastogne was taken by the Americans as the Allied Forces pushed the German Army back to into its home. In a calculated gambit, Hitler massed forces in the Alsace for a crucial counterattack. This counterattack later became known as the Battle of the Bulge (or Battle of the Ardennes, if you live on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean). Though a common tendency is to portray this attack as a desperate and rash move by Hitler, in reality the counterattack presented a serious potential danger to the Allied Forces. Hitler's objective in the counterattack was to take the port of Antwerp, which was the delivery point on the European side for the Allied supply lines, which supported two Allied Armies in the Western European theater of operations. By breaking through the Allied line, Hitler hoped to reach the port to destroy it, thereby cutting off the supplies. The two Allied Armies had only enough supplies to last three weeks, after which they would be forced to surrender. If Hitler could force the surrender of those two armies, the United States would be forced to commit even more personnel toward winning the war. Public sentiment in the United States was already beginning to wane as a war-weary population considered the alternatives. The counterattack presented Hitler's opportunity to eliminate his greatest enemy.
The Alsace region is heavily forested and hilly. Because of the terrain, it is difficult to move soldiers and equipment through the region. Precisely for this reason, the Allied Commanders did not imagine that the German Army would launch an attack through Alsace. Consequently, the units posted on the line in the Alsace consisted of their weakest units; soldiers who were either young and inexperienced or exhausted and war-fatigued.
The German counterattack initially proved successful. The Americans, caught off guard and overwhelmed, were forced to withdraw. Allied Commanders were able to guess that Hitler's intended target was Antwerp, so the American Forces posted three teams at strategic points to slow the German advance. These three points were at Bastogne and the surrounding towns. Though the teams fought with valor, they collapsed in the face of the superior German firepower, which was led by the Panzer tank, at that time the most advanced tank in the world and far more powerful than the American Sherman tank. The teams were quickly isolated from each other and were forced to fall back further towards Antwerp, with the exception of the American Forces at Bastogne, who held out. Within days, the German counterattack had pushed the American forces so far back that the American Forces at Bastogne were behind German lines, surrounded on all sides and outnumbered over three to one.
The Battle of the Bulge was fought in the winter, when it was bitterly cold. Sustained storms made it difficult to impossible for the Allies to provide Air Support to their ground troops. Despite heavy fire from the Germans, the American soldiers fought back with everything they had. Supplies were running low, but morale was high-the Belgian residents of Bastogne provided everything they could to the American troops, and close personal friendships were formed between the soldiers and the community residents that they were defending. Adding to their spirits was news of a possible savior-from the South, General George S Patton was disengaging his forces and blasting his way through German lines toward Bastogne. If the Americans could hold out a little longer, they may yet hold the village.
Sensing renewed vigor on the side of the Allies, the German Commanders intensified their bombardment of the town. The Americans were bombed by the Luftwaffe and shelled by the Panzer tanks, and the number of casualties would later make it one of the bloodiest sites of the war. Hoping to force the Americans into surrender so as to commit their forces elsewhere, the German Commander issued an ultimatum demanding the unconditional surrender of the American Forces at Bastogne. An American Colonel, General Anthony McAuliffe delivered their response, one word written on a piece of paper: "Nuts." The German Commander didn't understand. "It means you can go to hell," explained the Colonel.
The meeting continued on along on the same motif, with the German Commander vowing to destroy all Americans and the American Colonel vowing to destroy all Germans. At one point, the German Commander considered shooting the Colonel, but, deciding to abide by the international rules of engagement he wisely restrained himself.
Meanwhile, General Patton continued his advance toward Bastogne from the South. He realized that air support would be necessary, but up to that point there had been few days with enough sun to organize sorties. The Allies had taken advantage of a clear day by bombing the Panzer tanks from the air and dropping supplies to the ground forces, but the Germans were solidly entrenched around Bastogne. Patton sent word for his Chaplain to meet him in his quarters. Patton ordered the Chaplain to offer a prayer to God for clear skies for the sake of victory. Though there are a number of versions of the actual prayer, the Chaplain's final draft was something to the effect of the following:
Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.
Copies of the prayer were sent out to all of the soldiers in Patton's Army between 12-14 December. Nine days later, the weather conditions began to improve. Allied fighters bombarded the German supply lines, and a team of volunteer surgeons flew in by glider aircraft. P-47 Thunderbolts also began attacking German troops on open roads. British units supported by American units to the West were holding the bridges at Givet and Namur, closing the gap between the Allied lines and Bastogne once again. By 24th, German armored tank divisions were effectively repelled in the Meuse. Two days later, Company D, 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment of the 4th Armored Division broke through German lines and established a supply corridor to Bastogne.
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