Dec. 16, 2019 – Seventy-five years ago today the small town of Bastogne, Belgium became the epicenter of the last major World War II battle. Surrounded on all sides, Gen. Anthony McAulliffe, the American general in charge of the Allied defense of Bastogne and the Ardennes Forest region, was told by German officers to surrender. He curtly answered: “Nuts!”

A statue in honor of Gen. McAulliffe and an American tank are on display in the town square in Bastogne, a reminder to all visitors of the significant role the city played in bringing an end to WWII. (Photo: Student News Net in Bastogne in 2009)

On Dec. 16, 1944, more than 200,000 German troops and 1,000 tanks launched an offensive to split Allied forces and take control of Antwerp, a port city about 115 miles northwest of Bastogne. To reach Antwerp, Germans had to capture Bastogne as the road to Antwerp went through Bastogne.

Allied troops were in the area initially for rest and recuperation but quickly were called to action when the surprise German offensive was spotted. Gen. Patton’s Third Army raced to Bastogne to reinforce soldiers already there.

Final months of the Liberation of Europe

Following the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion along the Normandy, France coast, Allied troops were making steady progress liberating western Europe from tyranny imposed by Germany and Adolf Hitler.

In 1939 and 1940, Hitler and Nazi Germany invaded many sovereign countries in western Europe and became an occupying force. Hitler’s grand scheme was to create the third German Empire (Third Reich) to rule all of western Europe. After being appointed Germany’s Chancellor in 1933, Hitler imposed tyranny to squash his political opposition. He rose to power as a dictator, not a democratically elected leader. But few could even imagine in 1933 the diabolical, maniacal plan he was fomenting.

From 1940 on, Hitler murdered 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children, in concentration camps in Germany and Poland. Thousands of other political prisoners and those he deemed inferior because of mental or physical disabilities were also murdered.

The Allies (the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and the Soviet Union) had to stop him. At the 1943 Tehran conference attended by Winston Churchill, British prime minister; President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States; and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, the D-Day invasion was approved. It would take place in May or June of 1944.

There was not a back-up plan if D-Day failed. But it was successful.

Paris, France had been liberated two months after D-Day. In September, the Allies fought for Holland in a battle called Operation Market Garden. Allied casualties were high. The offense failed.

Between D-Day and Operation Market Garden, thousands of Allied troops were wounded and killed.

In December, American soldiers were enjoying some much needed rest and relaxation. Even with the failed attempt in Holland, soldiers were talking about the war ending soon as the German war machine was falling apart. Allied planes had attained air superiority and were eliminating Germany’s ability to wage war by destroying munitions factories, railroad tracks, and oil/gas refineries.

Fred Bahlau, D-Day and Battle of the Bulge veteran
In 2009, Student News Net interviewed Fred Bahlau, paratrooper with the 101st Airborne who landed on D-Day and also dropped into Holland during Operation Market Garden. In mid December 1944, he had just arrived in Paris with some buddies for a well deserved leave.

As they were arriving in Paris, suddenly loudspeakers throughout the city instructed all 101st Airborne to prepare to leave for Bastogne, Belgium immediately.

Fred said he didn’t have much gear with him, especially winter gear. And where is Bastogne, he wondered? He had never heard of it.

What followed became the bloodiest battle during the war and Hitler’s final offensive before defeat. According to the U.S. Army, the Americans suffered 75, 000 casualties (killed and wounded) and the Germans suffered between 80,000 and 100,000 casualties.

With little preparation for the battle, Fred and his men dug foxholes in the Ardennes Forest where they would live for the next month. It was a brutally cold winter. In the early days of the battle, food was scarce. Soldiers had a ration of chocolate. Fred said they would break off a piece of chocolate, put it in their mug, add snow and warm it over some twigs they ignited. They did not want to alert Germans to their position so they could not start a large fire.

    A foxhole in the Ardennes as seen in June 2009. (Photo: Student News Net)

With reinforcements from Gen. Patton’s Third Army and Allied air support, the German offensive was defeated. It was now January 1945. Soon it became clear Hitler could not go on.

Hitler killed himself in April 1945. On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered, a day known as Victory in Europe (V-E) Day. From January on, Allied troops liberated thousands of people being held at concentration camps. World War II finally ended in September 1945 when Japan surrendered to the Allies on the USS Missouri, docked near Tokyo, Japan.

In 2013, Student News Net attended a presentation by four Battle of the Bulge veterans.

Many veterans who fought in and survived the Battle of the Bulge had lifelong health consequences from the battle. Fred said living outside during the bitterly cold winter affected his legs for the rest of his life. He was given an extra stipend each month with his VA benefits because of his service during the Battle of the Bulge.

The nation and the world honors those veterans today.