New at JPAttitude.com - Honor
Date: November 11th 2009
Honor
It was January 13, 1945, in the Ardennes forests of Belgium. Twenty nine days earlier, German forces under Field Marshall Von Rundstedt had launched a full-scale attack aimed at Antwerp, the principal supply port of the Allied forces, beginning a last-gasp effort by Nazi Germany to avoid total defeat.
The various confrontations resulting from this attack were labeled the “Battle of the Bulge” by American journalists during a Christmas press briefing when they saw the giant salient – bulge – the Germans had created in the Allied lines. Much has been written about the fierce battles for Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, and the incredible sea-to-land invasions of Sicily and Normandy, but the fact is the Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest battle for American forces in World War II. There were 89,500 American casualties, including 19,000 killed and 23,000 missing.
The Germans counted on surprise and Hitler’s belief that the Americans wouldn’t fight. He was wrong. Almost everywhere the Germans went they were held up and sometimes stopped cold by outnumbered American forces, the most famous example being the defenders of Bastogne, where General McAuliffe, when asked to surrender, gave the Germans his famous one-word reply, “NUTS!” (Which the Germans had a hell of a time interpreting.)
(read the rest here: http://www.jpattitude.com/091111.htm)
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