Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire And so it began 75 years ago today

My Uncle landed at Omaha and then was in the Bulge too. He was a truck driver. Said the only time he fired his weapon was at our own troops! Some pogues tried to hijack his load and he stuck his 30 Carbine out the window and discouraged them with a clip full.

From RealClearHistory....

General Patton at the top of his game

https://www.investors.com/news/mana...eral-george-patton-towered-at-the-bulge/

My Mom's brother was there. He was a combat engineer with a roving unit. They went wherever their services were needed. Somehow, they were all over during the battle but never got in a firefight.

Grandfather was in the Bulge. He said when it was started and for a few days no one knew what was going on. They were just surrounded by general disarray with pockets of fighting. He told us it was a several days in before it was realized that it was a major offensive.

One of my dad's childhood buddies was a grunt in the Bulge. Back about 1960, when I was 10, I recall his story of how he hurt his neck while getting shelled. He was in a ditch or hole and shells were landing so close that he was in such a panic that he was jammimg his head up into his helmet against the side of the ditch or hole with all his might. He said; "I was so scared, I tried to crawl into my helmet" Didn't realize his neck hurt until the shelling stopped. His neck hurt for a week after that.

I had another Uncle that crossed the Rhine with Patton. He was too young to have served in the Bulge though. I expect he was still in Basic or AIT. My Dad was slated to go to the Bulge after serving in the Aleutians. He got sick though and they thought he had Leukemia, so he stayed in Texas while the rest of his unit got shipped to the Bulge and most of them died.

One of my mentors was an older gentleman who was a replacement stationed in the Ardennes. He got bad frostbite and was sent to a hospital in the rear. While he was in the hospital, his unit got overrun and everyone, or most everyone, got wiped out in the initial stages of the offensive. He was a quiet, humble man who always took time to assist people and never let stupid stuff bother him. He has been gone for 16 years, and I still miss him.

a friend of mines dad was at the Bulge, he wrote everything done in a memoir and I'm supposed to be getting a opy of it soon. If it's ok with my bud I'll post it here.

That would be a cool read!

My dad jumped with the 17th Airborne in Operation Varsity which was the counter attack to the Battle of Bulge. He was shot twice in 5 days. I never couldn't drag a war story out of him. He would just say "It wasn't much fun and we just did what we were trained to do". I suspect there was a lot more to it than that. ;^)

My Grandfathers youngest brother was killed in the bulge...17 years old.

Imagine what it must have been like to fight the Heer and SS in 41 when they were at full strength.

There were a shadow by 44-45 and suffered greatly in the final years of the war

Yes, German ranks and equipment were somewhat depleted in '44-'45, but the tenacity of the fight in them was not.
Young, green youths and older men were conscripted to defend in the homeland, but what GI's faced in France and Belgium were well trained and battle hardened fighters. No cakewalk for sure.

Father in law was there, may he RIP.