Images from the first days of the Battle of the Bulge, 16 December 1944

[irisblue]

Today is the 81st anniversary of the large scale German offensive of the western front in the Second World War. It was the bloodiest battle ever fought the US Army. The US Army got caught by surprise.



https://www.reddit.com/r/ww2/comments/1po546a/on_this_day_in_history_the_ardennes_offensive/

[Orrex]

1. All those Antifas...

[irisblue]

3. My late father in law is somewhere in these photos & videos, definitely in the snow

[irisblue]

2. You tube video, 1 hr40 min

https://www.youtube.com/live/kFUwSdAU8fE?si=kzvRCoPZ4ml3NT2f

[irisblue]

4. From the National WW2 Museum in NOLA

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/battle-bulge#:~:text=The%20German%20offensive%20was%20initially,The%20Malmedy%20Massacre

[irisblue]

5. I'm planning on posting updates as I learn & see online things I can share over the next 6 weeks

[KitFox]

6. My dad was a battlefield medic in this battle. His unit months later helped liberate

Buchenwald concentration camp. I shudder thinking of the horrors he experienced. He didn’t share any of that with us, rather told us about the resistance villagers that aided them and about getting a travel pass following V E Day to see Salzburg. He stayed in contact by mail and phone over all the years with a number of those he served with. Some came to visit several times. Thank you for posting this. I have a fervent hope that this history will never be ignored or lost.

[irisblue]

7. Thank you for telling us this. Jack was a 22 yr old radioman during this time

When I married into the family in the 80s, I was a new set of ears and asked hundreds of questions over the years. I was reading Stephen Ambroses book , Band of Brothers, in the middle 90s and he found me on the couch with it. His face changed on seeing it.

[Tactical Peek]

8. My dad was a U.S. Army infantry sergeant in that one.

He told us that the night before it kicked off, his platoon was on patrol in the forest and they heard the sounds of German tanks in the distance every now and then turning on their tank engines and running them a few minutes then turning them off due to sub-freezing weather. Then he heard their mortar plates being hammered into position. He could not see them but could tell it was a large force and he notified it up the line to his HQ. Later all hell broke loose. He still had a scar on his wrist from wood shrapnel from a German artillery airburst in the trees above.

Fuck the Nazis, then and now.

[3Hotdogs]

9. Scouts were reporting that there was an assemblage of German troops and machines.

Those reports were dismissed. Similar to the FBI agent who reported Middle Eastern men taking flying lessons but only being interested in taking off and piloting in the air. They had no interest in learning how to land a plane.

Her concerns were ignored.


Or McChimp, receiving an August '21 briefing that there were communications about a possible attack on the U,S,

"You covered your ass." And then McChimp went on about the business of the day.

[irisblue]

14. Thank you for telling us about your father Tactical Peek

When did he come home?

[Straw Man]

10. My father was in it.

Shrapnel from a shell blast took off one of his fingers and put metal fragments in his back and leg that remained there until the day he died, 70 years and three months later. Those injuries were enough to take him out of the war. He returned home, went to college, got married, raised a family, and lived a full and active life. He was one of the lucky ones.

[irisblue]

15. Thank you for sharing such personal history Straw Man

When & who evacuated him?

[Straw Man]

16. You're welcome.

He got himself to a battlefield aid station on foot. They sent him to the field hospital, and he was evacuated from there to an army hospital in England. That's where the decision was made that he should be demobilized and sent home. It might have been because the missing finger was his right index finger -- the "trigger finger," which is kind of important for an infantryman, but it's more likely that the shrapnel in his back was considered serious because it was close to his spine. Luckily for him, it was stable and didn't cause him any further problems.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. That was fascinating!

I love history, especially the World Wars.
They say necessity is the mother of invention, but it's war. we humans can think of so many ways to kill each other, it's sad.

Thanx for posting!

[BigmanPigman]

12. Patton could be a real ass but he was what the war needed to succeed.

Patton's Finest Hours https://share.google/lV1tPcuOGWjyVvfBH

[irisblue]

13. Captured American soldiersArdennes, December 1944.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryPorn/comments/1podtj5/81_years_ago_today_the_battle_of_the_bulge_began/