BASTOGNE - THE SEVEN ROADS TO HELL

 

Bastogne was where some of the most vicious fighting took place during the Battle of the Bulge.

When Eisenhower and his staff realized the gravity of the German offensive in the Ardennes their attention was immediately focused on the small town of Bastogne as there were seven roads leading towards it and it was also a railhead for the area. An excellent account has been written by an ex member of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment called The Seven Roads to Hell.

General Troy Middleton commanded the troops in the area and he ordered his men to defend the roads into Bastogne. Teams were sent out to set up roadblocks and they took the full brunt of the German offensive. Heavily outnumbered and outgunned they fought tenaciously and took heavily losses. They conducted strategic retreats setting up new defensive points until they were completely overwhelmed and the survivors withdrew to Bastogne. Nevertheless enough time had been bought for reinforcements to come in. Middleton set up a perimeter defense around Bastogne as they were completely surrounded by Germans

Eisenhower sent 101st and 105th Airborne (Screaming Eagles) under General Tony McAuliffe to relieve the defenders. This unit had been very successful in Normandy and were highly trained and motivated but had just begun a period of R&R (rest and refitting) after Montgomery’s failed assault at Arnhem (A Bridge Too Far) – they had only gotten 3 days of relation and no refitting of equipment and uniforms

As Middleton’s units had borne the brunt of the surprise attack by the Germans those that survived were withdrawn as they were completely battle shocked and were unable to continue fighting.

McAuliffe assumed command of Bastogne and set up perimeter defences as far out as feasibly possible to try and hold the German assaults. These units came under continuous and vicious artillery, armoured and infantry attacks but they fought back tenaciously. Often they were forced into making strategic withdrawals from their forward positions and to reestablish new ones closer to Bastogne.

Eventually Bastogne was completely cut off and under siege. Fuel, ammunition, medical suppliers and other privations had to be rationed. The weather was atrocious and no supplies could be air dropped to them.

At this point the Germans believed that they had Bastogne in their hands. An emissary was sent by the German commander with a written note demanding that unless the Americans surrendered they would be annihilated. McAuliffe wrote a simple reply “NUTS”. It needed an American soldier to explain to the German officer that what McAuliffe meant was “GO TO HELL”.

 

The Germans promptly launched aerial and artillery assaults on the town and then resumed their armoured and infantry offensive. The Americans were cut off from the outside, had the inclement weather against them, were outnumbered by 3 to 1 and were heavily outgunned but they still managed to hold off all the attacks. They were also encouraged by the knowledge that General Patton was bringing up his 3rd Army to assist them.

Fortunately at the critical point the weather broke and clear skies prevailed. The US Airforce could drop supplies into the town and American fighters and bombers attacked the German ground forces.

Eventually the Germans called off their offensive and retreated to the east.

The “Battled Bloody Bastards of the Bastion of Bastogne” had won the day but at a terrible cost – 75% of the 506th PIR had either been killed, wounded or missing in action.

We visited the area north of Foy in which the famous Band of Brothers defended a position in the woods. We walked through the woods and saw that many of their fox holes still exist and can be easily identified.

 

 

 

 

 

These soldiers fought for over a week under equipped, in summer uniforms where the temperature was -10 degrees celcius, no hot meals, no showers and almost no sleep. They were frozen to the bone, suffered from frostbite, trenchfoot and trenchmouth. At times the fighting became so vicious that hand to hand combat took place where soldiers were stabbing and bayoneting each other, sometimes even using their helmets as battering instruments. It was literally hell on earth.

There is an extremely impressive memorial to the US forces at Bastogne. Across the top is displayed the names of all the American States. Next to it is an excellent museum.

 

 

We also visited the German Military Cemetery near Foy at Recogny where some 6,000 German soldiers are buried. From there we proceeded to Houffalize where heavy fighting took place.

 

To those of you who believe that the Americans only come in at the end of a war and steal the glory, forget it – the Battle of the Bulge was won by brave American troops fighting against a larger and far better equipped army. They were the heroes of this battle and all credit is due to them.

FOLLOWING THE TRAIL OF KAMPFGRUPPE PEIPER

FOLLOWING THE TRAIL OF KAMPGRUPPE PEIPER


Battle historians have pinpointed the route followed by Kampfgruppe Peiper’s offensive in the Battle of the Bulge so we were able to follow it quite easily.


Jochem Peiper





Peiper’s group were members of the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, a crack group of Waffen SS soldiers who had sworn allegiance to Hitler. They had fought together on the Russian front and had gained the notorious title of “the blowtorch brigade” as they ruthlessly eliminated enemy forces without mercy.

They were chosen to lead the centre “rollbahn” under overall command of General Sepp Dietrich who was one of Hitler’s most trusted officers. Their objective was to penetrate the Ardennes through to the River Meuse and there to await further instructions for the attack on Antwerp.

The battle group was made up of 6,000 well equipped troops and 1,800 vehicles but they were short of fuel – their success very much depended on their capturing American fuel depots.

The group entered the Ardennes at Losheim in Germany and from there proceeded first to Lanzerath and then to Modderscheid where he set up a temporary assembly point at the Cafe Scholzen, which is now the Calypso Night Club

 

 

After passing through Bucholz where they managed to overun an American fuel depot the group entered Hornsfeld in Belgium. At the building now known as the Eifelerhof Guesthouse they kept a number of American prisoners of war in detention until sending them back to Lanzerath

 

 

In Honsfeld they also murdered a number of American prisoners of war and in a particular incident they refused to let American POWs remove the bodies of three of their dead comrades from the road near a water trough – the bodies were flattened when the remaining vehicles, including tanks, rode over them.

 

 

Advancing further they passed through the towns of Bullingen, Odenval and Thirimont until they reached the crossroads to Malmedy at Baugnez where the terrible massacre described in the previous posting occurred.

The Gruppe reached the village of Ligneuville where Brigadier Edward Timberlake's anti-aircraft brigade had set up its headquarters at the Hotel du Moulin. Timberlake and his staff managed to evacuate the building in the nick of time thereby avoiding capture.

 

The convoy proceeded to Stavelot negotiating winding and steep roads which were completely unsuitable for tank warfare. Here they began to meet with strong opposition. American combat engineers blew up the bridge crossing the Ambleve River after part of the convoy had passed through.

The group then proceeded to Trois Points and again bridges were blown and American armour and artillery reinforcements opposed them. The weather also started clearing and Peiper’s group was attacked by fighter bombers.

Most of the group reached La Gleize and then tried to secure the bridge at Stoumont but again the American engineers blew them up. Just after Targon they attempted to go to Werbimont along a steep and narrow road. The Americans by this time were closing the pocket and attacked the group with artillery and aircraft – Peiper was forced to return to La Gleize and for several days attempted to hold off the American forces.

However, his fuel and ammunition were running out and the Americans had cut off his supply lines from the east. Peiper realized that the battle was lost. Leaving a small rearguard to deceive the American that they were still holding their position and to destroy their remaining tanks, Peiper led 800 of his men by foot through a narrow lane onto a footbridge crossing the Ambleve. After a 2 day trek through snow and forests, with little food, all 800 men reached their own lines 40 hours later – a credit to the leadership of Peiper.

The entry point to the footbridge where the group escaped on foot

 

At La Gleize there is an excellent museum with diaramas of battle scenes as well as displays of German and American weapons, uniforms and equipment. A movie is also shown of Peiper’s offensive.

Note the totdenkopf (Death's Head) insignia on the uniform of the Waffen SS trooper below

 

 

Outside the museum there stands a perfectly restored King Tiger with its 88mm canon – this tank experienced mechanical failure at La Gleize and was left there. This machine is awesome – all 69 tons of it! It outclassed all the allied tanks with its 6” armour and its effective firing range of 2 kilometers against that of 700 meters of its opponents – it was a real mother!

If you want to know more about Peiper you can click him at the following address:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Peiper

THE MALMEDY MASSACRE

We are now in Belgium and staying at a beautiful resort called Le Val d’Arimont a few miles away from the town of Malmedy. The resort is in the Ardennes forest, has a small river flowing by and its difficult to believe that such vicious fighting took place here 56 years ago a few kilometers away from the centre of Malmedy.

It was here at Baugnez, at the crossroad to Ligneuville, that an element of Kampfgruppe Peiper massacred some 130 American Artillery GI prisoners of war in a field – this was to become known as the Malmedy Massacre. The field stands vacant to this day and a memorial to the soldiers has been erected nearby.

 

 

 

Below are photos of the field in which the American prisoners of war were executed

 

 

 

After the war Peiper and about 40 of his men were tried at Dachau for war crimes pertaining specifically to this action. Although it could never be proved that Peiper had given the order for the massacre, nor was he at the scene at the time it when it happened, he was considered to be the person in charge of the unit and was sentenced to death. However, on appealing the case, the death sentence was commuted to a prison term and he was released in 1956. After several years of working for Porsche he went to live in a small town in France where he freelanced as a journalist for motoring magazines. On Bastille Day in 1976 his house was firebombed by ex members of the Maquis and he died in the blaze.

We went to visit the museum near the site which was opened only 2 years ago. This is an excellent museum and has many dioramas of the Battle of the Bulge, with the emphasis on the German troops and their equipment. Excellent light and sound presentations are to be seen there. Afterwards a film is shown which fully explains the battle and how it was fought.

At the museum a diarama has been built recreating the massacre

 

and there is a photograph of the bodies being exhumed by the American forces a month later after the Battle of the Bulge

 

CHARLOTTE'S IMPRESSIONS OF THE NORMANDY TRIP

Before I came on this tour, I thought it would be a trip that could only be appreciated from a man’s perspective.

Although there are lots of men visiting the battle sites of Normandy, there are also many couples and of course schoolchildren in their hundreds. Because of the great interest shown by the Americans and British visitors, the most important sites have been made very user friendly and interesting for both men as well as women. The museums have movies that recreate the battle scenes so that you feel like you were actually there. One especially good movie that I enjoyed is the 360° cinema at Arromanches where you feel like you are flying, sailing or driving through the area in 1944 and then again as it is now. I could compare what it felt like to the soldier and what it looks like now.

The tour through the underground German bunkers at Azzerville enabled me to see the war from the German perspective. The sound and light show in a bunker at the Merville Battery helped me feel what it was like to live through the noise of the bombing and shelling [louder than Dennis playing Private Ryan on his sound system!]. All these tourist-directed sites made it very interesting for me and not just a tour through dry museums and cemeteries. The stories of heroism by the soldiers, resistance fighters and local residents make for spell-binding listening.

The beautiful countryside that is very green at the moment with idyllic pastoral scenes of cows and sheep and the lovely little villages with their rose gardens belie the images of destruction that I saw on old photographs and movies.

The American and British tourists are welcomed everywhere with signs of welcome to ‘the Liberators’ despite the way their homes were completely destroyed. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor Frenchmen who had to endure so much. The number of graves in the cemeteries, both Allies and German, are heart wrenching as it made me realize the number of soldiers who died and all in the 19 and 20 age groups –so young!

DENNIS'S IMPRESSIONS OF THE NORMANDY TOUR

One of the longest wishes of my life has now been fulfilled – to visit the beaches and areas where the allies invaded fortress Europe in 1944

Did the trip meet my expectation? A definite thumbs up!

Names that I had heard about – Arromanches, Bayeaux, St Mere Eglise, Omaha Beach, Pegasus Bridge – now have a definite meaning to them

The Normandy Invasion of ’44 was one of the major events of the 20th century and its logistical scale remains to this day the largest in history. What I have written in my blog is but a miniscule of all the incidents which took place.

One is saddened by the massive loss of life and the destruction which took place here some 66 years ago. Whole towns and villages were destroyed, their inhabitants the collateral victims of war.

Fortunately the French nation’s resolve to rebuild and reestablish their towns and communities have proved fruitful. Today the area is as beautiful as ever, tourists abound, factories produce and agriculture thrives. After what they endured they deserve it all.

Although Operation Overlord was hugely successful I do believe that mistakes were made which could possibly have shortened the war, the main one being Eisenhower’s refusal to heed Patton’s advice to enclose the Falaise Gap more vigorously, thereby allowing a large portion of their army to escape over the Seine and the Rhine to fight another day. I also believe that Montgomery was more of a prima donna than a general – his failures at Caen cost the British, Canadian and Polish soldiers, not to mention French
civilians, many lives.

I believe that the American army was well led by Bradley and the quality of his commanders was superb, especially Patton.

All credit must go to the Allied troops and their field officers whose bravery and perseverance in the most terrible of conditions won the day. All free men owe them a debt that can never be repaid - by honouring and remembering them is all we can do. These young men offered up their lives, many making the supreme sacrifice, in helping to destroy the Nazi scourge.

Whatever we might think of the Nazis and the German’s there is no doubt that their soldiers were brave men and excellent fighters. They too gave up their lives for a maniacal fanatic who only wished to pursue his own evil policies.

Most of the French population resisted the Nazis either covertly or overtly. The Maquis and other resistance organizations consisted of extremely brave men and women who risked their lives in the struggle to liberate their fellow citizens.

I am very grateful that I have been privileged to make this trip



N.B. WE ARE LEAVING FOR BELGIUM TOMORROW SO I WILL NOT BE BLOGGING FOR THE NEXT 2 DAYS OR SO

BAYEAUX MILITARY CEMETERY

The British Cemetery in Bayeaux is the repository of the remains of some 5,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers and was the main burial place of British troops who lost their lives in Normandy

There are Polish graves and 150 German soldiers are also buried here

 

 

 

 

BAYEUX NORMANDY MUSEUM