Hitler's Third Reich and World War II in the News is a daily edited review of WWII news, providing thought-provoking collection of hand-picked WW2 information.

WW2 category: Battle of Bulge: Ardennes offensive  -- See latest WWII news here. See also 'D-Day tours', 'WW2 Tanks: Military Vehicles', 'WWII Tours', 'Battle of Iwo Jima Facts', 'Battle of Okinawa', 'Medal of Honor: Most Decorated Soldiers', 'WWII-era Jeeps', 'Bastogne'.

WWII POW recalls capture in Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge     floridabaptistwitness.com :: 2009-11-04
"Is this it?" Joseph Plappert recalls thinking. He had received word that the Germans were coming and they would need to fortify their position in the Ardennes Forest. He dug furiously into the frozen ground while another soldier guarded the road with a bazooka. "Run, run, the Germans are right behind me and they're coming down," another soldier yelled, jumping out of his jeep. Plappert watched as a shell exploded the jeep. He dropped his shovel, looked at the foxhole, realizing it wasn't going to hold him, and then dove for a nearby hedge. "I lay quietly in the winter snow... I was watching intently as German Colonel Peiper's armored Panzer tanks rolled down the road."    

Battle of the Bulge still chills surviving members of veterans group     cleveland.com :: 2009-05-17
Once more they stand as best they can, as they did during one of the bloodiest battles in American military history. But now, instead of facing snowy death in the Ardennes Forest they combat the years that have devastated their ranks. And the meeting of Chapter 36 of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, or VBOB, comes to order. There are a few funny war stories: David Bottiggi was standing guard when he saw figures in white camouflage (worn by both sides) marching in the snow. Making sure that a buddy had him covered he shouted the challenge and got the right password. "I later found out that the fellow covering me didn't have any ammo in his rifle."    

U.S. Army lieutenant James V. Borgia faced the German panzers     connpost.com :: 2009-03-01
James V. Borgia was acting commander (334th Infantry Regiment, 84th Division) on Jan. 23, 1945 - and all he knew was that his regiment had to secure the area while making its way to Beho. The village had been occupied by the Nazis in 1941, and freed by the American GIs in 1944. The Nazis, however, were able to recapture it again. "Halt," yelled a German soldier, who didn't wait before firing a few shots. "I could feel the heat of the bullets fly by my head." Borgia, then noticed 3 large German tanks, and rallied his troops to the farmhouse. "The Germans tried to shell us with their tanks and artillery. But the stone farm structures were too thick."    

WWII officer Harry W.O. Kinnard suggested the reply "nuts" to Germans     nytimes.com :: 2009-01-13
Harry W.O. Kinnard, who suggested the famous answer "Nuts!" to a Nazi demand for surrender during the 1944 Battle of the Bulge, has passed away. Kinnard, who graduated from West Point in 1939 and spent 30 years in military uniform, was one of the men behind the Army's concept of helicopter use in Vietnam. He parachuted into Normandy on D-Day with the 101st Airborne Division. When Hitler launched an offensive in Dec. 1944, the 101st took over Bastogne road junctions and was soon encircled. When demanded to surrender Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe remarked "Us surrender? Aw, nuts" and then wondered how he should reply. Kinnard suggested: "what you just said... nuts."     [Airborne - Paratroopers of 101st and other divisions]

A M4 Sherman tank confirmed to be the "Cobra King" - The first tank to reach Bastogne     stripes.com :: 2008-12-27
A WWII-era M4 Sherman tank on display at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany has been confirmed to be the "Cobra King," the first tank to reach encircled American troops holding Bastogne. U.S. Army officials announced the discovery, timed to co-occur with the Dec. 26, 1944, anniversary of the Company C, 37th Tank Battalion's famed arrival in Bastogne. The tank was id'ed by serial and registration numbers. Officially designated as an M4A3E2 Assault Tank, the Sherman "Jumbo" was built in mid-1944 at the Detroit Tank Arsenal. Only 254 of the tanks were built.     [American Tanks]

Battle of the Bulge: We could see the Germans and their tanks     mcall.com :: 2008-12-26
Donald W. Burdick landed in France in July 1944 with a field artillery observation battalion. 5 months later his unit was in Luxembourg when the Germans attacked and the Battle of the Bulge began. On Dec. 16, we heard a rattling of cans. The cooks from the 28th Infantry Division were coming toward us with all the equipment they had - mess kits. They had been crushed by a Panzer division. I don't think they were with us more than 20 minutes when the order came: Pack up everything on trucks as quick as you can and get out of there. That's exactly what we did. We just kept going and going and going. On the 19th we got into Bastogne. And we were surrounded.     [Battle of Bulge: Ardennes offensive]

The Battle of the Bulge veterans recall the survival     pittsburghlive.com :: 2008-12-15
Jim Herrington, a member of the 101st Airborne Division, said the things that stick most in his mind are the "massive" numbers of German soldiers who poured through the Ardennes Forest. He was pinned down in Bastogne, where from Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe issued his famous reply to a demand to surrender: "Nuts." Harry McCrackin, a medic in the 99th Infantry Division, says the cold was nearly as bad an enemy as the Nazis. The cold and the grind of siege warfare drove many men over the edge and soldiers succumbed to mental exhaustion and breakdowns. "I saw one sergeant... walking back and forth, walking back and forth. He was gone."    

Medal of Honor hero Jose Lopez - Facing German Tiger tank     themonitor :: 2008-05-26
On Dec. 16, 1944, the Wehrmacht started its last major attack, the Ardennes offensive, hoping to divide the American and British armies. Fate had placed Jose Lopez in the centre of history. In the morning, he heard the rumbling of a diesel engine. "Jose was horrified; it was a tank - a German tank - and not just a normal tank - it was a German Tiger tank. Initially, Jose was frozen in fear... He thought about his 38 buddies a quarter mile further down the road. He also thought about his wife and two children... Manning a machine gun, Lopez gunned down 10 advancing Germans behind the Tiger tank..."     [Medal of Honor - Stories of the most decorated Heroes]

WWII veteran Richard S. McMenemy recalls Battle of the Bulge     billingsgazette :: 2007-12-17
McMenemy was a second lieutenant commanding a section of mortar in D Company, 1st Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Division. On June 21, 1944 - "D plus 14" - he landed on Utah Beach, and by the time he marched to the Battle of the Bulge, he was a 6-month veteran of fighting, with a Silver Star. Inside one duplex he set about getting a fix on his location when the building rocked under an explosion. An American Grant tank had fired a 75mm shell into the back duplex. McMenemy, shaken but unhurt, did a quick search. He opened the door to the basement and discovered 20 German civilians, all unharmed. "Things like that are unpredictable as hell."    

Touring Ardennes battlefield - Foxholes of the 101st Airborne     zwire :: 2007-11-08
Having traveled to Pearl Harbor and Normandy, my wife and I were eager to visit Bastogne... After D-Day landing on June 6, 1944, Allied soldiers broke through the defenses and sped across France, and headed for the Rhine River in Nazi Germany. For the military, moving at such a rapid pace caused major problems, because supplies could not reach the men quickly enough. To relieve this problem Allied commanders set up 'The Red Ball Express', a truck transport system made up of black drivers. The Germans, realizing their situation, withdrew to West Wall, or Siegfried Line, a defense system with 18,000 bunkers, tunnels and tank traps built 1938-1940.     [WW2 Tours - History and Battlefields]

Infantry officer Jim Love led his unit through the Battle of the Bulge     dailypress :: 2007-09-24
Jim Love, on D-Day: "I could see the beach, Omaha Beach. Then the ship turned to the right, headed toward Utah Beach. I ran up on the bridge, and the captain was drunk." The company had lost their place in line to land. ... On Dec. 17, before Love's anti-tank company could get into a tactical position, "we were attacked. It was dark, very terrifying." The next morning the tank attack resumed. Love said he "saw this German tank ... 50 yards away. He wasn't shooting." Love walked the U.S. tank into position, where it knocked out the German tank. "Unbeknownst to me, there was another tank behind me, shooting at me with his machine gun. He bounced a round off of my helmet."     [Battle of Bulge: Ardennes offensive]

Quiet refuge became combat zone - The Ardennes Offensive     pennlive :: 2007-05-29
On Dec. 15 1944, Frank Kusnir Jr.'s unit was stationed at a castle in Clervaux, in what was supposed to be a quiet sector. In truth, Clervaux was a target, one of the spots where the Germans were preparing to launch the offensive that came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge. "All of the sudden, a couple of shells came in. Then more and more came. We said, 'There's got to be something up.'" Something was up. Swarms of German Waffen-SS troopers, supported by Tiger tanks, poured out of the forest and charged the castle while big guns pounded it to rubble. "We could have gotten out, but our orders were to hold at all costs."    

Xmas at the Battle of the Bulge 1944 -- 11 Days in December     philly :: 2007-02-16
Leave it to General George Patton to capture the true meaning of the season: "A clear cold Christmas, lovely weather for killing Germans." With 11 Days in December, Stanley Weintraub takes us to the end of 1944 when the triumph of the Allies seemed a foregone conclusion to everyone but Adolf Hitler. It is the bold-face names who make the most impact, and not just generals like Bernard Montgomery and Patton. Also popping up are the war correspondent Ernest Hemingway, fighting a terminal hangover; David Niven, who had a hard time convincing the American soldiers that he was David Niven; and Marlene Dietrich on a USO tour.    

Waffen-SS firing squad in Battle of the Bulge: Malmedy Massacre     newsadvance :: 2006-10-12
During the Battle of the Bulge, Staff Sgt. Bill Merriken and more than 100 American soldiers were captured by German Waffen-SS troops and moved into a field, where German officer Maj. Werner Poetschke waved two battle tanks into position in front of the Americans, and gave the order for the machine gunners aboard the tanks to open fire. Merriken, in the front row, was hit twice as machine gun fire raked across the fallen men. A German tried to took his ring, but his finger was too swollen from the cold. "I was afraid they were going to try to cut it off, but instead, they fired a shot into my right knee."    

Firsthand account of Battle of the Bulge     townonline :: 2006-09-14
The Battle of the Bulge, fought in the winter of 1944-45, was the largest U.S. land battle of World War II, says US Army Center of Military History. The battle began on Dec. 16, when more than 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 battle tanks launched Hitler's last effort to reverse the ebb in his fortunes that had begun in Normandy on D-Day. After the first day of fighting, the German spearheads broke through the Allied front. The U.S. First Army was ordered to withdraw - all except a dozen men who were in charge of General Omar Bradley's communications. Richard Brewster told "We were ordered to stay there and keep transmitting until we were overrun."    

US attempt to stop Waffen-SS panzers in the front lines of Algers     townonline :: 2006-07-14
In 1945, when the US Army sent 5 units to Algers to stop the heavily armed German attack by the Waffen-SS. Corporal Molinari stood with his fellow infantrymen as they starred down German panzers and high powered rifles. "It was a sacrifice. They knew the Germans were far more powerful, but they wanted to put us up there to see what they had. I can remember seeing a tank and my lieutenant yelling to me 'Mo, get the bazooka!' I thought 'What the hell is he gonna do with this?' He fired it at the tank and wouldn't you know it, the damn thing just bounced right off that tread. That's what kind of battle we were up against." US army lost over 10,000 men that day.    

The letters US soldiers forgot in the heat of battle     telegraph.co.uk :: 2006-04-23
They have lain unopened in a horse manger in a forgotten part of the Belgian countryside for more than 60 years. But now, a set of well-preserved letters, prayer books and cartoons abandoned by American troops days before the Battle of the Bulge have been discovered. The items were left between Oct and Dec 1944, just before Germany launched its final offensive of the war. Soldiers of the US Army's 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment of the First Infantry Division were resting in farmhouses in Belgium close to the German border. On Dec 16, they were called to the front line for one of the bloodiest encounters of the war.    

D-Day invasion and Battle of the Bulge - 10 medals 60 years later     suburbanchicagonews :: 2006-03-25
Article no longer available from the original source.
Leslie Harris parachuted through a hail of bullets in the morning darkness of D-Day - the pivotal invasion of France in WWII. The American soldier landed in an irrigation canal, found his Army regiment, and went on to fight for the liberation of France from Nazi Germany. Then came the invasion jump into Holland, where Harris was wounded by shrapnel. Then came the Battle of the Bulge. And then came a wait, nearly six decades long, for his medals. On Thursday Harris finally received 10 medals and awards for his service in WWII.    

Americans during Battle of the Bulge: "We figured we'd end up in the North Atlantic"     muscatinejournal :: 2006-03-23
A 358-foot-long barge docked at the port of Antwerp, after dodging torpedoes 60 days across the stormy ocean. But Barton Smithey and Glen Alleman Jr. didn't think they would be staying in Antwerp for long. On Dec. 16, 1944 - just a week earlier, Adolf Hitler had thrown the last of his armed forces into a last-gasp battle. At the start of the surprise attack, dozens of U.S. Army units were pushed back west to the English Channel by German panzer tank battalions. At the time, in the midst of confusion, panic and the fog of war, there was no relief in sight. "We just figured we'd end up in the North Atlantic," Smithy said. Alleman nodded his head silently in agreement.    

Battle of the Bulge Remembered 60 Years Later     defenselink :: 2004-12-26
Full week of events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. 1944 Allied and German forces faced off in the Battle of the Ardennes, more commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge. It proved to be one of the largest and bloodiest battles of WWII - one that demonstrated the resolve of the U.S. Army despite being outnumbered and faced with difficult circumstances. In the winter of 1944, Germany was losing the war. The Allies had invaded France in June and were driving the Germans east. But Adolf Hitler, not about to accept his fate, had directed an ambitious counteroffensive as a desperate, last-ditch effort to halt the Allied advance.    

See also:
'D-Day tours'
'WW2 Tanks: Military Vehicles'
'WWII Tours'
'Battle of Iwo Jima Facts'
'Battle of Okinawa'
'Medal of Honor: Most Decorated Soldiers'
'WWII-era Jeeps'
'Bastogne'.

Although the articles linked from Adolf Hitler's Third Reich 1933-1945 and World War II in the News are reviewed and specially selected, they do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, who is not responsible for the content of any external sites. This service is © Joni Nuutinen 2005-2009. All rights reserved.