{"id":120998,"date":"2021-12-25T20:02:06","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T01:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=120998"},"modified":"2021-12-25T20:02:06","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T01:02:06","slug":"christmas-in-bastogne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=120998","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in Bastogne"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Poetrooper, being a veteran of the 101st Airborne Division, wanted to remind us of the Christmas in Belgium, 1944, where they earned the nickname “The Battered Bastards of Bastogne.” This was the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s last ground offensive of WWII, and caught the 101st Airborne behind enemy lines and cut off for days, without food, water, medical supplies, enough ammunition, and without even cold weather gear. In the harshest winter in the region in a generation.<\/p>\n

In this, the German commander offered his counterpart in Bastogne the option of surrender. Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, who normally commanded the division’s field artillery, was in temporary command of the division at the time of the start of the battle. When presented with the option of surrender, McAuliffe, much like Major Whittlesly<\/a> in the prior World War (also surrounded by Germans in the same forests, told them to pack sand. He did so in the simplest, more memorable ways possible. He told his men of his response in the above shown letter.<\/p>\n

Here’s the text of the letter;<\/p>\n

\n

MERRY CHRISTMAS<\/p>\n

HEADQUARTERS 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION
\nOffice of the Division Commander<\/p>\n

24 December 1944<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 What\u2019s Merry about all this, you ask? We\u2019re fighting \u2014 it\u2019s cold, we aren\u2019t home. All true but what has the proud Eagle Division accomplished with its worthy comrades the 10th Armored Division, the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion and all the rest? Just this: We have stopped cold everything that has been thrown at us from the North, East, South and West. We have identifications from four German Panzer Divisions, two German Infantry Divisions and one German Parachute Division. These units, spearheading the last desperate German lunge, were headed straight west for key points when the Eagle Division was hurriedly ordered to stem the advance. How effectively this was done will be written in history; not alone in our Division\u2019s glorious history but in World history. The Germans actually did surround us, their radios blared our doom. Their Commander demanded our surrender in the following imprudent arrogance:<\/p>\n

December 22nd 1944<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the U. S. A. Commander of the encircled town of Bastogne.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The fortune of war is changing. This time the U. S. A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. More German armored units have crossed the river Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing through Hompres-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont is in German hands.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0There is only one possibility to save the encircled U. S. A. Troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town. In order to think it over a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0If this proposal should be rejected the German Artillery Corps and six heavy A. A. Battalions are ready to annihilate the U. S. A. Troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two hour\u2019s term.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 All the serious civilian losses caused by this Artillery fire would not correspond with the well known American humanity.<\/p>\n

The German Commander\u201d<\/p>\n

The German Commander received the following reply:<\/p>\n

22 December 1944<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the German Commander:<\/p>\n

N<\/span> U<\/span> T<\/span> S<\/span>\u00a0!<\/span><\/p>\n

The American Commander\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Allied Troops are counterattacking in force. We continue to hold Bastogne. By holding Bastogne we assure the success of the Allied Armies. We know that our Division Commander, General Taylor, will say: \u201cWell Done!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0We are giving our country and our loved ones at home a worthy Christmas present and being privileged to take part in this gallant feat of arms are truly making for ourselves a Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n

\/s\/ A. C. McAULIFFE
\n\/t\/ McAULIFFE
\nCommanding.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When the US officer delivered the message to the Germans, the receiving officer asked what “Nuts!” meant. “In plain English?” He said, “Go to hell.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poetrooper, being a veteran of the 101st Airborne Division, wanted to remind us of the Christmas … Christmas in Bastogne<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,10,121,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-historical","category-war-stories","category-we-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121000,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120998\/revisions\/121000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}