"Nuts"
The greatest line ever delivered by ANY American officer.
Sixty years ago today three German armies totaling a half million men caught advancing U.S. forces in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg by surprise and initiated the events that resulted in the Battle of the Bulge.
Thanks to the unbelievable endurance, bravery and sacrifice of the American forces who slowed the German advance sufficiently for General Patton to bring the Third Army to bear, the Battle of the Bulge was Hitler's last gasp.
The German call for the surrender of the surrounded American forces under General McAuliffe's command at Bastogne resulted in General McAuliffe's immortal, untranslatable response. "If you don't understand what 'Nuts!' means," Colonel Joseph Harper explained to his mystified German interlocutors, "in plain English it is the same as 'Go to hell.' And I will tell you something else; if you continue to attack, we will kill every goddamn German that tries to break into this city."
Actually that was the second greatest line, the first comment is unprintable in a public forum and was also 4 letters long with and s and t in it also.