Awesome......
I honestly can’t imagine what a flight of 2,000 airplanes tactical/strategic would look like.
I know when the weather broke we threw every air frame in theater into the fight. To actually see what that must have looked like, well, I suppose religious might be an apt emotion.
Not that I have much sympathy for the Germans of the era but just imagine how their blood ran cold seeing the same thing.
The goal of the attack was to recapture Antwerp. The problem, for the Germans, is that I fail to see how succeeding at this would have made much of a difference in the course of the war.
All of this was very minor compared to the mistakes that the Nazis made with their ludicrous plan that destroyed the German Army. Hitler did what Eisenhower, Bradley, and Montgomery had been trying to do: shorten the war by six months.
A friend of mine’s dad was a weather guesser during the war and he received the Bronze Star for delivering the forecast that correctly called for clearing skies so that the air assault could proceed.
In 1968 or 1969, while I was in the Navy in the Philippines, I experienced the most religious moment of my life when I visited the American Cemetery in Manila and looked out on the sea of graves, most bearing the name “Known but to God.”
The main goal was to capture huge stores of supplies both at Antwerp and many other storage sites. The Germans really needed them.
Peiper himself credited combat engineers for stopping him. they also blew up supply dumps just before the Germans got to them.
Sort of hard to believe, the Germans surrered less casualties than the allies.
Also it was not just Americans in the battle. Field Marshall Montgomery was given ground command of all allied forces for the duration of the battle.
My dad is 90, and arrived in Europe just after the Battle, and took part in the mopping- up efforts in Germany and Belgium. Had he been drafted a few months earlier, who knows? His abiding memory was the heavy snow and bitter cold of the winter of ‘44-’45.
Battleground(1949) is a movie I watch every year. It tells the story of the Battle of the Bulge.
If Hollywood wants to do remakes of movies they should do some of the 1940s war movies.
BOOKMARK
A moment in time forever remembered—now shared with many.
Thanks.
The order was later commuted because of efforts by both governments to move past the war,
Politicians are too often politicians FIRST before they are Men or Americans.