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This writer's attempt to discuss The Battle of the Bulge, seventy five years hence. Particular interest is given to the first three days. After that, well... let's see how it goes. Thank you to all who take an interest, and who choose to post. Much edifying information has been posted to the Prologue and Day 1 threads.

The Bulge, Day One, December 16th, 1944.

Inspired by Homer Simpson's historical works from newspaper archives, this is a brief recollection of the opening days of The Battle of the Bulge, particularly the first three days of it. I will be doing this as my work schedule and time permit, so I apologize in advance that it will not be up to the same editorial standards as Homer's previous, well-known work here at FR.The intent of it is to examine the chronology of certain events leading up to the legendary defense of the crossroads city of Bastogne, Belgium by the 101st Airborne division and other elements of...

December 15, 1944. All is mostly quiet along the western front in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. It's cold, and the nights are dark. So dark that GI Joe, sitting and waiting, can't see his hand in front of his face. Four divisions of the US army are parked at a 75-mile front along the western frontier of Germany. The American commanders believe that the German Wehrmacht is finished and not capable of offensive operations. They either haven't been talking to some of the GI Joes in the front lines, or they aren't taking GI Joe seriously. He has been hearing...

They were called Bob, Harry, Red, Leo, Dick and Mary. They trudged through the jungle on Guadalcanal, waded through mounds of volcanic ash on Iwo Jima, shivered miserably at a place called the Bulge and gave a dying GI life-saving plasma at a hospital in Italy. Some worked in the factories that churned out tanks and planes and fuel barrels 24/7, while others waged war with slide rules and chemistry beakers. They never complained because they knew the task at hand was so important that the future of the world rested in their hands. As Winston Churchill so eloquently put...

There was another column by Professor Beeman of Brown University in the Providence Journal the other day. He often has columns published in the Journal, and they all have the same message regardless of what part of the Middle East he is addressing: we shouldn’t get too upset about the fact that the Islamacists want to kill us because they have some grievances arising out of mistakes made by western powers in the past.

December 15th, 1944: The Bulge begins.

-- snip -- And here's where I have some sympathy with Sandy Berger and his overloaded pants. By his own words, he's guilty of acts that any other American would go to jail for. He "inadvertently" shoved 30-page classified documents down his pants and then "inadvertently" lost them at home and then "inadvertently" returned to the National Archives to "inadvertently" take another draft of the same 30-page document and "inadvertently" lost that, too. He "inadvertently" made forbidden cell phone calls from the room with the classified documents, and he "inadvertently" took more suspicious bathroom breaks while in the Archives than...

46. NSC email, Clarke to Kerrick,“Timeline,”Aug. 19, 1998; Samuel Berger interview (Jan. 14, 2004). We did not find documentation on the after-action review mentioned by Berger. On Vice Chairman Joseph Ralston’s mission in Pakistan, see William Cohen interview (Feb. 5, 2004). For speculation on tipping off the Taliban, see, e.g., Richard Clarke interview (Dec. 18, 2003). And to what does footnote (46) refer? On p. 117, Chapter 4, we find this: Later on August 20, Navy vessels in the Arabian Sea fired their cruise missiles. Though most of them hit their intended targets, neither Bin Ladin nor any other terrorist...