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During WWII a young boy and his mother living in an isolated cabin take in soldiers from the U.S. and Germany on Christmas Eve. The war was nearly over and Fritz's mother insisted that the men come together for the meal.

Charlie McCarthy Show Titled The Night Before Christmas. Original Air Date Was 12/24/1944. This is the "Armed Forces Radio Service" version of the program, minus the original Chase & Sanborn opening, closing and commercials...

A class project where our group took first hand accounts of the men at Bastogne and the Battle of Bulge. Thank you to the service men for their sacrifices and efforts.

AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CLASSICS was inspired by those who nobly served in our country's military services, especially the veterans of World War II.

Travel back to the 1940s and taste the bittersweet experience of wartime Christmas--at the front and on the American home front.

Tried by Fire - Winter battles by 84th Infantry Division in Battle of the Bulge, crossing of the Roer and Rhine, and the desperate race to the Elbe. The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 -- 25 January 1945) was the German offensive campaign launched through the Ardennes forested region of Wallonia in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard and became the costliest battle in terms of casualties for the United States, whose forces bore the brunt of...

World War II Battle of Bastogne Belgium, part of the larger Ardennes Offensive or Battle of the Bulge. Encircled by the German Army the 101st Airborne Division fights to survive in the frigid cold winter weather. C-47 transport planes drop supplies by parachute to the encircled 101st Airborne Division. American troops gather the supplies. Scene of a crashed C-47 on snow covered field. Snow covered tanks. Soldiers in snow covered foxholes and trenches. Tanks on snow covered field firing. Close-up of soldier in foxhole using a field radio. U.S. soldiers firing rifles and machine gun from foxholes. Captured German soldiers...

This two part 1965 film begins with the background of events on Hitler's Ardennes offensive December 1944, with focus on 19 December attack on St. Vith and marking the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. The second part continues with the Battle of the Bulge along with highlights of the U.S. Army's 84th Infantry Division fighting the German Army in World War II, including the penetration of the Siegfried Line in November 1944 and the move into Belgium in December 1944. The film is narrated by actor, Robert Taylor. The Big Picture two episodes produced by the U.S. Army...

By December 23rd holding the line around Bastogne was less of an issue compared to the crisis of dwindling supplies. Not only were troops short on food and medical supplies but ammunition was frighteningly low. Rounds were rationed and soldiers were ordered not to fire unless attacked directly and even then to only fire two rounds. Colonel Thomas L. Sherburn, the artillery commander, was intentionally reporting overestimates of supply levels simply to maintain morale.

A two hour flight later I was in my beloved South, assaulted by humidity and cold. A heavy and constant rain made it difficult to drive my rented Corolla. I expected humidity and hot and I was shivering in my light clothes. The roads were deserted compared to the heavy constant traffic in D.C. Once in a while a solitary car would pass going in the opposite direction. I had the excellent road all to myself. The dense vegetation and trees displayed lovely shades of green. Hanging lavender wisteria formed nature’s intricate draperies. White, pink, and fuchsia azaleas were in...

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...

In a recent article titled “Why Hitler Wished He Was Muslim,” the Wall Street Journal draws our attention to two books that reflect the historical Nazi-Islamic supremacist axis. Given the goings-on in Europe, we thought these to be poignant titles adding necessary context to a continent that appears to be a potential powder-keg. Of Stefan Ihrig’s ”Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination,” the Journal writes: Through the 1920s and 1930s, Nazi publications lauded Turkey as a friend and forerunner. In 1922, for example, the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party’s weekly paper, praised Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the “Father of the Turks,” as...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt loved to keep secrets. He didn't want the public to know he was bound to a wheelchair, so he went to elaborate lengths to hide his inability to walk on his own. And when he was dying, his doctors hid it from the public. Even Roosevelt himself didn't want to know. Secrets of a different sort lie at the heart of two new books about Roosevelt the candidate and Roosevelt the president, with a special guest appearance by Adolf Hitler, before he became der fuehrer. David Pietrusza's 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR--Two Tales of Politics,...

On December 11, 1941, several days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war against the Japanese Empire, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States, in response to what was claimed to be a series of provocations by the United States government when the US was formally neutral during World War II. The decision to declare war was made almost entirely by Adolf Hitler, without consultation. Hitler had received no advance notice from the Japanese about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Although he and his Foreign Minister Ribbentrop had verbally indicated a willingness...

Today is the anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, which brought the United States into World War II. The meticulously planned and devastatingly successful operation was launched from six aircraft carriers and their escorts, which had managed to penetrate to within 200 miles of Oahu without being discovered. Of the eight American battleships in port that day, four were sunk or destroyed, and nine other warships were sunk or severely damaged. Over 2,400 U.S. servicemen lost their lives, including 2.000 sailors, most of whom perished on the USS Arizona (BB-39). The only bright...

Hundreds of strangers paid tribute at a Kentucky funeral home to a “humble” survivor of World War II’s Normandy Invasion whose caregiver had worried that no one would come to his funeral. Vet Warren McDonough was 91 when he died Saturday. He never married and his only known survivor was a nephew in Florida. The big crowd who attended his wake Thursday night at Ratterman’s Funeral Home in St. Matthews showed up in response to a call from Lena Lyons, who runs a boarding home where McDonough spent his final days. Lyons told WHAS-TV McDonough deserved to be remembered because...

The Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive launched towards the end of World War II through the forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium (and more specifically of Wallonia: hence its French name, Bataille des Ardennes), France and Luxembourg on the Western Front. The offensive was called Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (translated as Operation The Guard on the Rhine or Operation "Watch on the Rhine") by the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). This German offensive was officially named the Ardennes-Alsace campaign[5] by the U.S. Army,[6] but it is known to the general public simply as...

A special holiday musical presentation from Union Station in Washington, DC celebrating the service and sacrifices of our nation's World War II veterans and commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

Patton 360 - Battle of the Bulge by History Channel

Generals At War: Episode 06 The Battle of the Bulge The Greatest battle America ever fought was against Hitler's Army when it staged one of the last offensives of the war in Belgium against American troops who were alone and unprepared for the Nazi onslaught. Despite overwhelming odds American troops defeated the German Blitz preventing history from repeating itself as it did when Hitler first invaded Belgium in the begining of the war.