Posted on 12/12/2004 8:58:43 AM PST by knighthawk
The Battle of the Bulge: The personal aide to McAuliffe recalls the fight and the famous answer to Germans' call to surrender
Vincent Vicari knows about the Battle of the Bulge, not from books, movies or a TV mini-series, but because he was there.
He remembers Dec. 16, 1944, when the field phone rang in the command post of the 101st Airborne Division's artillery regiment near Reims, in eastern France, and a voice told him to wake his boss, Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, and have him report immediately to HQ.
He recalls that as McAuliffe went out the door, he turned and said, ''Lieutenant, stay by that phone. Don't move.'' And he remembers the call an hour or so later, instructing him to alert all units to ''get ready to move out, immediately.''
Those units couldn't know it then, but they would soon be spending Christmas fending off Hitler's last desperate attempt to turn back the Allied tide that had been advancing since D-Day, six months earlier. The six-week battle to come would be the largest of the war in Western Europe.
First Lt. Vicari and the rest of his unit were still recovering from three months of combat in Operation Market Garden, the failed British-led invasion of Germany via Holland.
''We were exhausted and we'd had no time to refurbish. We had no winter equipment. We were still in the same torn uniforms, short of food, ammo and everything else."
By midnight, the troops had gathered their gear and boarded hastily organized convoys for a bone-numbing dash to the front.
''Nobody knew where we were going,'' recalls Vicari, now 84 and retired in Easton, Pa. ''We had never heard of a place called Bastogne.''
Bastogne, a market town where several roads converged, was critical to blocking the German advance.
The troops also didn't know Allied intelligence had been fooled into thinking a German code-name, ''Wacht am Rhein'' -Watch on the Rhine - referred to a defensive buildup, not a surprise counteroffensive into Belgium.
Aided by grounded Allied aircraft, 200,000 German troops and 600 tanks were surging westward through the rugged Ardennes, driving a wedge into American lines that on battle maps would become famous as ''the Bulge.''
Stretched thinly across the forested terrain were five U.S. Army divisions - outmanned, outgunned and mostly untested in battle.
By contrast, The 101st Airborne, the ''Screaming Eagles,'' had jumped into the dark behind enemy lines on D-Day and fought across France and Holland. They were seasoned veterans, but even their biggest weapons were no match for the Wehrmacht's fearsome 70-ton Tiger tanks.
As the Americans rumbled through a bitterly cold pre-dawn, they met their defeated comrades stumbling to the rear. ''We could see our people going in the opposite direction, walking back,'' Vicari says. ''Whenever the convoy slowed, we jumped off the trucks to get their ammo, hand grenades and guns.''
By getting to Bastogne first, the Americans were able to block German movements in southern Belgium. But after a week of fighting, the paratroopers and their supporting forces found themselves surrounded.
German artillery shelled the town. Snow and fog allowed only a few supply drops, and many parachutes drifted into German lines, delivering much-needed ammunition, food and medical supplies to the wrong side.
''Some of the townspeople gave us white sheets to cover our uniforms in the snow,'' remembers Vicari.
Thousands of GIs were taken prisoner, however, and at Malmedy, Belgium, more than 80 were machine-gunned by Waffen SS soldiers.
Meanwhile, English-speaking Germans in American uniforms had slipped through U.S. lines, hoping to create chaos. Some were caught and at least 18 executed as spies. ''The night before their execution, their captors allowed some German nurses who were also prisoners to sing carols to them in their cells,'' British author Max Hastings writes in a new book, Armageddon.
At Bastogne, the 101st's paratroopers repulsed repeated attacks but were desperately low on ammunition. In the wintry darkness, American soldiers sang ''Silent Night'' and heard Germans singing ''Stille Nacht,'' the same carol.
On Dec. 22, four German couriers approached U.S. lines under a flag of truce, carrying a message ''from the German commander to the American commander.''
Asserting that Bastogne was ''encircled,'' the note gave McAuliffe, who was acting commander of the 101st, two hours to surrender or face ''total annihilation.''
As Vicari, McAuliffe's personal aide, recalls it 60 years later, ''General Mac read the note and said, 'Aw, nuts.' Then he asked, 'What should I tell them?' ”
Lt. Col. Harry W.O. Kinnard, the division operations officer, said, ''Why not tell them what you just said?'' ''What did I just say?'' ''You said, 'nuts,' ” Kinnard replied.
McAuliffe scribbled a reply: ''To the German commander. Nuts! From the American commander.'' He handed the message to Lt. Col. Joseph Harper, who had escorted the couriers.
To the Germans who didn't understand the Yankee colloquialism, Harper explained: ''It means the same thing as 'go to hell.' ”
While WWII historian Barry Turner says McAuliffe's one-word riposte ''lost something in translation,'' others have speculated that ''nuts'' might be a sanitized version of what the tough paratroop general actually said. Not so, Vicari says.
''General Mac was the only general I ever knew who did not use profane language,'' he said in an interview. '' 'Nuts' was part of his normal vocabulary.''
Next day, the weather cleared, enabling American P-47 Thunderbolts to attack enemy positions while cargo planes dropped supplies to Bastogne's defenders, who by then knew that Lt. Gen. George Patton's 4th Armored Division was fighting through German-held territory to relieve them.
Asked how quickly he could get to Bastogne, Patton had assured skeptical superiors he could turn his tanks north toward Bastogne in 48 hours. He didn't tell them they were already on the way.
On the day after Christmas, Lt. Col. Creighton Abrams, commanding the 37th Tank Battalion, realized that the road to Bastogne was open. His first four Shermans roared into the battered town about 4 p.m.
Vicari recalls Patton himself arriving soon after, with war correspondents in tow. He pinned a Distinguished Service Cross on ''General Mac.''
Bitter fighting continued across the front, but the Bulge was shrinking and on Jan. 8, even Hitler conceded failure. Abandoning hundreds of their fuel-starved panzer tanks, the Germans began retreating toward the Rhine; by Jan. 28, the battle was over.
The Allied casualty toll included 8,600 Americans and 200 British killed, 21,000 captured or missing and 47,000 wounded. The Germans suffered nearly 68,000 total casualties, including 17,000 dead.
War historians offer a mixed verdict: The Battle of the Bulge delayed the Allied timetable for victory in Europe by at least six weeks, but by depleting Hitler's forces, made the final push to Berlin less costly in the long run. Bastogne is today a tourist favorite that annually celebrates its famous survival with a Place McAuliffe, and a Rue Nuts.
Ping
Might get flamed for this, but the Bulge wouldn't have happened if Bradley and Eisenhower hadn't ignored the German buildup. Or assuming they paid attention to it and the attack happened anyway, the supply problem wouldn't have existed if it hadn't been for J.C.H. Lee and his hotel takeovers.
No you're absolutely right. They got caught napping. My grandfather was serving in Patton's Third Army at the time.
The anniversary of the start of the battle is this Thursday.
He was lucky to have such a competent commander, then. Big Patton fan here.
Patton's G-2 warned him about the build-up, and they were nowhere near the Ardennes. It was that obvious... and everyone who was actually there got blindsided. Disappointing.
My Dad fought and was wounded, saving several men's lives, in that horrible battle. He was a Sgt in Yankee Division, Army Corps of Engineers. German sniper took him down after he'd carried 3 wounded men to safety. To this day, he doesn't want to talk about what he did.
The American engineers played a big part in slowing the German advance.
Yes, but when did the American media concede? Surely the imbeds were livid about the poor planning by the American Commanders. I'll bet the newspapers and the radio shows were filled with angry Senators and Congressman demanding Roosevelt's head for presiding over this needless tragedy.
The war , like every war was not run perfectly...The media was kinder then..and we prevailed as Hitler had shot us his last best shot and lost. I received a war bond for my birthday present then..
As to the past, to the men of Bastogne and Gen McAuliffe, may their example forever be remembered!
I only shudder to think how today's media would have covered the battle. The New York Times would be demanding a cease fire with Hitler.
You know what's sad? If Maureen Dowd was writing during the siege of Bastogne she would have taken McAuliffe's famous quote and mocked it as being simplistic.
NUTS! Damn, don't you just love it!
The commander of that unit was Col Arthur C. Parker. When the attack came toward that town from three directions, Col. Parker had only four field artillery guns to use against the German tanks. He had the gunners lower their barrels to horizontal, and fire down the roads to stop the tanks.
Col. Parker was wounded on the first day. He refused to evacuate. For three days that ill-equipped, undermanned unit held that crossroads against all of the German attacks. On the fourth day, the Americans reinforced and relieved them.
I know that story not from my Uncle Arthur, because he never spoke of those events. I know it from the history books that describe the defense of that town.
Arthur Parker was a dirt farmer in Alabama until the war began and he enlisted. After the war, he returned to Alabama and became a dirt farmer once again. On the shoulders of such men, in every era in our history, the strength and greatness of America is built.
Congressman Billybob
Tonight on CBS News: Quagmire in Belgium!
and to the muslims if that day comes(a WMD in the US) i say the current day version of"nuts" F--- y-- and proceede to vaporize
The media at the time rightly attacked Germany's invasion of Poland but never got around to condemning the Soviets when they stabbed the Poles in the back a couple of weeks later.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.