Great Stories in History Episode II: Nuts!!
It has been a long time since I wrote the first great stories post, which can be found here. I didn’t have any ideas for a new one for the longest time until the other day, as I was in the midst of procrastinating by watching TV, a Jericho promo came on the channel I was watching. I’ve never seen the show so I wasn’t really paying attention until in one section of the commercial there was some kind of battle going down, and the villain told Skeet that he was surrounded and there was no hope. Ol’ Skeet put on his best tough guy face, and yelled Nuts into the walkie-talkie. When I heard this I started laughing because here was yet another great real life story that Hollywood was appropriating and ruining.
Bastonge Surrounded
Our story begins in Europe in December 1944. Five months after D-Day the Allies had been slowly pushing the German forces back. Hitler sought to turn the tide with a counteroffensive in the Ardennes–even though he was advised against it by his Generals–the battle would come be known as the Battle of the Bulge. The plan was for the Germans to slice through the American and British forces–cutting them off from each other and valuable supply lines–and to recapture the port of Antwerp. It was hoped this move would allow the Germans to either negotiate a more favorable peace treaty with each nation separately or it would allow German time to recoup their losses and continue the war with a new generation of military technologies–like jets and rockets. The offensive began on December 16, 1944 and the Germans made swift advances, in part, because bad weather grounded Allied planes which allowed them to move quickly. However, after some quick gains the Germans met stiff resistance and their momentum slowed.
One of those areas of stiff resistance was Bastogne, Belgium. The importance of Bastonge was that it was a crossroads near the German border. These roads would be needed to quickly move tanks and other supplies overland to the front. By December 18 the Germans were outside of Bastogne engaged in a fierce fight with the American troops. For the next three days the Germans were repulsed by the American forces that were defending Bastonge, and the weather continued to worsen. The masterly use of small-arms fire, artillery, and some tanks allowed the American forces to hold their ground. Because of their slow progress two Panzer divisions were told to bypass the town, and were subsequently destroyed near Dinant–making the roads held in Bastogne even more important.
