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Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.
Many of our hardened combat veterans at the time were on Christmas leave in England when the
surprise attack happened and the lines were manned by many "green" soldiers
who had seen little or no combat. The hardened soldiers were quickly
called back to reinforce the lines. You can see some of this in the mini-series
Band of Brothers.
There are first-hand accounts in the surprise attack of men sitting around fires
singing Christmas songs and thinking of home when they heard the sound of
approaching German tanks. Our losses were terrible.
Hats off to all the brave men who fought in this battle and in World War 2!

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dlh - thank you for posting this.

Our family is forever grateful to all Veterans past and present.

ms gamboolgals father, Mr. Beam, was the 101st from the original bunch at Toccoa all the way thru the war. He was in every major battle and was never wounded. He did say he had all his Web Gear shot off of him and he had a pencil shot out of his hand.

Mr. Beam had utmost respect for the German soldiers - he said they would kill you in the blink of a eye.

At the Battle of the Bulge - he had a message from the Commander saying to be by your hole at a certain hour as the Germans were expected to attack - this was after the "Nuts" response.

At Normandy in the Plane - he said the sky was bright as daylight from gunfire and all he wanted was out of the plane.

At Market Garden he said the Brits was slaughtered upstream as bodies of Brit Paratroopers was floating downstream past them.

Mr. Beam was on Eisehhowers Honor Guard at Nuremberg and he escorted many of the Nazi's to/from the Trial and to the Gallows.

We lost Mr. Beam in 2008 and I miss him to this day. He was a father to me.

Mr. Beam is the lower right picture.

gamboolman.....

I had an older brother that was in the battle. He never talked about it though.

My Dad was a radio operator in a 155mm Cannon (Long Tom) Battery and part of a Battalion. The were VIII Corp Artillery and were moved around usually to support attacks and advances. They had a big surprise when their First Sergeant came through waking them up and told them that the Germans had broken through and were advancing on them. They retreated through St. Vith and one of the few things he said about that was that if Combat Command B of the 7th Armored Division hadn't held St. Vith as long as they did, they'd have likely been overrun and captured or killed. He was proud of the fact that they withdrew in a controlled manner, fought their way back and although they lost men and equipment, were still an organized and functional Battalion at the end of the Bulge. They ended the war in Czechoslovakia and then pulled back into Germany.

Jeff B.