75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge

[Edwin Santos]

There was a recent post about the 78th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
Today is the 75th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge. This was the bloodiest American conflict in WWII claiming 89,000 casualties, 19,000 killed. Compare this to about 3,500 casualties at Pearl Harbor.
The victory of the US and allied forces was a superb demonstration of strategy valor and tenacity under grueling frigid conditions which went on for about five weeks, ending on January 25, 1945. The men who fought in the battle were honored today at the Mardasson memorial in Belgium.

For anyone interested, the Wikipedia article about this battle can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge. It's well worth a read.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks Edwin. I once knew a man who went in on D+1, fought his way across Europe and was wounded badly at the Bulge. He was a kind, pleasant, talkative man. But like many Vets who've seen combat, he wouldn't talk much about it. All he'd say was "It was just a little tank, Fred" - referring to how he got his wound. He was a heckova man.

Fred

[Rob Luter]

My late father in law was there. He was with 10th armored. He fought in Bastogne too. He told me it was pretty hellish. He lived through one of the scenes in Band of Brothers. They were in the forest in the chow line when an artillery strike came in. Everyone scrambled to get in a foxhole. He didn't make it to his hole. In his words "I hit the deck and tried to climb inside my helmet". The foxhole he didn't make it to took a direct hit. He survived with a minor shrapnel wound. His buddies in the hole were vaporized. We have his Purple Heart.

He didn't talk much about the war to his wife and kids. He had three girls and didn't think they needed to know what their Dad went through. He confided in me with some of his experiences the last few years of his life. He told me stories of the tankers stuffing their tanks with straw to try and keep warm. Problem was, straw was flammable and there was plenty of ignition sources. Occasionally it didn't end well.

The good news is they fought hard and won.

Private Ivan M. Baker - Thank you for your service.

[Jim Koepke]

An edited account of one of the people who were there:

The year is 1944, Melvin Kaminsky was an intelligent man who had been raised in poverty by a widowed mother in Brooklyn. Melvin had just graduated from high school at 17, and soon after, he enlisted with the U.S. Military.
Following his enlistment, he was given a battery of tests designed to figure out where he would fit in, and his intelligence score afforded him entrance into the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP).
For Melvin Kaminsky this was a short-lived experience as he arrived in the program shortly before it shut down. Because of his intelligence scores and a basic amount of training in engineering, he was transferred to the 1104th Combat Engineers.
This group of Combat Engineers had been in service since the landings at Normandy and had been on the front lines building bridges, destroying enemy entrenchments, and clearing out enemy minefields. When Melvin arrived in Europe, he was assigned to be a spotter for artillery, but this would also be short-lived as he was transferred to the role of minesweeper.
Melvin’s time with the Engineers was spent moving ahead of the main front lines, deactivating mines and providing reconnaissance for battalions that were moving behind them. This provided the young Melvin with an unfiltered view of the war.
Multiple times throughout the Battle of the Bulge, which Melvin participated in, the 1104th was forced to fight as infantry, sustaining casualties and dealing with obstacles such as sniper fire and pillboxes. According to Melvin, however, this wasn’t the worst part.
Everyone is aware of Nazi anti-Semitism, and Melvin was Jewish. He often witnessed Jewish refugees fleeing from the Nazi death camps, and it obviously affected him. During his time on the frontlines, he dealt with a different part of the Nazi war machine, however: propaganda. The Nazis commonly blasted anti-Semitic propaganda over loudspeakers aimed towards the Combat Engineers.
As much death and horror as Melvin was dealing with, part of the comedian he would become would show through in his reaction to the propaganda of the Nazis. One day, he’d had enough and decided to build his own speaker system over which he played music such as Al Jolson, a popular Jewish singer of the time.

Melvin Kaminsky is better known as Mel Brooks.

Quoted on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website, Mel Brooks later referred to this with his characteristic style saying, “I was a Combat Engineer. Isn’t that ridiculous? The two things I hate most in the world are combat and engineering.”

jtk

[Arthur Fleming]

The world of today, owes gratitude to those who stood up and said, “No this isn’t acceptable, we will do something about it” back in those days of horrible evil. Nothing but respect for all who stood up to be counted.