Published in the 12-16-19 edition of the Daily Sitka Sentinel
By Sentinel Staff
Seventy-five years ago today, the German army launched one of the final great battles of World War II.
A number of international representatives, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, are in Bastogne, Belgium, today to commemorate the battle.
In a speech today, Esper said of U.S. service members who fought in the battle, “Their efforts not only defended America, but also ensured that the peoples of Europe would be free again.”
According to “The Wehrmacht’s Last Stand,” by Robert Citino, the German Wehrmacht launched the surprise attack, Operation Wacht am Rhein (“Watch on the Rhein”), on December 16, 1944, striking thin American positions in the Ardennes Forest, Belgium.
While the initial German operation broke through U.S. lines, Germany’s lack of fuel or reserves, combined with stubborn Allied resistance, brought Hitler’s gamble to a grinding halt far short of the strategic port of Antwerp, the German objective. Subsequent Allied counterattacks broke the back of German forces in the west, said Citino, executive director of the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, and former professor at the War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The German assaults formed a bulge in Allied lines, leading to the popular name of the battle: The Battle of the Bulge.
In an iconic moment during the siege of the crossroads town of Bastogne, U.S. General Tony McCauliffe earned immortality when he replied to German surrender demands with a single word: “Nuts!”
The war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945, with Germany’s surrender.
