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| Battle of Bastogne December 20-27, 1944 |
The Siege of Bastogne (part of the larger Battle of the Bulge) was a battle from December 20-27, 1944 between Allied (23,000) and German forces (55,000) at the Belgian town of Bastogne...the Americans had been ordered to "hold Bastogne at all cost".
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| Cold...Hungry...Low on Ammunition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzYkxtQQo4 (1:16) |
Bastogne was a crossroads of seven main roads and it was critical to the control of the sea harbor of Antwerp. The Americans who were completely surrounded were given an ultimatum to surrender by the German commander...
Several Germans delivered the message to General Anthony McAuliffe. The General's first reaction was that the Germans wanted to surrender to us...when it was explained that the German's demanded our surrender General McAuliffe laughed and said:
"Us surrender? Aw, nuts!"
A short time later, General McAuliffe decided that a written response was in order. He typed the following response:
To the German Commander,
"Nuts!"
The American Commander."
Upon receiving the note from Col. Joseph Harper, the German major asked, "Is the reply negative or affirmative? If it is the latter I will negotiate further."
Harper answered, "The reply is decidedly not affirmative... If you continue your foolish attack your losses will be tremendous."
Upon "releasing" the German officer Harper said...
"If you don't know what 'Nuts' means, in plain English it is the same as 'Go to Hell'. And I'll tell you something else, if you continue to attack we will kill every goddamn German that tries to break into this city."
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| Ed "Bazooka Man" Peniche 1925-2008 |
Listen to Eduardo Peniche's Bastogne memories (3:00 minutes)...
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