Honor ‘Bulge’ vets
BRAVING SNOWY weather, Americans and Belgians gathered Saturday in the Ardennes region of Belgium to mark the 70th anniversary of one of the biggest and bloodiest U.S. battles of World War II — the Battle of the Bulge.
“We must never forget what happened in 1944,” said JeanClaude Klepper, 62, of Virton, Belgium, who marked the occasion with his 15-year-old daughter Aurelie by dressing up like World War II GIs.
“Many American soldiers came here to defend Europe. We must honor them for what they did.”
Starting on Dec. 16, 1944, and for nearly six weeks, more than 600,000 American soldiers, fighting in freezing conditions, took part in desperate efforts to contain, then throw back, a surprise German counteroffensive masterminded by Adolf Hitler himself.
The battle waged in the dense forests and narrow valleys of Belgium and neighboring Luxembourg.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill hailed the ultimate result as “an ever-famous American victory.”
But it came at a high cost: 80,987 U.S. casualties, including 10,276 dead, 47,493 wounded and 23,218 missing, according to the U.S. Army’s official history. After the end of the battle, on Jan. 28, 1945, Allied forces attacked Germany in unison, eventually leading to the Nazi surrender and the end of World War II in Europe.