Who Really Liberated Bastogne?

Fifty-three years after World War II, not even those who spilled blood fully appreciate the 87th Infantry Division's magnificent and decisive role during the largest land battle ever fought by American troops.

That was the Battle of the Bulge, or Ardennes campaign, as the U.S. Army referred to it.

We were young, barely battle-tested, yet well-educated — hardly the textbook characteristics of a tough, efficient military unit. Exhausted from a bone-numbing 300-mile roadmarch in open trucks from the Saar Valley by way of Rheims, France, on Dec. 29, 1944 we were thrown against the massive thrusts ordered by Adolph Hitler to capture the key highway center of Bastogne.

The numerically-superior Nazis, who had caught American troops by surprise, were making headway when, a few days before our arrival, they boldly delivered an ultimatum to Bastogne, threatening “annihilation” if the 101st Airborne and attached troops didn't surrender.

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