This week marks the 70th anniversary of the last German offensive of WWII. My dad, at 19, battle tested from landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day, fighting across France to Paris, leading the victory parade (with his outfit, the 28th Infantry Division) down the Champs-Élysées, then fighting in the bloody Hürtgenwald, was in Clervaux, Luxembourg, headquarters of the 110th Regiment and part of the ‘quiet sector’ where the Division was sent to rest, re-supply, and replace the many soldiers lost in the Hürtgen Forest fight. There were feasts with G.I. turkeys, Saint Nick for the kids, and persistent rumors that Marlene Dietrich was ‘just in the next town’. And aside from some distant, desultory gunfire, the war had disappeared. But it was all about to come to an explosive end. In the dense forests of the Eiffel region across the German border some five miles away, a massive build-up of men and armor was underway and poised to smash the unsuspecting remnants of the 28th and land a blow that temporarily returned the initiative to the advancing German armies, and very nearly changed the outcome of the war. The ensuing battle of the Ardennes created a large advancing bulge in the thinly stretched U.S. lines and thereby became famous as the Battle of the Bulge. My dad has been gone many years and I miss him very much. But I am lucky to have interviewed him about those times, a story I will now share. Tonight I’m on my way to Luxembourg to partake of the commemoration and I will be in Clervaux tomorrow morning. This will be the first installment of my dad’s story, and I will post the rest in series, along with info and photos of my trip, during the coming week. Lest we forget…
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 14:05:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015