G.I.'s Remember Battle of the Bulge

I'm a firm believer in capturing the histories of the men who served and fought in our nation's wars. I take every opportunity I get, to sit down and chat with my heroes; those who've gone before me, trailblazers if you will. I feel like I'm standing on the shoulders of giants (they always thank me for my service, but it's I who need to thank them). These men (and women) have stories to tell and my generation needs to listen and take note of their 'oral histories.'
63 years ago, on 16 December 1944, began what the German's would call, 'Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein' (Operation Watch on the Rhein). The Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945 was a major German offensive on the Western Front. It was officially named the Battle of the Ardennes by the U.S. Army, but it is known to the general public simply as the Battle of the Bulge (Hollywood released a few movies about the battle: The 1949 Oscar winning film Battleground, starring Van Johnson, depicts the 101st Airborne’s defense of Bastogne; the 1956 film Attack!, starring Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, and Eddie Albert; and the 1965 film Battle of the Bulge, starring Robert Shaw and Henry Fonda. While filmed against sweeping vistas and with famous stars in the lead roles, the movie is notorious for countless major inaccuracies, yeah, like trying to fool us into thinking Sherman tanks are Panzer and Tiger tanks).

Wacht am Rhein was supported by subordinate operations known as Unternehmen Bodenplatte, Unternehmen Greif, and Unternehmen Währung. Germany’s planned goal for these operations was to split the British and American Allied line in half, capturing Antwerp, Belgium, and then proceeding to encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Western Allies to settle for a negotiated peace more favorable to the Axis' Powers (read Nazi Germany).

By Kevin Dougherty, Stars and Stripes

European edition, Sunday, December 16, 2007

BASTOGNE, Belgium — He can close his eyes and recall it all, or at least as much as Frank Soboleski cares to these days.

At 83, in the twilight of his life, the World War II veteran prefers happy to haunting thoughts.

But standing in a field north of Bastogne, an area he hasn’t graced since 1944, Soboleski can lower the lids and still recall the foxhole he and Herb Suerth dug. Or the sight of a German tank cresting a hill. Or the call of a wounded man on a frigid night asking for a medic after a German artillery barrage.

“I’m not coming back,” says Soboleski, a veteran of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. His recollections of the Battle of the Bulge “are getting a little misty,” he says.

Soboleski was one of several veterans who returned to Belgium this weekend to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the largest land battle in Army history. They were joined by scores of U.S. servicemembers, hundreds of WWII re-enactors and thousands of regular citizens.

While the annual commemoration typically falls on a Saturday, with Sunday’s vehicle parade through Bastogne being the curtain call for WWII re-enactors, there is talk about extending it to three days next year. That’s because in recent years it has drawn more and more people.

I live about 3 hours from the battlefield and will visit it this upcoming year.