It Was Done by Men
Winter in the Ardennes Forest meant overcast skies, deep snow, and frigid temperatures. In the Battle of the Bulge the German Army attempted to use these conditions to their advantage. The element of surprise and lack of Allied air cover almost gave them the victory in this last-ditch campaign to stave off defeat. The fighting was brutal, and the struggle to survive the elements was equally intense. One unit of the 101st Airborne Division was reduced from 170 to 58 men within a few days of constant enemy contact fighting around Bastogne.
It was an individual soldier’s battle, as one related: “If you’re fighting a war in a ditch, the whole war is in that ditch… When you’re in a hole, pinned down by mortars and machine guns have you in a crossfire, it’s impossible to get a sense of the overall picture.”490
The toll was heavy on these isolated soldiers, fighting the enemy and the elements: “ We went seventy-two days we didn’t shower, we shaved with cold water out of a steel helmet, and washed one foot at a time; in case Germans hit us again, or you got called to attack… We had lice, scabies, and I had trench mouth so bad I could move my teeth around with my tongue.”491 On seeing these battle-weary men, a reporter observed, “Everyone seems about the same age, as if weariness and strain and the unceasing cold leveled all life.”492 The same reporter summarized the Battle of the Bulge and eloquently gave credit for the outcome where it was due:
There were many dead and many wounded, but the survivors contained the fluid situation and slowly turned it into a retreat, and finally, as the communiqué said, the bulge was ironed out. This was not done fast or easily; and it was not done by those anonymous things, armies, divisions, regiments. It was done by men, one by one your men.493
We live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
—2 Corinthians 6:9–10
German soldier surrenders. (National Archives)
Once there was a church. (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library)