Soldiers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division gather around a fire in the Ardennes Forest.
IN THE RED-ROOFED Belgian army barracks that served as the VIII Corps command post in the town of Bastogne, champagne corks popped on Friday night to commemorate the anniversary of the corps’ arrival in Britain a year earlier. The commander, Major General Troy Middleton, had reason to be proud of his men’s combat record. He drank a final toast to battles past and future before retiring to his sleeping van.
A few miles to the east, the faint clop of horses and a growl of engines in low gear drifted to American soldiers on watch duty along the Our River, which marks the border between Luxembourg and Germany. Their report of disturbing noises in the night traveled up the chain of command from one headquarters to the next, with no more heed paid than had been paid to earlier intelligence. Middleton’s command post in Bastogne issued a weather forecast for Saturday—“Cloudy, snow beginning around 1300. Visibility 2 miles”—and a three-word battle summary for the Ardennes: “Nothing to report.”