Anniversary of the worst intelligence disaster

[whitehall]

The war was supposed to be over when the "Battle of the Bulge" aka "The Ardennes counteroffensive" happened Dec 16, 1944. Ike was at a Christmas party and the Troops were enjoying a much needed respite from battle and rumors were running rampant about "home for Christmas". Frontline Troops could hear noises and tanks clanking but the US Army wasn't in the mood to address the possibility of a counteroffensive by German troops. Everyone knew the war was just about over. Within a month about 20,000 Soldiers would be dead.

 

[whitehall]

Life was cheap in the early 40's and the victors write the history books.

 

[jwoodie]

Maybe so, but it was hard to imagine that Hitler would pull so many resources from the East for a suicide mission in the West.

 

[SFC Ollie]

It almost worked.....

One of the members of my American legion post was there in the middle of it... We just had our Veterans day Diner last month where he was officially presented the French Knight of the Legion of Honor Medal....

For 144 days of continuous combat in France.

It was sent to him by the French Consulate in Chicago and we had the County American Legion Commander present it officially.

County Commander, Vince, and myself..

 

[whitehall]

You can't say enough about the courage of the American Soldier. The point remains that the people who were running the war failed in their duty and they passed the buck until people forgot that 20,000 American Soldiers died in a month when it seemed that Germany was defeated.

 

[namvet]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrkN0q7Hs1o]Battleground 1949 Trailer - YouTube[/ame]