Battle for Bastogne
Image taken from wikipedia.org
Bastogne is a small town in Belgium. It is near the border of Germany and surrounded by the thick woods of the Ardennes Forest. During the Second World War, this was the site of a horrific campaign in which young American boys had to hold the town in the dead of winter. Years since the battle has ended, the people of this small town have reported strange occurrences in the woods surrounding the area. At night it is said that when a person goes walking in the woods, they will hear screams of pain and distant gunshots. A person even reported a young battle-weary soldier asking her which way the town was. When she looked back she realized the man was gone. The only excuse for this must be that he was a ghost of a fallen soldier.
In the winter of 1944, Hitler launched an offensive against the Allies. His goal was to push the allied forces back across Belgium into France where Hitler would then have a chance of winning the war. One vital area the Germans needed was the small town of Bastogne. All the roads converged on this town and if the Germans controlled it, they could launch attacks in any direction. The American 101st Airborne was tasked with holding the town. The young soldiers dug in around the town and we son surrounded. The Germans make numerous attempts to break through, but were never successful. Withs supplies running low and the body count mounting, it only seemed a matter of time until the Germans broke through the American lines.
However, the sun finally came out of the sky after many weeks of darkness. Allied planes were able to make strafing runs of German positions and drop supplies to the weary Americans. General Patton and his 3rd Army launched an offensive against the Germans which proved to be successful. The town was liberated and the Germans were forced to retreat. To this day, many surviving members of the 101st Airborne say that they did not need Patton’s help and could have defeated the Germans themselves.
