Today marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge, and whilst I could easily post photos of the various tank memorials I saw around Bastogne today, I’d rather shine a light on the men & women caught up in the fighting instead.
So today, we visited the Bastogne War Rooms (where the 101st Command HQ was located during the Battle, and where General McAuliffe drafted his famous “Nuts!” reply to the Germans). Here, the exhibition finishes with some colorised photos of the US soldiers who took part in the fighting, and it was incredibly moving to see their faces looking back at you through the years. Then, I was genuinely touched by the collection of possessions from Private Robert Fodyce, who was killed in the Battle.
Afterwards, we visited the graves of the nurses Renée Lemaire and Augusta Chiwy, who also fought their own valiant battles to aid the wounded soldiers.
Later, we saw the exact place where Renée’s aid station was located, which was hit in a German bombing on Christmas Eve in 1944.
Renée, along with more than 30 wounded American soldiers, was killed instantly.
Today, the former aid station has been replaced by a Chinese restaurant.
As another US soldier who was captured in the Battle would say…
So It Goes…
(This is a repost from Instagram from December 16th, 2024)
