The Battle of the Bulge: Dec 1944-January 1945

 

 How stuff works

The Malmedy Massacre On Sunday, December 17, 1944, shortly after the Germans launched their great offensive in the Ardennes, a number of American prisoners were shot by soldiers of the First SS-Panzer Regiment at Baugnez crossroads, close to the Belgian town of Malmedy. The true scale and circumstances of the Malmedy massacre remain controversial to this day. What is known is that of the 113 prisoners assembled in the field at Baugnez, 67 died there. Forty-six of them, some of whom were wounded, managed to escape the scene.

The massacre began when some of the Germans opened fire. Several survivors claim to have heard an order given. A storm of machine gun and rifle fire lasted for 15 minutes, and was followed by deliberate shots to finish off anyone still showing signs of life. These final murderous coups de grace turned a possible "battle incident" into an indisputable atrocity that resonated throughout the American forces in Northwest Europe. It immediately prompted orders in some U.S. Army units to summarily shoot any SS prisoners they might capture.
Although those believed responsible for the massacre were later tried by a U.S. military tribunal, serious coercive and procedural irregularities by the prosecution eventually resulted in the commutation of all of the many death sentences. Those who had been imprisoned received early releases, and by 1960, all had been released.
"A bullet went through the head of the man next to me. I lay tensely still, expecting the end. Could he see me breathing? Could I take a kick in the groin without wincing?...He was standing at my head. What was he doing? Time seemed to stand still. And then I heard him reloading his pistol in a deliberate manner...laughing and talking. A few odd steps before the reloading was finished and he was no longer so close to my head, then another shot a little farther away, and he had passed me up. "
--U.S. Army first lieutenant Virgil T. Lary, describing the incident at Malmedy

Below: the 1st Panzer SS on the road to their encounter with the Americans at Malmedy-Baugnez

 

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_11.HTM

Malmedy Massacre Trial

1st. Lt. Virgil Lary points out Sturmmann Georg Fleps, May of 1946

The Siege of Bastogne; A Personal Perspective of Bill Hale.
  ..."The first eight days, known as the Siege of Bastogne, was the most crucial defense to prevent the Germans from capturing vital transportation lines and cutting off Allied supply routes.   The Battle of the Bulge raged until January 25, 1945 finally concluding the largest and deadliest battle fought by US forces during the war." ...

Patton's Third Army turns north to liberate Bastogne   "On 19 December, during a crisis meeting of the American generals, PATTON decided to turn three of his divisions, established in Lorraine, ninety-degrees to the north and to push ahead rapidly towards the besieged town of Bastogne." ...

The Battle for Stavelot      

 

Stavelot monuments

"During the night of Dec. 17-18, First Army ordered a platoon of 3-inch towed tank destroyers from the 526 Armored Inf. Bn. to outpost Stavelot; two platoons on the south bank of the river (with a section of tank destroyers at the old roadblock); one platoon with three 57 MM antitank guns and the second section of tank destroyers in reserve around the town square north of the river. ...The troops began to move into position just before daybreak on Mon., Dec. 18, but before the riflemen could organize a defense the German infantry attacked, captured the tank destroyers and drove the two platoons back across the bridge. Taken by surprise, the Americans failed to destroy the bridge and a Panther [Panzer?] made a dash about 0800 which carried it onto the north bank. More tanks followed. For some while the Germans were held in the houses next to the river; an anti aircraft artillery battery of the 7 Armored Div. wandered into the firefight and did considerable damage before it went on its way. A Co. from the 202 Eng. Combat Bn. joined in the fray. By the end of the morning however, the German firing line had built up to the point where the Americans could no longer hold inside the village proper, particularly since the hostile tanks were roving at will in the streets.

This African-American turns on Obama, Sharpton, Farrakhan and the Democrats

 Apparently a townhall meeting went poorly for Sharpton.*  This man expresses his thoughts about it simply, straightforward and -sadly - without fear of how he will be treated by the left.

Youtube

 *"...McKinley called on President Obama to help the grassroots by discontinuing aid and government grants that go through Chicago’s political machine to “name-brand-blue-ribbon-negro-organizations” such as the NAACP and Urban League. McKinley told Breitbart News those groups “are poverty pimps, and are part of the problem and not the solution.”

International Emissions Idiocy

Alan Caruba

 

"Most of the people of the world have concluded that the decades of warnings about “global warming” and its successor, “climate change”, is just idiotic nonsense. Few believe that humans ever had or ever will have any role in what the weather will be tomorrow or a thousand years from now. They are right.

"One of the most distinguishing factors about the Anthropogenic Global Warming theory has been the way its advocates have always predicted major changes decades into the future. When the future arrived, as it has since the first doomsday predictions were made in the late 1980s, they simply push off the next arrival date for another couple of decades. A classic example is the prediction that that Arctic and Antarctic sea ice would have all melted by now. Instead the global cold weather have been making new records of late." ...More...

 

Did a compliant Congress empower this petulant, defiant president?

Red State claims: The GOP Emboldened Barack Obama on Cuba
... "The United States Congress just declared Barack Obama’s actions on amnesty unconstitutional, then promptly funded them.
"I said just a few weeks ago that if the congress did that, it would embolden Barack Obama on a host of other foreign and economic policy matters."  Erick Erickson

December Surprise: Obama normalizes relations with Cuba
 "Just as Congress left town, and everyone is focused on Christmas and New Year’s holidays."

Ted Cruz: Obama Is Unilateral President – Exhibiting Anger & Defiance Towards American People (Video)

 “Listen, there’s no doubt that this is a unilateral president who is exhibiting right now anger and defiance towards the American people. He’s angry at this last election. He’s angry that there’s this tidal wave that retired Harry Reid. He is acting in defiance of that… It’s like Ronald Reagan said about the hard left. It’s not what they don’t know it’s that so much of what they do know just isn’t so. "”

5 Takeaways from Media Coverage of Christians in 2014; Gored or ignored, Christians can’t win with liberal media.

Meanwhile, we cower in fear of the North Koreans and Islamic radicals, to whom respect must be paid by us.

MRC Culture   "It’s the reason for the season, so naturally, attacks on Christianity tend to pick up around this time of year. The mocking and sacrilege gets a bit more pointed in the media. The sneering contempt from entertainers and lefty activists gets a bit thicker. 

"But insulting Christians is a year-round sport, like bowling. Unlike bowling, you’ll find all the best people doing it, from the New Yorker to Comedy Central, from CNN to Hollywood. Whether it’s a “beef baby Jesus,” “climate change Christmas carols” or simply slandering core beliefs as “bigotry,” media liberals haven’t held back when it comes to Christians this year. 

"Unless there was serious or good news to report. Then there was mostly silence. 

"If you didn’t know anything about Christianity and its place in American culture and history, and had to learn it from the mainstream and entertainment media in 2014, what would your takeaways be? These would probably be your top five:" ...Keep reading...

ONE IN FIVE PEOPLE WHO WRITE FOR ROLLING STONE ARE MORONS

Ann Coulter   "In response to the total implosion of Rolling Stone's preposterous story about a fraternity gang-rape at the University of Virginia, the media have reverted to their Soviet-style reporting. They're not even saying: We're choosing not to talk about UVA because it's a side show. It's more like: UVA? That's a school?

"Not only did the UVA gang rape turn out to be a hoax, but then President Obama's own Department of Justice completed a six-year study on college rape, and it turns out that instead of 1-in-5 college coeds being raped, the figure is 0.03-in-5.

"Less than 1 percent of college students are the victim of a sexual assault -- 0.6 percent to be exact -- not to be confused with the 20 percent, or "one in five," claimed by feminists and President Obama." ...

Known Wolves part of Global Jihad

Blackfive   "The killer in Sydney was another Lone Wolf, right? Except he was a known Islamist radical howling his hate at the top of his lungs. He repaid the Aussie hospitality that allowed him to live there as a refugee from Iran, by slaughtering innocents and raping. Yet still the media and politicians quibble and equivocate about his motivations, as if his own words and actions weren't enough. He flew the black flag of jihad people, that makes him an enemy of mankind. Wake up!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfwiz-IpxcE#t=47

The Battle of Nashville; Dec 15-16, 1864

Aftermath of the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee
... "In four months of campaigning, the Army of Tennessee had lost nearly 75% of its fighting force. Hood resigned his commission in January and his remaining men were sent to join Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. The Union victory at Nashville effectively ended the war in Tennessee." ...

Photos    Spectators watch the battle

 

The battle "After the battles for Chattanooga, Union troops pursued the Confederate forces to Atlanta, Georgia. After four unsuccessful attacks against the Union, Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood abandoned Atlanta in September 1864 and retreated into Alabama. There Hood devised an ambitious plan to cut off Union supply lines coming south from Tennessee and starve the Union troops in Georgia into surrender. He planned to take Nashville, which had been occupied by the Federals since early 1862, and then move toward Louisville before joining Gen. Robert E. Lee in Virginia for the Confederacy’s grand assault on Washington, D.C." Full article

Below: union troops behind their entrenchments at Nashville await attack by Gen Hood's Confederate army

Confederate war song mentions General Hood in Tennessee (but gives him too much credit, I'd say)

Battle of the Bulge; Dec 17, 1944. The Malmedy Massacre.

 

 The massacre site in 1944 (above), and today (below) via Google Earth

Gettysburg Daily    "The atrocities Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Stuart Dempsey describes actually occurred around the tiny village of Baugnez, Belgium, some four kilometers from Malmedy. American soldiers and Belgian civilians were also murdered at several other locations over the next few days by members of the German 1st SS Panzer Division. The final toll is in dispute, but at least 362 U.S. soldiers and 111 Belgians were executed between December 17-20. The actual number may be a good bit higher. One of those killed/murdered 65 years ago today was Private First Class Frederick Clark. He is buried in the Gettysburg National Cemetery."

The Malmedy Massacre

 

The bodies of 81 American soldiers from Battery B of the 285th Field Artillery

 Observation Battalion, killed by Waffen-SS troops on December 17, 1944,

 during the Battle of the Bulge near the Belgian town of Malmedy. 

... "Mine detectors were used to locate the 81 bodies, which had rested undisturbed since the day of the shootings and by now had frozen into grotesque positions. Forty one of the bodies were found to have been shot in the head. As each body was uncovered it was numbered, as seen in the photo above." ...  Photos of the field in 1944

A survivor's story ... "Paluch’s battalion first saw action in the Hurtgen Forest just prior to the Battle of the Bulge.  As Ted explains it, “We were in the Hurtgen for a while, that was a bitch I’ll tell you.  The damn trees would explode from the German artillery, and in just a matter of days it seemed that every tree within sight was stripped bare of all limbs.  It was a bloodbath in there.”  As bad as the Hurtgen was for Paluch, the worst was yet to come." ...

 Flowers, apologies mark commemoration of 70th anniversary of Malmedy massacre

 "At the site where Nazi troops massacred scores of unarmed American prisoners of war during the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s ambassador to Belgium expressed a sense of remorse during a ceremony Sunday marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre." ...

Lt. Col. Joachim Peiper on the witness stand, June 17, 1946.

Sharpton as the Maltese Falcon

 

American Thinker  [MSNBC's] "Al Sharpton reminds me of the Maltese Falcon.  At every tragedy, he shows up on a shelf of tears next to the serious grievers, the family members, looking like an imitation of the real bird."
...
"The family rebuffs Sharpton: “Who made you the spokesperson of our family?  We just want to bury our nephew with dignity and respect.”  They  feel that Sharpton’s appearance at Akai’s funeral would be embarrassing and an insult to the memory of Akai.
...
"Instead of being regarded as a pariah, he works for MSNBC and is a regular guest at the White House." ...
Read more:

  

http://libertyalliance.com/2013/08/show-money-australian-killed/

 

Mike Lee: Weekend Fight Did Not Help Harry Reid

NRO  "Senate majority leader Harry Reid is using his final days in power to confirm a series of controversial presidential nominees, with the result that Republicans are fighting about whether Texas senator Ted Cruz enabled Reid’s machinations by accident.

legalinsurrection.com

"It’s an argument that pits a group of conservative senators – and their desire for a good weekend of messaging against President Obama’s amnesty – against the broader Republican conference, which was clinging to the hope that it could convince Reid to surrender his post as majority leader without first taking advantage of the nuclear option to confirm the presidential appointees." ...

Peshawar school attack: Taliban's 'revenge' for Malala Yousafzai's Nobel Peace Prize; Pakistan's 9/11

Will its leaders at last end their dalliance with terrorists?    ... " Pakistan has been toughening its stance against the TTP over the past year, but this attack is a symptom of Pakistan’s fatal hesitancy to directly confront TTP. Pakistan’s future now rests on the pivot between those who recognize that these terrorists cannot be leashed and those who see them as tools to use for their own ends." ...

International Business Times

Young Pakistani Supporters of Malala Yousafzai

 

"The Taliban has killed dozens of children at a Peshawar school in a revenge mission for Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai being awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

 "Ahmed Rashid, an expert on the Islamic militants, told the BBC the insurgents had various reasons to attack the school, one of which was to send a message to the supporters of Malala, who advocates education for women and children. 

 

"In response to the events at the school in Pakistan, education campaigner Malala has condemned the "atrocious and cowardly" attack." ...