In the wintry darkness, American soldiers sang Silent Night and heard Germans singing Stille Nacht, the same carol. Thousands of GIs were taken prisoner, however, and at Malmedy, Belgium, more than 80 were machine-gunned by Waffen SS soldiers in one of World War II's most notorious battlefield atrocities.Īt Bastogne, the 101st's paratroopers repulsed repeated attacks and were desperately low on ammunition. "It was so cold that GIs had to keep their rifles under their coats to keep them from freezing," Vicari remembers.Įlsewhere, other American units fought to stop the German advance and prevent capture of fuel supplies, a prime German objective. Snow and fog allowed only a few supply drops, and many parachutes drifted into German lines, delivering much-needed ammunition, food and medical supplies to the wrong side. But after a week of fighting, they found themselves surrounded. They were seasoned veterans, but even their biggest weapons were no match for the fearsome 70-ton Tiger tanks.īy getting to Bastogne first, the Americans were able to block German movements in southern Belgium. Army divisions _ outmanned, outgunned and mostly untested in battle.īy contrast, the 101st Airborne had jumped into the dark behind enemy lines on D-Day and fought across France and Holland. Stretched thinly across the forested terrain were five U.S. "We had never heard of a place called Bastogne."īastogne, a market town where several roads converged, was critical to blocking the German advance.Īided by heavy overcast that grounded Allied aircraft, 200,000 German troops and 600 tanks were surging westward through the rugged Ardennes, driving a wedge into American lines that on battle maps would become famous as "the Bulge." "Nobody knew where we were going," recalls Vicari, now 84 and retired in Easton, Pa. By midnight, the troops had gathered their gear and boarded hastily organized convoys. We were still in the same torn uniforms, short of food, ammo and everything else."īut orders were orders. "We were exhausted and we'd had no time to refurbish," says Vicari. They were still recovering from three months of combat in Operation Market Garden, the failed British-led invasion of Germany via Holland. Vicari and the rest of his unit didn't welcome it.
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