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Anniversary of the 'Battle of the Buldge'


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I usually watch Band of Brothers episodes 5, 6, and 7 with my son.  Saints and Soldiers is half decent too. I happen to like armor subjects and enjoy documentaries, if anyone else does then this might interest you:

Great series!

 

Happy modeling all!

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Don't recall which movie had this; but, when Germans over-ran an American forward outpost and found a Cake mailed from home in the US, the German Commander later said, "Then I knew we had lost the War.  If the Americans have the fuel to ship that Cake from the US to Europe Battlefield, we've lost!!  We don't have the fuel to run our Tanks"!!  Rather revealing!!

 

Bo

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8 hours ago, jabow said:

Don't recall which movie had this; but, when Germans over-ran an American forward outpost and found a Cake mailed from home in the US, the German Commander later said, "Then I knew we had lost the War.  If the Americans have the fuel to ship that Cake from the US to Europe Battlefield, we've lost!!  We don't have the fuel to run our Tanks"!!  Rather revealing!!

 

Bo

Logistics wins wars.  Crazy to think that with all the resources the US had, a good portion of the Wehrmacht depended on horses.  

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10 hours ago, jabow said:

the German Commander later said, "Then I knew we had lost the War.  If the Americans have the fuel to ship that Cake from the US to Europe Battlefield, we've lost!!  We don't have the fuel to run our Tanks"!!  Rather revealing!!

I'd bet that's a fabrication of the screen writers, but it does in represent a key factor. In Normandy '44, Holland describes the near immediate replacement of equipment. Cleaver in Pacific Thunder as well as Hornfischer in Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors describe the plentiful supply of well-trained aviators and aircraft. Parshall describes the enormous GDP differences and fleet expansions in his lecture on The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway.

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11 hours ago, dnl42 said:

I'd bet that's a fabrication of the screen writers, but it does in represent a key factor. In Normandy '44, Holland describes the near immediate replacement of equipment. Cleaver in Pacific Thunder as well as Hornfischer in Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors describe the plentiful supply of well-trained aviators and aircraft. Parshall describes the enormous GDP differences and fleet expansions in his lecture on The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway.

I'm sure it was screen writer injecting his words (didn't have notes taken of all conversations during this battle). Fact remains the Germans DIDN'T have fuel for war machines and Allies DID ship Christmas things from home!!

Bo

Edited by jabow
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D-Day Through German Eyes is a great book on the German's perspective.  Interviews of soldiers on the Atlantic wall facing the invasion knew that the war wasn't going to end as they hoped when they realized we had the fuel for all the mechanization hitting the beach.  When no horses came off the ships, they were seriously demoralized about the chances of repelling the invasion. Or holding on to France.  Recommended reading if you really want to know what the average Wermacht soldier believed and was thinking. 

 

Rick L.

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The Battle Of The Bulge hits close to home for me

* I had a neighbor who was an older fellow. Didn't really know him, but had to visit him one day. His wife invited me in while got him. I saw this shadow box on the wall with medals and ribbons that I suspected were from WWII. Yet there was a strange metal object in there I'd never seen before. I heard a voice behind and he said " you don't know what that is do you?" They were POW dog tags. They got him on the second day of the Battle! 

* That first battalion that was over run was stationed twenty minutes south of me. 

* And of course I know several guys that were in the 506th Infantry, but of course not in WWII. 

Gary

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20 hours ago, Spruemeister said:

D-Day Through German Eyes is a great book on the German's perspective. 

Sounds interesting.

Also interesting is how, fate, fortune, luck, divine providence, call it what you will, allowed, or even set up, the US to be the industrial powerhouse it was and that it took to win that war.

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4 hours ago, southwestforests said:

Sounds interesting.

Also interesting is how, fate, fortune, luck, divine providence, call it what you will, allowed, or even set up, the US to be the industrial powerhouse it was and that it took to win that war.

Look for the book The German Generals Speak. First printing was in the late 1940's

Gary

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The Battle Of The Bulge hits VERY close to home for me. My Dad was in a Recon unit for General Patton, and was captured in the Battle of the Bulge.

When my Dad saw the scene in the movie (I think it was that movie) where the Germans let some captured US soldiers out of the trucks to relieve themselves, and then shot them, he said that had happened to him. He and a few others managed to escape, and were captured again, but by a different unit. He then spent the rest of the war in a POW camp. For MANY years, he never wanted to talk about his wartime experiences. I built a model of an M20 Armored car for him, and tried to get his unit markings on it. By the time I presented it to him, his Alzheimers was already pretty far along, and he didn't recognize what it was. It's now on my Mom's fireplace mantle, underneath the US Flag we got at his memorial service, from the US Army.

Larry

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16 hours ago, ReccePhreak said:

The Battle Of The Bulge hits VERY close to home for me. My Dad was in a Recon unit for General Patton, and was captured in the Battle of the Bulge.

When my Dad saw the scene in the movie (I think it was that movie) where the Germans let some captured US soldiers out of the trucks to relieve themselves, and then shot them, he said that had happened to him. He and a few others managed to escape, and were captured again, but by a different unit. He then spent the rest of the war in a POW camp. For MANY years, he never wanted to talk about his wartime experiences. I built a model of an M20 Armored car for him, and tried to get his unit markings on it. By the time I presented it to him, his Alzheimers was already pretty far along, and he didn't recognize what it was. It's now on my Mom's fireplace mantle, underneath the US Flag we got at his memorial service, from the US Army.

Larry

Euwing Napair never really talked about his war. I discovered him by accident, and we bought him a life membership in the VFW. We lost him three years later. Looking at his shadow box, I saw two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star with the V Device and Oak Leaf Clusters, a regular Bronze Star, plus the Silver Star! Just to think we might have never known about him with saddens me!

        Yet the best one was a 91 years young lady in a convollecent center the folks in the Honor Guard found. She proudly wore a WWII Victory medal! Well they thought it was maybe her husband's. Turned out she was a Surgical Nurse, and went with Gen. Patton all the way across Europe! She was actually one of the first into Bastogne as she was badly needed! We found her a couple years before Euwing, and promptly inducted her into the VFW.

Gary

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