The Battle Of The Bulge began this week in 1944. Here's a pic of soldiers ready to fight:

[Are_grits_groceries]

@Historical_Pics

Imagine fighting under those conditions in a thick forest. smh...
(My Daddy fought in this operation.)

[monmouth3]

1. So did my Uncle Ray. Everytime I see Battle of the Bulge I think of him, always looking for him

in the photos but never see him...

[Renew Deal]

2. Trench coat warfare

Looks cold!

[dmosh42]

3. We won't see any 1 per centers in these type pictures! True heroes!

[econoclast]

18. You'd be surprised!

Family members of two US presidents were combat vets of the Battle of the Bulge:

Teddy Roosevelt's grandson - Quentin II - was a Captain (artillery) in the 1st Division

William McKinley's grand nephew - William D McKinley - was an infantry battalion commander in the 2nd Division

Note - Teddy Roosevelt's son (also a Ted & Quentin IIs father ) won the Congressional Medal of Honor on D Day Utah Beach and died in Normandy later that summer.

[okaawhatever]

21. WWII was different. The "Fortunate Sons" didn't come around until probably Korea but definitely

Vietnam. There may have been a few one percenters who kept their families sheltered but nothing like today.

[Politicalboi]

28. Don't forget the Kennedy's

Patrick and JFK.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Let me point to some of those, starting with the children of the serving President

http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2011/08/children-of-fdr.html

Then there are the two Kennedy brothers, both served in combat, one died in combat.

Here is another Roosevelt who served in the front lines

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/06/06/the-tallest-warrior-on-the-longest-day/

Why I say that next time this country goes to war, the first to join the service should be the kids of the President if they are of military age.

[MADem]

4. And that was before down filled (or ersatz down) coats,

polar fleece, water repellent polyesters, or any of that lightweight stuff. Wool can keep you warm but it's heavy and loses some of that insulating ability when wet.

And check out those steel pots on their heads! You could cook in those, use them for washing/shaving, they were muti-purpose, but heavy as hell. And COLD, thus necessitating the liner!

I'm sure they knew what the stakes were, and they were probably wishing they didn't have to do what they were about to do, particularly in that weather....

They look so YOUNG!

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. The food and medical care was no great shakes either.

The food doesn't seem to be esthetically much better, but it's more nutritious and filling now than then.

My Daddy fought from D-Day to VE-Day. It's a wonder that anybody could go through all that without being wounded or very sick. I am sure he came home with invisible scars. That he came home at all seems to be a miracle when I really consider what he went through.

[MADem]

8. We were still eating some of those crappy C Rats in the olive green cans thirty five years

after that war! They had a lotta leftovers! Fatty crap! Mystery meat!

When they went to those MREs it was like a gourmet meal by comparison. They've gotten better and better down the years, too. They should do a "compare and contrast" in boot camp so kids understand how much better the chow in the field is, these days!

Funny how the generation that went through all that (and there are loads in my family, many gone now, sadly) never talked about that stuff--they probably would have done well to so do.

[Baclava]

16. the movies always show our soldiers in WWII being in the 30's like their actors ...

but in reality our army was mostly made up of 18, 19, 20 year olds

or less


The Boy Who Became a World War II Veteran at 13 Years Old


At 5-foot-2 and just 125 pounds, Graham dressed in an older brother’s clothes and fedora and practiced “talking deep.” What worried him most was not that an enlistment officer would spot the forged signature. It was the dentist who would peer into the mouths of potential recruits. “I knew he’d know how young I was by my teeth,” Graham recalled. He lined up behind a couple of guys he knew who were already 14 or 15, and “when the dentist kept saying I was 12, I said I was 17.” At last, Graham played his ace, telling the dentist that he knew for a fact that the boys in front of him weren’t 17 yet, and the dentist had let them through. “Finally,” Graham recalled, “he said he didn’t have time to mess with me and he let me go.” Graham maintained that the Navy knew he and the others on line that day were underage, “but we were losing the war then, so they took six of us.”

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2012/12/the-boy-who-became-a-world-war-ii-veteran-at-13-years-old/

[Egalitarian Thug]

20. The average age of the U.S. soldier in WWII was 26. It fell to 19 by Vietnam. n/t

[FatBuddy]

6. and most of them didn't choose to be there

many were drafted.

but being 4F was a worse fate (or that's what grandpa said).

[Romulox]

7. I wonder how they would've felt about what we've become.

I personally wouldn't have fought for this.

[Baclava]

9. here's some more

Uncle Fritz?

[MineralMan]

12. Thanks for those photos!

[WinkyDink]

10. My father won his Bronze and Silver Stars in the Heavy Artillery here.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. Dad was shot here.

Extremely bloody and unpleasant business.

[MineralMan]

13. My sister's father-in-law fought there, too.

He, like so many people, are gone now. It's a great loss to us. Time passes, and with it passes another generation. I'm very fortunate that my father, who flew B-17s in that war, is still with us. At 89, he's frail, but still a great man.

[Ranchemp.]

14. I'm glad your father survived WWII.

My father fought the Battle of the Bulge also and survived only to loose his life at the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War.

[MineralMan]

15. I'm really sorry to hear that. Far too many people

who survived WWII had to serve in Korea, as well. A lot of WWII vets felt that was horribly unfair. I remember my father saying that he worried about that, but they didn't use B-17s much in Korea, and by then he had three children, so he wasn't called back.

[Ranchemp.]

31. Thank you.

I really don't remember too much about him, I was only 5 when he left for Korea. Funny thing was that during WWII, he was in the Army, when the war ended, he cross transferred to the Marine Corps.
I do have a box full of photos of him, much of them during his time in WWII and some from Korea.
And it was unfair as hell to send him and other WWII vets to fight in Korea.

[Wounded Bear]

17. Kick for history....

[econoclast]

19. For those interested...

Book about the Battle of the Bulge by Charles MacDonald who - before he became a historian - was a rifle company commander in the 2nd Division and fought in the Battle of the Bulge

"A Time for Trumpets"

[okaawhatever]

22. I'm wondering if there's a way to look up my grandfathers war record. it's not that he wasn't alive

or anything. He was in the Army 28 yrs and served WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I know he was 101st for WWII (I'm almost positive) and with the 82nd later. One of his war buddies told me at his funeral that he made three jumps into combat. Oddly, being in a military family and living in a military town it was something that wasn't talked about. I don'[t have his social and everyone else in the family who would know it is now dead. Funny how that stuff is. I went to visit him in the hospital and every day he was watching women's wrestling. I was talking to his roommate about it and he said he didn't follow wrestling so I asked my grandfather if we shouldn't let his roommate pick a show and the roommate told me in rather gruff manor that the Sargent Major had earned the right to watch whatever he wanted. Even in the 80's the guys who fought in "the big one" were esteemed by the Korea and Vietnam era guys.

[steve2470]

25. I would start at this link. Good luck !

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/

[okaawhatever]

30. Thank you for that. I have his service number so that should do it. Thanks again. nt

[steve2470]

23. My dad was there also, with 3rd Armored Division artillery

He would only say " It was cold ! ". No other comments.

[econoclast]

27. My father's exact response as well!!!

28th Infantry Division. MP

[steve2470]

24. photo of Sherman M4 tank

Caption:

Icy: An American Sherman M4 tank moves past another gun carriage that slid off icy road in the Ardennes Forest during push to halt advancing German troops.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075565/Vivid-new-Battle-Bulge-photos-offer-seen-look-war-weary-soldiers-braving-frigid-weather-fight-Nazi-Germanys-major-offensive-World-War-II.html#ixzz2nrsBIJ6H

[edhopper]

26. I've heard the real quote from Bastogne

was "Go fuck yourself!" not "Nuts to you."