On the bus ride to Bastogne we wached Band of Brothers, depicting US soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge. To watch the battle they fought and be driving to the actual soil where it took place was really something to step back and think about.
We started at the memorial in Bastogne, the Mardasson Memorial to honor Americans killed or wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. In Latin, the Belgians have written on the monument, "The Belgian people remember their American liberators – 4th July 1946."
Around the top of the memorial are the 50 states - Carleigh and I:
From the German ultimatum: "There is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town..."
McAuliffe's reply: "To the German Commander, NUTS!, The American Commander"
Here is a sign that US soldiers took during the war as a souveneir and returned to the museum.
We then traveled to the actual battlesite - today still forests as it was during the war.
We visited the foxholes, preserved to give a sense of what it was actually like. While the trees provided cover from German fire (which was coming less than 20m away, where the light is in the picture), the shrapnel would bouce off the trees in every direction.
While the US was victorious, it was the bloodiest with more than 70,000 US casualties. We visited both American and German cemeteries. At the US cemetery, it was quite humbling walking among those who had given their life in battle - one solider in particular was a Medal of Honor winner for crashing his plane into a German target. Most were from the air force – of those who died in enemy territory and were only recovered years after their death. The families had hope that their sons would come back home.
This picture is from the German one - each headstone is for 6 German soldiers. This was also emotionally difficult to walk through, though in a way much different from the US cemetery. Senior SS officials as well as drafted 19 year olds were buried side by side, even in the same grave - thus a blurry line between war criminals and soldiers younger than me.
The group in downtown Bastogne:
That night we stayed in Liege, where we celebrated Kristen's birthday in the city at a few different places.
In the morning we took a tour of Liege, but I don't remember too much because I think our tour guide was a little crazy. He was this little old man who started the tour by talking about the "red bricks" on the houses for 15 minutes. Our first stop on the tour was actually an apartment complex of "red bricks" where our guide explained how people lived there, with their kids, and how the kids could play - you can picture 17 American students standing awkardly in the middle of a Belgian apartment complex while residents wonder why the heck the tour is in here.
Thus we didn't get too much out of the tour, but thanks to the internet I can piece together a few things. For example, Liege has the dubious honor of being the first town ever hit with an aerial bombardment. However its history of being attacked goes back to Roman times because of its location.
The steps leading up to the fortress at the top:
Gothic courtyard:
Town hall:
