02x02 - Island of Fire

[bunniefuu]

December, 1944.

When n*zi forces launch a surprise

offensive into Luxembourg

American troops get trapped by a German

tank crew calling for their surrender.

Americans, Americans!

The American

NCO considers his options.

step outside of cover and try and snap off

a shot with a bazooka.

surrender.

Not liking those choices

Showman chooses Door Number Three

Go, go, go. Out. Retreat.

The Back Door.

On June 6th, 1944

Allied forces finally land troops

in Normandy to open the western front.

But n*zi fanatics

and diehards

continue to fight ruthlessly for survival.

D-Day was a battle.

The Allies still need to win the w*r.

December 15th, 1944.

The Ardennes Forest, Luxembourg.

Two German soldiers

sneak into the town of Clervaux.

The streets are quiet.

Clervaux is a beautiful, charming

Luxembourg town that's held

by the Americans.

It had been for about a couple of months

by December 1944.

It's maybe about six, seven miles

from the advance outpost front lines.

American soldiers

are on leave here.

Have a good night?

The town had not been destroyed

in any fighting to liberate it.

So, it was a good place for GI's to go

and, uh, have a little R&R

and just kind of enjoy themselves

for a couple days.

The German soldiers

make their way through town,

and pick the lock of a pharmacy.

They are forward a*tillery observers.

Forward a*tillery observers

are highly trained soldiers,

so what they do

is they position themselves

as close to or inside

the enemy front lines.

They then have to pass

to on their a*tillery batteries

the coordinates of the main enemy targets.

Once inside,

they set up a radio in a back room.

The Germans now have

an a*tillery observation position

well behind the American line

and not far from the command post

of US 110th infantry regiment.

The presence of German forward

a*tillery observers inside Clervaux

is of course an ominous sign.

It means

that trouble is brewing in the east.

Trouble that will catch

the Allies woefully off guard.

Since D-Day, combined Allied forces

have pushed the German

army out of most of France,

Belgium and Luxembourg

back to within Germany's borders.

As part of the US 28th infantry division,

the 110th infantry regiment

now guards a portion of the front

in the Ardennes Forest

between Luxembourg and Germany.

Normally, an American division

would hold a front of four or five miles.

What happens

in the Ardennes is that

the units are very badly stretched out

so for example a 28th was stretched out

almost 30 miles wide

and worse than that

it was three regiments up front.

This means

that in case of German attack,

there's not a full regiment in reserve.

So, it was not only stretched

very thinly

it had no back up force behind it.

This is because Americans

consider this stretch

a "ghost" or "quiet" sector.

The senior US commanders

are under the impression

that the Germans are massing their forces

waiting for the US to attack.

They don't think

that anybody would be crazy enough

to attack through the Ardennes.

But the Allies

mistake Hitler's ambitions.

Instead of digging in for the winter,

he prepares a massive operation

called Wacht am Rhein.

The German objective

for Wacht am Rhein is to re-seize Antwerp

and cut the Allies

off from their most important supply line.

To drive a wedge between

the Americans and the British.

Both in the military sense,

and in a political sense.

If successful,

Hitler believes he can repeat history.

Because the ultimate objective

of the battle of the Ardennes

is the second Dunkirk.

What they're trying to do is separate

the US Army from the British Army,

force the British Army to abandon Europe.

He expects the western Allies

to sue for peace

and Germany can focus

exclusively on the eastern front

to defeat the Soviet Union.

More than 200,000 German soldiers

and hundreds of tanks

move secretly into position.

General Major Meinrad von Lauchert

will lead Hitler's charge from Dasburg

seven-miles east of Clervaux.

Freshly recalled

from regimental command in Russia,

von Lauchert takes control

of 2nd Panzer Division.

Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert

is a very experienced officer.

But he is put in command

of the 2nd Panzer Division

only the day before

the counter offensive kicks off.

So, he has not been involved

in the planning of the operation

in any way.

Indeed, he hasn't had time to consult

even with his regimental commanders.

Von Lauchert's forces

of nearly 13,000 men,

will smash through

the American line quickly

to capture and control the local roads.

The Germans need

hard surfaced roads for their tanks.

Seven of those hard surfaced roads

come together

in that crucial town of Bastogne.

The Germans will then use

those roads to swing north,

to recapture Antwerp.

Operation Watch

on the Rhine in English.

The ambitious plan

is predicated on speed, surprise,

and Hitler's belief that the undermanned

American line will crumble

in the face of adversity.

Hitler still underestimates

the Americans.

They've shown in the past couple

of months that they are quite good

in fighting an offensive w*r.

But defensively they are weak, yeah?

They are just not stable enough.

They don't understand

what this w*r is about.

Early on December 16th, 1944.

The first of Colonel von Lauchert's

infantry troops cross the Our River

in boats to slip unseen,

through the enemy line.

In the American sector of the Ardennes,

Private Leroy Scheller

joins B Company's nighttime patrol.

The 110th Infantry of course had just been

through the Hurtgen Forest battle,

had been decimated there.

It's working at anywhere between 50 to 66%

strength or so

and hopefully upward from there,

so man power's a bit of at a premium.

The patrol leaves

their assigned strongpoint of Marnach,

less than five miles from the front.

In the eerie quiet of the night,

they halt as they hear footsteps

And scramble for cover.

A German platoon passes in the darkness.

Instead of depending

on the a*tillery before the battle starts,

when it's still dark,

these guys are going to go sneaking

through the forest

because they know

that the American defenses are very thin.

Schaller and his patrol

stay hidden in the cold.

Schaller's patrol as I understand

it was not a combat patrol.

You know, basically looking for action.

It was a recon patrol

just to kind of sweep around

and see what was going on.

So you, saw what was going on,

there's some Germans out there

and you could then live

to report that to your superiors.

When the threat passes,

they return to Marnach to warn the others.

Back in Clervaux,

the German a*tillery observers remain

undiscovered by American forces there.

Earlier they scouted the town

and identified key targets

for the coming barrage.

Forward a*tillery observers

will be looking for main targets

troop strongholds, uh, tank positions.

They want to bring a*tillery

down on targets very nearby,

but they don't want

to be blown up themselves.

As Private Schaller

and the others stumble into Marnach

They find one of B Company's officers

to report on their patrol.

Combined with other observations,

it seems like the Germans are mobilizing.

As the minutes pass,

the German a*tillery observers

break radio silence

to relay key coordinates

to German headquarters.

At around 0530,

members of B Company

in Marnach hear a distant boom

and a torrent

of a*tillery streams overhead.

The German attack has begun.

December 16th, 1944. Luxembourg.

The German army

launches the opening salvos

of what would come to be known

as the Battle of the Bulge.

American Sergeant JJ Kuhn

watches as a*tillery streams overhead.

Kuhn's 110th infantry regiment

protects a ten mile stretch of highway

directly across the Our River.

Short of men,

they cannot defend the entire line.

Instead they position companies

at key crossroads along the highway,

Marnach, held by Company B,

protects one of the only paved roads

to Bastogne.

The Germans are trying to launch

a fast-mechanized attack,

to penetrate through the American lines

so they can race to the Meuse River

and then on to Antwerp.

Time is of the essence and in order

to move fast they need good roads.

Days before, Sergeant Kuhn

had noticed signs of a buildup

of n*zi forces

which he tries to share

with his commanding officer,

Colonel Hurley Fuller.

Does he appreciate

the bigger picture of how massive this is

and Hitler's thinking? No, of course not.

But he does understand

that something is different

on the German side of the hill

and that this is going to have

consequences for his B-company

and that's what matters to him,

and so like any good NCO,

he wants to make sure he has the attention

of those above him.

Copy that, sir.

Kuhn's concerns were dismissed.

Now Colonel Fuller,

based two miles west in Clervaux,

awakens to the sound of German a*tillery

striking near his command post.

He races downstairs

to contact his company commanders.

Come on, boys, I need some reports.

But a*tillery

has knocked out his phone lines

and radio frequencies are jammed.

Any word here?

Cut off

Nothing, we're not getting through.

Fuller has no way of knowing

the scale of the attack

nor can he call divisional command

for reinforcements.

The communication chain

has been severed up and down.

Fuller desperately needs information

to organize his defenses,

so he sends runners

to establish contact

with his company commanders.

Meanwhile, northeast of Fuller's sector

Sergeant Frank Olsen of the neighboring

112th infantry regiment,

heads into the woods to check in

with his men on guard duty.

Well, the Ardennes is very dark.

Not only woods, but also the time of year,

and of course the fact

that it's a warfront.

It's incredibly dark.

As he moves between foxholes

g*nf*re breaks out around him.

We got an ambush on our hands!

The forest

is full of German soldiers.

Right!

Olsen must act

and get word to headquarters.

Stay low! Stay low!

He takes his helmet off

because the helmet would silhouette him

as an American even in the dark.

With his helmet

tucked under his arm,

he sprints back to his command post.

And encounters

even more Germans as he runs.

He's bumping into these guys,

one of them even curses at him,

but doesn't notice that he's an American

but he and several others

are able to get out of there,

just by that kind of clumsy stealth.

Incoming!

Olsen breaks free

from the tangle

and reaches the farmhouse command post.

Let's go! Move forward!

Keep firing! Let 'em have it!

When suddenly

the forest is bathed in light.

December 16th, 1944.

Near the Luxembourg-German border.

In the opening hours of what would become

the Battle of the Bulge,

American Sergeant Frank Olsen,

breaks away from a fire fight with German

soldiers outside his command post,

when the night sky turns bright.

The Germans

project powerful searchlights

onto low hanging clouds

so this is a kind of artificial moonlight.

It helps illuminate enemy targets.

The light bouncing off the cloud

is supposed to make objects

visible to German soldiers.

But, there's a problem.

The same applies

to the Americans

and so what they now do

is use this same German

artificial moonlight to take down waves

and waves of German attackers.

Olsen and his men

pick them off with ease.

Keep firing!

Further south,

back in the 110th's portion of the line,

Sergeant JJ Kuhn coordinates B Company

for the defense of Marnach.

In anticipation of a full scale attack,

they place an a*tillery observer up high

with a view on the action.

Sergeant Kuhn's best weapons

are his a*tillery observers.

He controls so much of the firepower

that's going to cause casualties.

He's the guy with the big g*ns.

On the outskirts,

Sergeant Stanley Showman leads his platoon

past burning buildings.

Okay, I need five more guys

on this left side.

Only 19 years old,

he has fought with 110th since Normandy.

OK, go! Now!

Stanley Showman

is a guy who's been in combat.

He is an excellent NCO.

When he hears

that kind of a*tillery barrage,

he knows an attack has to be coming.

They're not just doing this

for the fun of it.

So he is starting to get ready

for whatever might be coming toward him

and his unit.

They dig in at the edge of town.

Smoke and fog make visibility poor.

All of a sudden

here come these apparitions,

these Germans out of the woods

because the woods border Marnach.

Showman and his platoon open fire.

Let 'em have it.

Initially, the attack

is just a blood bath for the Germans.

As showman engages the German

infantry along the road,

another group emerges out of the forest

on the north edge of town.

Incoming!

Keep firing!

In response, Sergeant Kuhn,

requests a*tillery support

from regimental headquarters.

Fire!

As the American shots land,

his a*tillery observer

can call in corrections

to better target the attacking Germans.

What people don't realize

most casualties in World w*r II

are inflicted by a*tillery.

Everyone thinks it's r*fles

and machine g*ns and all that, it's not.

The pinpoint fire

devastates the enemy column

But more German soldiers

continue to appear.

Kuhn described it as tragedy,

as an epic waste.

Here were hundreds of Germans

just getting, mowed down.

And why they were attacking

in that fashion,

from a human standpoint,

he thought it was tragic.

The first wave of German

soldiers cannot capture Marnach alone.

Despite the best efforts

of the German infantry,

GIs, small groups of GIs,

are holed up in villages on key roads.

So they need more fire power.

The firepower of tanks

to break through and gain speed again.

But Colonel von Lauchert's

tanks

have still not crossed

the Our River.

They had not completed a key bridge.

And poor planning compounds the problem.

That road

is blocked by the Germans

in the form of a metallic gate.

There is an unlocking device

to move the gate out of the way

but unfortunately the engineers

can't find the keys in time.

In order to preserve

the element of surprise,

they delay blowing up the barrier,

until after the barrage begins.

Finally, German engineers

clear and repair the bridge

but it takes much longer than expected,

and the tanks only begin

to cross in the afternoon.

Keep up the line of fire!

In Marnach, B Company continues

to pick off the German infantry advance.

Although some German soldiers engage

the American strong point,

others begin to push around the village

to the north and south.

They continue toward Clervaux

and the 110th infantry command post,

only two miles away.

Colonel Hurley Fuller is alarmed,

as reports and runners trickle in,

it appears

that the whole front is under attack.

With communication unreliable,

Fuller sends his executive officer,

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Strickler

to divisional headquarters

to speak with General Norman Cota.

Strickler reports the attacks

across the 110th's front.

General Cota also sends

a message in return.

The 110th must hold the line.

December 16, 1944.

The Ardennes Forest, Luxembourg.

Let 'em have it!

An entire division

of German Colonel Meinrad

von Lauchert's foot soldiers

surrounds the village of Marnach.

Some attack, while others push past,

towards the town of Clervaux.

Although the Americans

are heavily outnumbered

there will be no retreat or surrender.

Fire!

They are to hold at all costs.

That's the kind of thing

you might tend to breeze past

when you look at it an after-action report

or a book or whatever.

As front line soldiers, totally embattled

with the enemy around us,

surrounding us, trying to go through us,

now we're being told,

"You will hold at all costs."

Despite the odds,

B Company of the 110th

defies the German infantry

at a crossroads in Marnach.

When shrapnel

strikes their commanding officer,

he requires surgery and must be evacuated.

Sergeant JJ Kuhn assumes

command duties at B Company headquarters.

Despite his rank as an NCO.

As the German onslaught continues,

members of C Company approach

from the south to provide reinforcement.

But while the Germans have been unable

to break Marnach,

they surround it.

Get down!

And C Company is driven back.

Frustrated and desperate,

B Company puts out a distress call

to US troops in the area

as they run low on mortars.

An officer from D Company

two miles north of their position,

answers the call.

Lieutenant Glen Vannatta,

has a jeep loaded with mortar a*mo

and races towards B Company.

They pause on a hill just outside of town,

to assess the German

and American hotspots.

Then his driver takes off at full speed

to dodge the German a*tillery

and small arms fire.

Your choice.

They break through

and deliver the mortars to B Company.

You are absolute God send, Sir.

Then beat a hasty retreat.

With the support of American a*tillery

and fresh supplies

Sergeant Kuhn and his men

continue to hold off

the German soldiers

trying to capture Marnach.

But as night falls,

German armor, half tracks and tanks

creep through the darkness

and into town.

The Americans are unprepared.

They basically

have foot soldiers.

They've got small arms.

They've got the odd bazooka.

And they have a*tillery observation

in Marnach.

B Company is not well equipped

to deal with any kind of real,

you know, powerful tank attack.

Tank!

The momentum shifts.

n*zi forces begin to overrun American

machine g*n nests and outer defenses.

Move it. Move!

Sergeant Stanley Showman

and his squad

retreat from their forward position.

And withdraw to a stone building in town.

They watch

as a German half track stops outside.

When the German soldiers dismount,

the Americans

use their cover to open fire.

The Germans are cut down

and the half track retreats.

But before long,

a German tank rumbles down the street.

It stops 20 feet away and fixes its g*n,

directly at the Americans.

Americans, Americans!

A German voice

calls for their surrender.

Americans, come out!

Showman's options are limited.

Step outside of cover and try

and snap off a shot with a bazooka.

Surrender.

Showman chooses Door Number Three

Go, go, go. Out. Retreat.

the back door.

Showman and his squad

make it into the woods

as the village of Marnach burns.

The Americans were not crumbling

as German leaders had predicted.

The German command had planned

to be in control of Bastogne

by noon of the second day.

Now as the first day turns into night

we see that the Germans are still battling

for the small village of Marnach,

which is 19 miles east of Bastogne.

The Germans have made it

barely five miles from their own lines.

Marnach should've been taken

by the German infantry.

The fact that they did depend

on the panzers

to finally take those defenses

meant that the plan was failing.

But US forces there

cannot hold out much longer.

The American forward observer

continues to call down

a*tillery on German positions.

Okay. I need an a*tillery strike.

His final words on the line

reveal the desperate situation in Marnach.

The last message of this unknown

a*tillery spotter is,

"Hurry and fire

they're coming up the steps."

The Observer was taking literally the idea

of holding at all costs,

and he did exactly that.

Von Lauchert leaves men

to finish the capture of Marnach,

and spurs the remainder of 2nd Panzer

Clervaux.

In Clervaux,

American Colonel Hurley Fuller

receives reports of tanks in Marnach,

he tries again to send reinforcements

to relieve B Company.

I think Fuller's getting an

appreciation how the scope and scale

of the German offensive and how hard

pressed his regiment is going to be.

Back at Willtz

Cota, he's not quite there yet.

American reinforcements

march toward Marnach.

They hope to ambush

the Germans outside of town,

but as they leave Clervaux

in the early morning,

German troops and tanks already close in.

The Americans are the ones

about to be ambushed.

December 17th, 1944.

Near Clervaux, Luxembourg.

n*zi forces begin the second day

of a daring offensive

to end the w*r on the western front.

In response,

Colonel Hurley Fuller of the US 110th

sends two infantry companies

a company of Stuart tanks

to relieve Americans

trapped in the nearby village of Marnach.

But they do not get very far

before the they come under attack

themselves.

Let's go! Let's go!

Their efforts fail.

It's like an economy car

smashing with a Mack truck.

They're just overwhelmed

by the power of the German military forces

at this stage.

At company headquarters

in Marnach,

Sergeant JJ Kuhn and the dwindling forces

of B Company and its wounded,

still hold out for rescue

or reinforcement.

When a German tank rams the front door

German soldiers rush in

and force Kuhn and the last of B Company

into surrender.

With the fall of Marnach,

Fuller readies Clervaux

for an imminent attack.

Clervaux has now begun to transition,

a very unhappy transition,

from a rear area headquarters and R&R town

to now the epicenter of the battle.

From his command post

at the Claravallis hotel,

he positions men in the castle

which overlooks the southern approaches

to Clervaux.

German a*tillery

continues to fall on the Americans.

Fuller still does not realize

that it is being controlled from nearby.

Even as the Americans

move into new defensive positions,

the two German forward observers

can call a*tillery down in response.

As Fuller's men scramble,

Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert arrives

on the outskirts of town with tanks

and targets the American-occupied castle.

But the thick walls hold

as they had for centuries.

Von Lauchert is frustrated.

In order to get back on schedule,

he must take Clervaux quickly

to secure the roads needed

for the German advance.

But, he does not want

to send his tanks into town.

Von Lauchert

is an experienced officer.

He knows that an urban environment

will negate the tanks

maneuverability and speed

what is worse behind every corner

there can be an Allied tank.

Von Lauchert sends

his infantry troops into the town instead.

They are to scout ahead for American tanks

and clear resistance.

As German soldiers move into Clervaux,

American sn*pers in the castle take aim.

The Germans

try to disrupt the sn*per fire,

but the shells do little damage.

However, with their overwhelming numbers,

German troops bypass the fortress

and fight their way toward

the command post in the Claravallis hotel.

Fuller's 110th has delayed the German push

towards Bastogne for two days.

But his men have paid a heavy price.

Well, the numbers

are the numbers.

Most of these American formations

are outnumbered anywhere from about 2 to 1

to 10 to 1

depending on where we're talking about.

We get help in three hours or something

we might hold out for that,

but that's not really the situation here.

Colonel Fuller

knows he cannot delay much longer.

He calls general Cota

and asks for reinforcements

or permission to fall back

to set up a new defensive line.

Both requests are denied.

Cota is unequivocal, "Hold at all costs".

Nobody comes back.

Fuller throws in his final tanks

against the German attack.

They navigate the narrow roads

towards the castle.

The lead tank rounds a corner,

and heads down a side street.

When the American tanks erupt in flames,

it is the last of Fuller's reserves.

And gives von Lauchert's men

free reign to advance.

The German armor column

can move deeper into Clervaux.

Inexorably closer to, ah, Fuller's

Command Post at the Claravallis Hotel.

Across town,

the command post is already under pressure

from German infantry attacks.

You have guards outside

who are now under fire

and have been driven inside.

You have people trying to figure out

the next course of action,

get out of there or burn papers.

Or round up a new crew to go and fight

this group of Germans we just spotted

or deal with this tank,

scrounge up any weapons you can get.

Get General Cota on the line!

Fuller radios

General Cota an update

and prepares to give his men

the order to withdraw.

Reinforcements now!

Abruptly, a shell rips through

the hotel's first floor,

knocking out the power.

Fuller and what is left of his 110th

are trapped and out of time.

December 17th, 1944.

Clervaux, Luxembourg.

2nd Panzer Division,

led by Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert

has breached the American-held town

of Clervaux,

seven miles into the American line.

Von Lauchert traps Colonel Fuller

and his men in a hotel,

which serves as their command post.

German soldiers storm in,

and fire fights break out in the lobby

and ground floor hallways.

He's had, what is now

kind of a famous conversation

with the 28 Division Chief of Staff,

Colonel Gibney.

And Fuller compares himself

to Colonel Travis at the Alamo saying,

"We're about to be overrun."

Fuller does not feel

the chief of staff and General Cota

appreciate the gravity of the situation.

He returns to the crisis at hand

when an expl*si*n rips into the room,

injuring several men.

Now he's got wounded people

so Fuller becomes this sort of impromptu

medic trying to staunch the bleeding.

He bandages the eyes of a man

blinded by the blast

but others are too far gone.

g*nf*re and fighting

continue on the ground floor,

when a member of staff finds a way out.

There's like a fire escape type ladder

that'll lead from one of the top floors

all the way to the ridgeline

provided you don't fall from that ladder

to the street below.

Fuller inches along,

50 feet above the ground below.

Here's this 50-year-old man

trying to hang on

and get across this horizontal ladder,

basically crawl across it

while this wounded blind guy is behind him

trying to hang on.

Fuller and a small group

of soldiers make it across and away.

Let's go!

As they escape into the woods,

the 110th command post falls.

Across town, about 100 US Soldiers

holdout in the ramparts

of the medieval castle.

The Germans pummel the walls and gate

but cannot break through.

They decide on another approach.

They figure out

maybe we ought to fire incendiary rounds

to set the roof of the castle on fire

and maybe that'll flush

the defenders out.

Incoming!

It works.

Fires break out across the castle.

The American commander,

not willing to risk the lives

of the civilians hidden in the cellar,

surrenders.

When Clearvaux falls,

the road to Bastogne opens,

and the Germans hurry forward,

only to be slowed again,

at each cross road.

All along the front, makeshift resistance

continues to harass their advance.

The Germans fight for four days

to reach Bastogne

and create the bulge in the Allied line

that gave a name to the infamous battle.

But the critical delay means

Bastogne can be reinforced

and defended by the Allies.

The battle will rage for five more weeks,

but by failing to take Bastogne early,

the German operation is doomed

almost from the start.

Within a month, the Allies once again

force the Germans

to retreat back to the border.

Of the 3,200 members of the 110th,

only one in seven is not k*lled,

wounded or captured.

The 110th basically fought

to extinction in the Bastogne corridor.

And in about a three-day period

the regiment was shattered.

Its records, to a great extent, were lost.

Their sacrifice

was not acknowledged.

No medals were awarded

and no regimental honors bestowed.

Later on, when the army hierarchy

was considering

presidential unit citations and whatever

there really wasn't anybody in house

to speak up for the 110th infantry.

Colonel Hurly Fuller,

Sergeant JJ Kuhn,

and Sergeant Stanley Showman

are all captured by the Germans

and serve the rest of the w*r

in POW camps.

They are liberated in 1945,

and return to the United States.

Once released, Colonel Fuller advocates

for the American 110th.

But he just does

not have the influence.

He does not have the pull, uh,

to get the recognition for his regiment

that he otherwise would've hoped for

and also the fact

that he himself had become a POW

was always going to be a bit

of a sticking point in that regard.

Reasonable or not.

Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert

pushed farther into Allied lines

than almost any other German commander.

Colonel Meinrad von Lauchert

will continue to fight

the Allied troops tooth

and nail with his 2nd Panzer Division

and he will continue

to do so until March, 1945

when he is with his back

against Rhine River.

But by that time

nothing much remains of his crack unit.

Operation Watch on the Rhine,

or Battle of the Bulge

proves costly for both sides.

The German army suffers

about 120,000 casualties.

In the Battle of the Bulge,

the Germans lose their last reserves.

And when the Soviets attack

in a major offensive, in mid-January 1945,

the German front and the east

collapse very quickly.

So, two weeks later, the Soviets

are only 50 miles away from Berlin.

So, the real winner of the Battle

of the Bulge is-- are not the Americans,

it's the Soviets and Stalin.

The western Allies

will need to regroup and resupply

before advancing into Germany.

But, the Germans will now fight

on home turf

and the w*r in Europe will continue

for four more months.