Bulge / Ardennes (2003)

Coming to the Ardennes straight after Verdun was in many ways a good idea. Verdun was intense and so much information. The Ardennes was a rest-bite on easy looking. The reason behind this is it is a mainly American site and the Americans love a museum, so instead of wandering around a cold February battlefield we were snug in a museum ! The Museum at Bastonge is a great museum - including a Huge War memorial and a cinema. And boy was it cold outside - ironic really as the 16th December 1944 was one of the coldest days on record in the area and the battle was fought as much against the elements as it was the Nazis. The town of Bastogne was made famous because of the seige of Bastogne - Bastogne had already been liberated and then was surrounded in the Nazi's counter-attack - by the 22nd of December 1944 the town was cut off and a band of Americans were surrounded - The Nazi's sent emissairies to the American commander in the area General McAuliffe, asking the Americans to surrender. McAuliffe's answer was short, sweet and simple. He replied "Nuts" [to the surrender]. Since then Bastogne has been called "Nuts City". By Boxing day 1944 General Patton had broken the deadlock and Bastogne was saved. Bastogne features heavily in the HBO/BBC TV series "Band of Brothers". For me, this is one of the reasons that I really got interested again in Second World War battles. Band of Brothers is one of the best TV mini series ever, and although there is a lot of American slant (the other allies hardly get a look in, and when they do the Brits are usually Dick Van Dyke "Cockanyee" sounding) the series does show the horrors of war. No more so than episode simply called "Bastogne". A hidden gem of a museum in the area was the "Ardennen Poteau '44 Museum" which is in Poteau, near St. Vith in Belgium. The Museum is usually closed during the winter - but a quick email to them and the nice couple that own it opened up for the NMBS. They have lots of bikes, tanks, half-tacks and Jeeps and is a well presented museum.