2002 Bastogne
We got to see Bastogne. This is the place in Belgium where General McAuliffe responded to Nazi demands to surrender with the eloquent and never to be forgotten single word, "Nuts"!
A great deal is remembered. There are two museums, which we visited. And a Sherman tank with holes in it. It sits in the town’s main square. This tank was part of the unit that was led by General Patten. His army broke through Nazi lines after a three day push from Verdun in the southwest, relieving McAuliffe and his men, who had foiled the Nazi plan to reach the Meuse and then Antwerp and force an Allied retreat.
Bastogne was severely damaged during The Battle of the Bulge. The small museum near the town square had a booklet with pictures of the buildings around the square. Some had been taken after the very fierce fighting and those on the opposite page show the exact same spot today. Both of us remembered vividly hearing about this battle and seeing pictures of the exhausted American troops in Bastogne in 1944.
On the way out of town we went through a town called Noville which had been the northern most defense line set up to stop the Nazi assault. In front of an ordinary house on the main road was the turret and gun of a Sherman tank. An unofficial memorial.
