Battle of the Bulge: Siege of Bastogne | Frontlines Ep. 06 | Documentary

the front line is combat at its most brutal drives people to extreme acts for many complex reasons they were fighting for each other not for patriotism but for their bodies we reveal the most decisive front lines in the second world war and take you deep into the heart of battle with the men who were there they were attacking with divisions and I had one rifle company with about a hundred men I was down to my last box of ammunition we had no food and we were hurting it was Hitler's last Gamble and no one saw it coming no one's ever gonna mount an assault through this kind of overgrown wooded area well somebody had it was the toughest U.S battle of World War II and almost its greatest defeat and the Americans know that they have to stand and fight what's gonna happen is they're going to be overwhelmed foreign [Music] December 1944 the Allies thought the war was orbed over and the Nazi war machine broken for good but they'll have a surprise in store on a front line so quiet it's called the ghost front for Hitler the border between Germany and Belgium is anything but ghostly a fast buildup of men and tanks has been assembling for months in a region called the Arden the German offensive in the Argan was essentially the last great throw of the dice by Adolf Hitler this was his gamble this was where he was going to put all of his remaining resources on the Western Front as many tanks as he could as many men as he could as many planes as he could for the Allies the Aden front line is so safe from the enemy it's where battle Berry units are sent to recuperate and green troops come to toughen up the Allies are not really expecting a huge offensive in this particular part of the front they're also not sure whether Germans are able to launch an offensive at all because the Germans have taken quite some beatings since the days of Normandy and so they think that the germs are simply not able to launch a huge offensive even more reassuring for senior Allied commanders the Arden is one of the most difficult places to carry out any offensive especially by an army that's all but finished the terrain itself is almost designed by my God to make it impossible for armored Warfare it's very very densely wooded lots and lots of rivers deep ravines and it was the depths of winter worst winter in Europe for 40 years snow deep on the ground absolutely healthy temperatures so as far as our eyes were concerned there was no threat there this is stationed on the front line are the new recruits of the 106th Infantry Division and the 14th Cavalry group novice soldiers fresh from South Carolina and stretched thinly patrolling 30 kilometers of German border most have never seen a shot fired in anger Hitler's plan to drive three armies straight through the ghost front over 300 kilometers West to the coastal Port of Antwerp in a lightning attack Hitler has gathered his most hardened Fighters crack SS divisions will be targeting Antwerp while in the center the fifth Panzer Army is charged with taking Brussels under the command of Highly decorated tactician General Haso Von man TOEFL reporting to him the aristocratic General fry hair Von lutvitz commander of the 47th Panzer Corps alongside him hardened by years on the Russian front General Fritz bioline commanding the elite Panzer Lair division in the utmost secrecy almost half a million men and 4 000 tanks assault guns and artillery prepare to attack as the countdown to battle approaches a deathly hush settles over the forests concealing the reich's great last bid for victory under heavy cloud and in the worst winter for a generation the Germans strike their completely unsuspecting enemy in a dawn attack of blistering ferocity 5 30 a.m on the morning of the 16th of December the German barrage opens up and it's the largest German bars that they've had on the on the Western Front so the most guns that they've been able to concentrate since since the D-Day campaign and German soldiers not used to that weight of Firepower and for once they feel you know the god of war is kind of on their side their enemy is completely surprised they are deluged with artillery and an absolute Firestorm of German infantry and panzeria is coming towards them out of the Morning Mist you could see the land in front of our sector erupting with explosions one had the impression that the whole world was going under such a massive and unrelenting Drum Fire I had never experienced before the sparse U.S defense Falls instantly the front line is smashed and bulges out into Belgium before the advancing tanks Hitler's massive breakout will have to stay on hard roads securing the towns they pass through the first and most important is Bastone you hold best on you held the entry points the gateways to most of Western France and most particularly the giant Port City of Antwerp everything in the ardenne is about getting the roads getting the towns that control the roads and never more than it passed on crucial to the attacker's grueling schedule is direct travel any detour in the unforgiving terrain means a catastrophic waste of fuel and time for the tanks and their supporting units tanks are particularly German Panzer designs had wide tracks so that they could go through swampy ground very very good across country terrain however everyone Panzer there is there's 30 trucks and Scout cars and and so on all behind them on Wheels and they would just not designed in any way shape or form to be able to grow cross-country but even with hard roads and a direct route there's still a major problem for Hitler economically Germany is on its knees everything is in short supply not least fuel an army might march on its stomach but a Panzer needs fuel and a World War II German Panzer needed an awful lot of it typically one tank would get it about a hundred miles after that it would need to be refueled with these These are 20 liter Jerry cans the problem was there were steep Ravines heavily wooded terrain very very difficult to grow cross country and of course whereas a Panzer might be able to go cross-country the truck carrying these most definitely can't and the solution that Hitler Hit Upon was to steal the fuel from the Americans as they Advanced they would take it from their own fuel dumps but it turned out to be a complete fantasy with the Assumption of straight hard roads and abundance of fuel to seas and no enemy resistance Hitler decides his attack can be done in record-breaking time so he sets a punishing schedule for his commanders to get his forces through the ardenne Hitler has given his armies a timetable really tight of only two days now this is bizarre because in 1940 his favorite General Major General Erwin Rommel had gone through the Arden and had taken three days but in the middle of winter when the terrain is even more difficult Hitler wants his three armies to do that March in two days the first hours of the German offensive are devastating to the American Defenders and German infantry can barely believe the ease of their attack half crouched instinctively presenting a smaller Target we cautiously began moving forward in a short time we arrived at the first houses and opened fire at windows and doors I could see American soldiers running from the houses I even saw one of them in his underwear our company had successfully captured the southern part of the village the American Defenders of Bastone are hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered so they have to play their only card the best they can one thing that the American Defenders can do is slow those German attackers down as much as possible so that the British and American forces in other areas can come and reinforce the defenses Powers down to take Bastone there is nothing in its way to match it foreign itself the only Allied presence is the battle-worn remnant of the U.S 28th Infantry Division recovering from months of fighting with air backup they could stop the attackers but there's a problem remember that the great Advantage the Allies had was air power thousands of Fighters and bombers flying from Britain and from France could come in and launch massive attacks on German units but those fighter bombers were reliant on having clear air to fly it that means that the Great American Advantage is actually neutralized the story of Baston is that the American ground troops are on their own they're gonna have to figure out a way to stop the Germans by themselves in Bastone with the German panzers closing fast the commander of the exhausted 28th Infantry Division Major General Troy Middleton has to think quickly what general Middleton has to do is he has to figure out a way to stop the Germans short of the town when he's desperately outnumbered desperately outmanned Middleton is trying to throw together scratch combinations of any kind of soldiers that he can find who will still fight and send them forward and try to slow the Germans down and they are Rough and Ready ad hoc groupings of guys and half tracks some artillery basically mobile units a few tanks whatever is available there are a whole series of these which have put out about 10 miles distant in a a ring all the way round at Bastone and what they are is a tripwire and they're there to buy time and if necessary be sacrificed because what you can't have is the Germans coming into the center of bastogne at all costs I mean if by Stone Falls then the Germans are through the Arden like in knife through butter and the whole American front will collapse to the problems that the Americans were facing was that not only are they trying to slow down the Germans but they're also dealing with hundreds if not thousands of American soldiers who've taken out the status of something like refugees they're just trying to get out of there desperately streaming back from a front line that's been cracked open by the German attack now rapid advances clashes and Retreats flare up in the winter Twilight with neither side clear on their positions chaos Reigns as intelligence and orders become irrelevant the moment they're given both sides are equally confused as to where the others are so these are meeting engagements with a lot of troops floundering around in difficult terrain and it's pretty sharp and pretty bloody it's a recipe for disaster it's a recipe for chaos and the Germans are going to use it as much as they can they get their chance on a narrow road approaching Bastone Troy Middleton was the core Commander responsible for the defense of bastowan what he needed to do was in effect throughout a line of outposts to delay the advancing Germans as much as possible he formed these teams and they were thrown out to The Villages surrounding Bastone to the east so that they could force the Germans to fight through and delay them what they didn't foresee was as they were advancing along a single road towards Long Valley is that they were met by American troops retreating in the other direction and of course they weren't able to to get off the road and get round each other and so what they had was this absolute traffic jam from hell and what they created in fact was a massive Target that the Germans could take advantage of if they arrived and unfortunately for the Americans that's exactly what happened so coming down the road chasing the retreating Americans in fact with the lead elements of the panzalea division and they took full advantage and what this turned into can't be known as the turkey shoot all the lead Vehicles rain down fire from their 75 millimeter cannon right into what was was the utter chaos going on in this single Track Road and it turned into an absolute Slaughter [Music] pickles and men were hit by flying shrapnel and the screams from Medics were drowned by the crack of the bursting artillery shells split-second decisions had to be made and it was decided to take as much of our equipment across country as we could plea and disorder into the surrounding Countryside the rest are left to their fate by the end over 100 American vehicles are wiped out their occupants dead captured or missing with the Americans scattered Bastone looks defenseless but on the outskirts General Fritz bio line holds his Panzer Lair division back he received some intelligence from a local that there was a large American armored force close by he decided not to Barrel through Bastone take it by kudaman but instead send out smaller forces to to reconnoit to the area and see what he was actually facing but byline's information is false there is no American Tank Army and although he doesn't know it Bastone is there for the taking in the town a dark mood of panic and fear takes hold s are closed civilian refugees stream out west Belgian and Allied flags are removed the first of the Wounded American soldiers arrive bastone's Defenders are told to expect reinforcements but who and when is anyone's guess and all the time the German forces are tightening their grip [Music] unwilling to attack Bastone the Germans begin a slow creep around the town intending to encircle it the Defenders don't know it yet but it is the beginnings of a Siege if you think of bastoin as a fist and two pincers slowly working their way around the Fist and the pincers are two German armored divisions accompanied by Infantry in the confused conditions around the town any kind of front line is impossible to determine by either side you find that two sides completely mixed up trying to occupy the same piece of ground and it's only when an American goes over to borrow a pick from a neighboring unit he finds their Germans rather than Americans you realize just how confused this sort of situation is [Music] the race to take Bastone has now turned into a long game of encirclement never intended in Hitler's plan the cautious German strategy now gives the Allied command a golden opportunity to save the town but they'll only get one shot [Music] the American commanders are looking for any units they can find to try and plug the Gap any effective units they turn to their nearest Reserve forces who happen to be paratroopers the American 101st Airborne Division the Screaming Eagles as they were called is one of the elite units that the U.S army put together the 101st is on r r and Rheem they're available they're able to move quickly they're not engaged in any other front and so the U.S grabs them and sort of throws them into Baston we were going to go to the states and get a furlough and then go to Guam to get ready to jump on Japan and about four o'clock in the morning and Sergeant came in turned on lights said get up get up there's been a breakthrough you're going and I said oh you're full of [ __ ] we don't have any winter clothes we don't have any rifles or Cruise certain weapons are turned in but I was wrong they are literally put in the back of every truck that the Americans can mobilize we're loaded up standing up not enough room to sit down they just put us in like cattle military policemen are stopping trucks at gunpoint they're having to unload whatever it is they're carrying and these Airborne soldiers are bundled unceremoniously into the back there's a kind of a drizzly rain we went about 109 miles in that rain with lights on at night and I knew then this really was serious as they race to the front the paratroopers must contemplate The Impossible taking on an invading army with little more than what they can carry in many ways they're the worst possible unit to put there they don't have any tanks they don't have any heavy Weaponry they don't have any of the equipment that they need to fight off a German Panzer attack so it's all very well Eisenhower deploying Airborne divisions but they're designed to beat shock forces they've only got the ammunition they can carry and of course there's going to be no resupply because this is a Siege as they move up to Baston a lot of the 101st soldiers are stopping the retreating American soldiers the refugees and they're taking their ammunition taking any kind of equipment they have from them and they're all disoriented some of them crying and we they said what were you guys going we said we're going to fight and they said Oh They'll kill you everybody they're killing everybody one officer from another unit found some imagination and as you went by you picked up whatever was there we dumped us off in a muddy field we started walking I saw a little sign said by stogony that's how ignorant we were we didn't even know how to pronounce the name didn't know what country it was as the Germans prepare to crush the town Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe of the 101st sends his men out to defend it when 101st arrive in Boston they arrived just before the Germans and I mean literally a couple of hours so it's an incredibly close rum thing and the Germans don't realize just how they fritted away the time that they had had by a line not lingered he would have been in bastogne before the 101st and the Americans would have been too weak to stop that happening if you picture a wagon wheel in the spokes Baston was the Hub of the wheel and we will dispose very various units and it so happened that my spoke was was one of the main roads and that's where we fought we pulled into a big Barnyard and unloaded the commences get your troops off I want you to get up this road here you run into the Germans and stop them I say yes sir they were attacking with divisions the Germans were and I had one rifle company with about a hundred men [Music] the biggest killer of infantry in the second world war was not bullets but shrapnel from artillery shells the Foxhole or slept trench offers some protection but with the Enemy closing in protecting yourself is yet another Race Against Time so this is the standard U.S army issue m1943 entrenching tool it's light it's compatible can be used both as a pick and as a shovel the first thing the Screaming Eagles wanted to know when they arrived was how long before the Germans were going to get there because that's how long they've got to dig if they were lucky they find something like this a shell crater absolutely perfect it's up the jobs already half done if not they'd have to go outside and start digging themselves first thing someone's got to do is dig down and Dig Fast use the entrenching tool firstly as a pick to break the ground [Music] once he's starting to get into the ground move the shovel to its proper dig position and then start to cut down as fast as he possibly can foreign [Music] s in a hole in the ground unless you're a plant or a tree are awful they tend to fill with water they're cold they're inhospitable and clearly they're filthy if you're there for over a day or two then life becomes incredibly hard you can't move you're stuck in your Foxhole it invariably starts to fill with water it soaks through whatever you're wearing on your feet and if you're not careful you're going to get trench foot and become debilitated cooking and eating all have to happen in the trench and all other bodily functions do as well you can't just stand up you have to do it inside of your trench and deal with it in that situation and that all makes living conditions particularly in the winter when it's cold absolutely dreadful for anyone who's got to live in a foxhole [Music] it's the 101st dig in over 300 kilometers South and soon to arrive in Bastone private Clayton bird would find conditions considerably harsher in the Arden so harsh that unconventional methods would be needed the ground was so Frozen it was absolutely impossible to dig a foxhole with any kind of tool that we had what we did we took TNT and blasted the resulting holds were such that instead of having one or two persons within a foxhole they blasted out so much dirt that we could put six or eight people in the resulting crater for many of the Defenders the biggest enemy is not the Germans but the bitter cold for Medics are struggling with frostbite trench foot exposure and hypothermia dangers the 101st have not prepared for bastoin in late December 1944 was in the grips of one of the worst Winters in history the Germans tried to take the town had the advantage of knowing that they were going to be on the offensive many of them had experience on the Russian front and were equipped with reversible smokes and full winter gear they were going to need this as the snow was deep temperatures were dropping through the floor the Americans rushing to defend the town were not so well equipped they grabbed whatever kit they could and unfortunately a lot of that kit was not fit for purpose combat gear power trousers and Paris mock cotton lightweight comfortable no good for winter great coat wool it's heavy would keep you warm but as soon as it got wet it's like wearing concrete that happened very very quickly and then onwards the troops were standing there freezing paraboots stand an issue they were leather but they weren't waterproof in a foxhole soon filling up with water it was only a matter of time before the powers started to have issues with things like trench foot which was debilitating if they were lucky and not many of them were they would have over boots these would fit over and would be waterproof and would keep your feet dry however hardly any of them were lucky enough to have a pair of these overall if you're an American defender of bastoin that December it was a very unhealthy place to be [Music] conditions on the ground deteriorated when we arrived at best on there was no snow on the ground at all and the next night it started snowing and it snowed before it stopped by Knee Deep the temperature went down to as low as 15 below zero we were dressed in what I have on right here nothing else we had a number of people who had a frostbite on their feet for example you know when you're really cold you shiver to keep warm we had so little food that there was nothing not enough energy and we quit shivering that means you're really in bad shape and the doctors couldn't understand how we survived they said uh change your socks every day and even in combat we did that and we changed them and we did the best we could and yet at the same time we suffered horribly as the Germans tightened their grip on Bastone they inflict a devastating blow on the Defenders our whole medical company that was on the tail end of our command was cut off they were captured the whole command the old medical unit in the confused hours of arrival 143 men and officers of the U.S 326th medical company are gone and that robs the uh The Defenders of a lot of medical supplies but also all the nursing staff and surgeons and so on so they're left with very little and that means they have to rely on the locals who help them out bandages come from bed sheets Belgian civilians become the nurses and so one of the the sort of signature problems that the Defenders have is they're very short of medical supplies and trained medical staff Eisenhower and his senior commanders know that the 101st Can Only Hold on for so long the crisis leads to an emergency meeting with Montgomery and patton who's commanding the third U.S army to the south of Bastone now at the meeting Eisenhower asked both Montgomery and patton how quickly they could turn their forces and attack northward into the ardans against the Germans disengaging your army from active combat make a solid left or right turn and go in a completely different direction armies are not good at doing that Montgomery being the sensible somewhat conservative British commander said it'll take me two weeks Patton said two days and Eisenhower said George don't mess with me and patton said two days and so Eisenhower said all right if you can do it do it with the two German armies sweeping around it to North and South that stone is effectively encircled worse the one road that could offer relief from Patton's third Army is cut off and the skies are thick with winter Cloud that could last for weeks thank you knowing the Defenders are in a desperate situation the Germans offer them an opportunity to surrender people have asked me what did you think about surrendering and I said no there wasn't a single soul that ever said a single word about surrender that was not in our vocabulary we were trained not to think that way we are always going to Prevail no matter what the German core Commander surrounding bastard is an old-school Prussian General Aristocrat called fry hair Von lutvitz so he writes a note saying you've got to surrender all Superior forces will crush you and McAuliffe realizes he's got to do something and he looks at this note and says aloud to his command group in their operations from nuts and so the famous response is typed up from the American commander of bastones the German Commander nuts and off it goes on the 22nd the German Commander ridiculously enough to manage surrender of the surround sound I just replied nuts for I knew that one word best expressed the feelings of the division has blown him because he's trying to Bluff the Americans into surrender and he knows he hasn't got enough forces to actually force the issue and Destroy everyone in bastogne as he threatened to do The Siege went on they gave us two hours to think this over or they're going to annihilate us so we all sat around waiting for this to happen nothing happened with their Bluff failed the Germans vowed to crush Bastone and the Americans prepare for the worse that their enemy can throw at them each side will have to maximize whatever Advantage is on offer the American defense of Bostonia as weak as it was to begin with had a few things that worked in the favor and one of the most important one was the design of the town of bastonia itself now you might actually say it looks a bit like the structure of a medieval Fortress without posts and these could be utilized by the American forces and these could be strengthened and defended against the advancing German troops on the German side what you find is that their Advance through these built up areas of course causes problems because the moment you drive armor into built up areas tanks become lame ducks and it's relatively easy for the enemy to knock these out but taking out Panzer tanks is hard if they're armed only with light weapons American infantry and paratroopers have their own special reasons to persevere when faced with enemy armor infantrymen just don't like tankers because they have it far easier they're warmer they're out of the wind and the rain Etc they've got a vehicle they don't have to walk everywhere everything can be stowed like Life is Peachy as far as the Infantry said if you're in a tank even have an inbuilt desire to humiliate them and Destroy them anyway and that's that's not even the enemy and so on that that's your own side the weapons that you have to take those tanks on handheld weapons such as Bazookas are useful but their range is very very short and so is their penetrating power we didn't even try to penetrate the armor of the German tank we just didn't have the weapons to do it we had a bazooka we would try to hit the tread and then that would leave the German tank or he could not move and that's the best ordinarily that we could do against the German tanks the 101st and McAuliffe are holding the line but time and ammunition are running out night and day the luftwaffe bombs by Stone blindly through the thick Cloud eventually racking up massive damage and forcing civilians and Defenders Underground but every hour of The Siege now works to the Allied advantage Hitler expected to have taken Antwerp by now but is hopelessly ensnared in a fight for a small provincial Town barely 50 kilometers from the old front line what we get is Mission creep and Hitler obsesses about taking that stone if the whole purpose of trying to take bathstone is that you can drive through it quickly as a root Center then sending your luftwaffe to bomber every night is completely Bonkers and makes no sense at all which shows you just how you know clinically insane Hitler has got Germans now attack repeatedly looking for weak points on the defensive perimeter each attack is increasingly Fierce and intense and the 101st have to work out how to make the most of what dwindling resources they have it will bring out the best in their Commander Americans are incredibly fortunate that McAuliffe is defending uh Bastone because he's the artillery commander of the 101st so he understands how to deploy and use guns most effectively and so what he creates is a pool of only artillery pieces that are in birthstone whether they belong to his division or not and they're all placed in the center of Bastone and they are given fire missions so the entire lot fire their ammunition at any German attack [Music] foreign guys zeroed in on the tanks and knocked out a couple of them we held on and then the Germans attacked again and again the American defense can just about hold as long as the Germans concentrate their attacks singly if the Germans had attacked in two places at one time they would have run all over us but they attacked in a single place each time and we were managed to we managed to stop them on the dawn of Christmas Eve a dramatic change in the weather sends morale soaring a crystal clear sky brings hundreds of Supply plans [Music] ammunition Rains Down on the embattled defenders in a 400 ton Christmas present and the hope that all is not lost we got a break in the weather and some c-47s came in and threw out some bundles of ammo after the plane started flying the first things came in were not food it was ammunition more than ammunition Bastone needs reinforcements but Patton's men have problems of their own the weather and stiff resistance from the enemy Patton always believed that he could get his army moving faster than anyone else but what Patton discovered was the same things that had slowed the Germans down as they were moving forward we're now slowing the third Army now the weather was terrible there was an enormous amount of snow on the terrain and on the roads there were a lot of American refugees still flooding out of the area and so what Patton hoped would be a lightning relief of Bastone actually turns into a slugging match foreign Ty of cloud cover has been lost and with patterns slowing down the Germans try one last time to break the town on the night of Christmas Eve troops on both sides get ready for what will be the final desperate bid to end the siege [Music] and TOEFL gives his commanders the best troops available fresh from fighting on the Italian front well-equipped and experienced during the night German air force bombed the the city and in the early hours the Germans then launched attack in the north east of the Boston perimeter the Germans should be able to walk into Bastone but despite their exhaustion the Americans have levels of experience and cohesion that make them a fearsome opponent they were deliberately organized and trained to be an elite unit they are extremely motivated soldiers they extremely physically fit soldiers they are less at this point about sheer combat Effectiveness and more about a bloody-minded unwillingness to stop fighting the 101st Airborne now rename themselves The Battered Bastards of Bastone and it will be a name that officers and Men adopt with equal Pride your top officers even clear up the Geralds suffered with you they're not way back and saying go get them they're out front stand follow me there's lines you don't cross and you understand that you keep respect for your officer but still he's in the Foxhole next to you and he's suffering like you are because you become a lot more personal you're tired you're cold you're wet you're miserable you're starving you're running low on rations and a lot of your friends around you are getting killed but they kept their morale high and one thing they used to say was the Germans have got us surrounded the poor bastards from the German point of view the original objective of the mission has been completely abandoned entry units that were intended to fight for Antwerp are now doing something wildly different this is a radically different plan from what was intended originally with the Battle of the Bulge the Infantry being diverted to launch frontal assaults supported by a few tanks in appalling weather Bastone in its geography it was surrounded by small hamlets and large Farmhouse and farm complexes and what those farm houses and mini hamlets allowed the Americans to do was to delay and keep the Germans at Bay and bring an enormous amount of artillery fire in particular to bear and the Defenders have the added advantage of using their anti-aircraft half tracks in the ground attack roll and that means four very powerful half-inch Browning machine guns depressed to to shoot at Infantry what they wanted to do was to saturate the German attackers with as much high explosive and shrapnel as they possibly could and the brownings and so on perfect for that and they would use those to literally fire into the mass of the attacking infantry and so on and there's let the explosive and shrapnel do its work and tear the advancing attacking troops to Pieces as Christmas Day Dawns every man of the 101st is in the fight of his life before long the center of bastogne is within sight of the German attackers McAllen can see everything that's going on it looks as though the Germans are going to penetrate the defenses his staff officers get quite nervous and and they prepare to sort of shred and burn documents and things like that there was great sort of fear the simple weight of numbers would Prevail against the the Americans that was one time I thought this is it because they had a bunch of Infantry some tanks and there was no way I could stop them I was either going to become a pow or get shot the reserves from the whole division went to that point and stopped him again [Music] the Germans large step biggest attack with infantry and tanks in large numbers from the west of bastonia and the rear of the position prisoners later told us that their officers that told them that fast on you was to be a Christmas present for the Brewer the Christmas present consisted of the number of folks that lie in the center of the ground back to the best onion now [Music] by 11 A.M on Christmas day it's clear that the German assault has failed but there is no sign of any relief for the Americans only Patton's forces from the south offer any hope for the Defenders all eyes are on the star U.S general who is convinced he will prevail George fan has Destiny written all over him and there's a higher purpose in his generalship he wants to ride to the rescue of bastogne now he has very high standards for himself and he expects his army to live up to that so he puts the fear of God into his own Army never mind the Germans and is quite convinced that God is on his side divine intervention may have come with the clear weather but that has brought its own problems the sky is clear but the ground temperature goes right down everything turns to ice and that makes it incredibly difficult for the troops to maneuver the ice underneath means that it's a skating rink for tracked vehicles that just sort of skate along so actually the American armor finds the going much much tougher on December the 26th there are close to a thousand Allied casualties and over a hundred German wounded in Bastone all are in dire need of medical attention but the town has little to offer them the Americans knew that in terms of both morale and for the men's lives themselves this was something they had to to tackle as soon as they possibly could and so hence why they decided the only way they could do this is to send in a medical team by All Things by glider the gliders are towed in and land silently close to the front line team has no shortage of work to do and carries out 63 operations in the first 24 hours oh I guess there must have been five medical officers came in which sent them to the age station and they started working on wounded and I was glad I did because two days later I was back there myself my stone is really just one huge General Hospital full of all the combat casualties but almost as many with pneumonia freezing problems and trench foot because the weather is so awful as Patton's fourth Armored Division grinds its way towards Bastone along three corridors from the south it hits determined resistance antifa's fifth Panzer Army holds the Americans at Bay convinced that pattern is flagging for the Germans the capture of Antwerp is still a possibility so what pattern hoped and believed would be a blitzkrieg-esque attack right into the flank of the German advance to shatter it to grind it to bits turned into an attritional move where he was literally fighting for every yard and every kilometer that his men were traveling again against a determined enemy through the same conditions that were befuddling the German defense the German attackers themselves a vicious firefight at the Hamlet of ASO Noir is the last hurdle before Patton's spearhead the 318th Infantry Regiment of the 80th division reaches the 101st The Siege is over [Music] on December 26 at 5 PM we made contact with friendly truths through it all no one doubted for an instance that we would hold a town under any sort of attack the Germans could put on the 101st Airborne Division has met and defeated the Germans and will continue to do so whenever called upon you understand the 101st were we were glad to be relieved at Bastion I was down to my last box of ammunition we had no food and we were hurting but we were a cohesive unit now you've heard we the patent rescued us and that's not true we did not need rescue we were glad to get relieved believe me but rescued we were not because we were still full of fighting the first vehicles through to Bastone are 150 ambulances the Patton's third Army is now going to do once they've arrived in bastogne is ensure that the Germans reached their high tide Mark and then block any further advance and that's really all over for the Germans as far as the Battle of the Bulge is concerned try Middleton the commander of the 28th infantry is praise for his efforts by his Commander General Patton and Anthony McAuliffe earns a distinguished service cross for his contribution along with a lifelong nickname of nuts both Middleton and McAuliffe handled the situation about as well as they could given the context of what was going on especially I think McAuliffe who recognized at his job was as much as possible to stop the Germans from getting any farther down that road the house was on fire and they had been given the job of putting the fire out with a garden hose and a bucket did they do everything perfectly did they do everything right absolutely not but did they do enough yes and they're one of the primary reasons why the Germans didn't get any farther than they did if bastone's Frontline commanders and the men serving under them go down in history as examples of military excellence and bravery the question remains why Hitler's massive buildup was ever allowed to progress as far as it did I have always maintained and didn't need to happen the 106th regiment and the 28th regiment were put in there because that was a quiet place and they were reporting to intelligence that there was massive troop movements on the other side with tanks and trucks intelligence came back to him said oh they're playing records and they were known to do that there's nothing wrong if they had sent even one Patrol over there they would have seen what the actual situation was and they could obliterate it with bombing the great failure on the Allied side in the Arden it's the generals who don't think the ardenne is a vulnerable spot it's Eisenhower and Montgomery and Bradley who think no one's ever going to mount an assault through this kind of overgrown wooded area well somebody had quite recently mounted a massive Panzer assault through exactly that territory the Germans had conquered France in six weeks in 1940 largely because they attacked through the Arden Forest this this was was you know in my view the worst intelligence era of the allies during the Northwest European campaign they had Bletchley Park they had all the ultra decrypts they ruled the skies in terms of air reconnaissance and so on they had better signals intelligence the one area that they didn't consider was a threat was the Arden foreign for the 101st Airborne the siege of Bastone was one of their proudest achievements The Battered Bastards of Bastone held out far longer than paratroopers are meant to in conditions they were unequipped for and their fighting Spirit was undimmed to the end in the 40 days of the Battle of the Bulge over twenty thousand soldiers were killed on both sides with deep scars on the civilian population felt to this day despite the heavy American losses it's regarded as the American military's greatest wartime battle and by some the greatest of all time [Music]