Today was a very exciting day for me. I’ve been looking forward to visiting the town of Bastogne for a long time. It’s another location that the 101st Airborne from Band of Brothers fought, but it’s famous for much more than that (details below). I checked out two museums and got drenched in the cold rain for the first time.
Context
The Battle of the Bulge gets its name from the massive hole the Germans tore through Allied lines in late 1944. As the Allies drew closer and closer to Germany, Hitler pushed his forces to forestall them with one last great offensive. In December, the Germans rushed forward with tanks and infantry through the Ardennes Forest to try to cut off a large portion of the Allied armies from their supply lines. They made it pretty far before they were eventually stopped.
One of the primary reasons the offensive worked so well is that the Ardennes Forest was assumed to be far too dense for another offensive. That would be the 3rd time in the century that that mistake was made. While that might seem like a silly mistake, I saw the Ardennes for the first time yesterday. The woods are so dense that you can only see inward around 40-50 feet. It’s no wonder surprise can come from within. Given that assumption, the Allies only had their greenest and weakest troops stationed there. This helped the Germans move quickly.
While the German tanks created a bulge in Allied lines, a small area within the bulge was still controlled by the Americans. Bastogne was right at the center of it. For two weeks, the Germans pushed from all directions to try to break Allied defenses. When the Germans suggested surrender to the American commander, he simply replied, “Nuts!” That became the famous response to signify American resolve. With the help of air-dropped supplies, the American troops, including the 101st Airborne, held out until reinforcements arrived and the Germans were once again pushed back.
The first museum
The Bastogne War Museum is impressively made. It’s obviously designed for families and the casual tourist, so there honestly wasn’t a lot for me to learn. I still loved it though! It was highly interactive and featured an in-depth audio tour with several characters that you followed through the museum. The headphones were super cool. They pressed against your head above your ear, then the speakers hovered about an inch away from each ear. It made it so you could hear the audio perfectly without blocking any of the natural noise around you. Very neat.
The museum put extra emphasis on the stories of individuals. We followed an American airborne trooper, a German soldier, a child from Bastogne, and a teacher from Bastogne. They talked at length about what their experiences were. I love that kind of stuff. In my mind, that’s a huge part of why we preserve history. To hear stories and try to feel what they felt. Towards the end of the museum, we watched a short film about two real soldiers from Bastogne — one American and one German. They both went on to live long and happy lives in the area, and they both chose life paths devoted to helping others. We’re not so different than our enemies.
The second museum
For every bit of historical learning I missed out on in the first museum, the second made up for it. The Bastogne Barracks are at the original American command post from the battle, where the word “Nuts!” was delivered to the Germans. The museum is simply a massive collection of WWII vehicles, almost all of which are kept in good running condition. I learned a TON about vehicles, most of which I’ve now forgotten haha. Did I actually learn it then?
Anyways, many of the vehicles are extremely rare. They had five or six versions of the Sherman tank (the main American tank of the war) and it was interesting to compare the different versions and their purposes. The plaques were informative and the museum was really slow today, so I got to take my time looking at each vehicle.
First rain
I’ve always heard of European rain being a big deal but today was the first real storm I’ve seen. Unfortunately, it happened to be on a day when I was in a town with no regular buses. Go figure. The Bastogne Barracks museum moved their entrance recently, so they had an arrow pointing left saying, “Entrance 250m”. Great. That’s not far. I walk that direction, see a sign pointing right that says “Bastogne Barracks 200m”. That doesn’t make sense. Guess I missed it! Y’all. I walked back and forth in the rain for 20 minutes trying to figure out where this secret entrance was. I FINALLY found some Americans that were able to help me. Apparently, the sign pointing right was a parking sign, only signified by a blue letter P on it. I was so mad. The museum was awesome though, so at least that worked out.
I had to walk in the rain a lot today. No big deal, I brought my waterproof jacket. It worked great in the drizzle and horrible in the rain. Once it started really pouring, I learned that water soaks into the seams and threads, slowly making the inside of the jacket wetter and wetter. By the time I found an umbrella to buy, I was sopping wet inside and out. It ruined my beautiful postcard that I’d just bought. 🙁 By that time, I was freezing, soaking, and ready to leave. My bus ended up being 15 minutes late, of course. I then proceeded to try to not die for the wet two hours back to my hotel. Not a highlight of my day at all. It was a great day overall though!
I got back to my warm hotel and was able to cook myself a real meal on the stove. It was just spaghetti, but it’s the first self-made meal I’ve had in 2.5 weeks.
Tomorrow
In the morning, I’m hoping to take a bus to Luxembourg to go to church. I found a nice English-speaking multinational church that seems nice. Luxembourg has free public transportation and plenty of free historical sites, so I’d like to do some exploring too! I’ll need to get to bed early though. My train for Frankfurt leaves at 5:30am on Monday. Only a couple more days until Valerie gets here!