This is our ride through the Ardennes, a forested area near the German border with Belgium, and the site of The Battle of the Bulge. For those who may not know, The German Army, in a last-ditch effort, attacked the Allied forces in this area in mid-December, 1944. They planned to surprise and surround the Allies, and re-take the strategic port of Antwerp.
The Allies, mostly U.S. Army and Paratroops, were indeed caught with their pants down. Most had pushed the Germans all the way from D-Day in Normandy, and were relaxing in this forested area, believing that the Nazis were very unlikely to make a move in this difficult terrain. The Germans completely overwhelmed them, and circled them into a town called Bastogne. The weather was terribly cold and snowy, and for about four weeks the Americans were trapped and frozen, running out of food and ammunition.
The Nazis asked them to surrender, and General McAuliffe famously replied back “Nuts”. The weather finally cleared, allowing the Allied Air Force to drop supplies, and eventually General Patton’s Third Army was able, with much difficulty, to break through the Nazi encirclement and free Bastogne.
This description is, of course, all too brief. The battles were horrible for both sides. The 1965 movie, with Henry Fonda, doesn’t depict the conditions well. Band of Brothers is much better.
Anyway, Patti and I had a 78 km route planned straight through the Ardennes, with over 1000 m of climbing and several longish unpaved portions. Knowing the history of this area, I got cold feet. I chose a 4 km shorter route, a bit to the south, which avoided a lot of the forest and was fully paved. 4 km shorter and 50 m less climbing.
Thank goodness! This was a tough ride. Up and down many long steep hills, and it didn’t help that the clear sky let the sun heat things up to over 30 deg C. As we pulled into Bastogne we still had some electric assist left, but we had put a good dent into our third (backup) battery. We had a small taste of what faced those World War II soldiers, albeit in summery heat instead of frigid snowstorms!
Bastogne was completely destroyed in Dec 44 / Jan 45 so everything now looks quite new. The main square is now called Place McAuliffe, and features a US Army tank, somewhat unfortunately surrounded by parked cars. Being Monday, the 101st Airborne Museum was closed.
We were tired and hot so walked around a bit, grabbed a hamburger, and called it a day.
The next morning we delayed our departure to visit the museum. We got in just before a large busload of American war enthusiasts. Whew!
The museum is great. Three floors of excellent dioramas and thousands of collectibles from the battle. The basement has a small room re-enacting the Nazi bombing raid of Dec 24, 1944. We had a few nice chats with the touring Americans, and set off on the day’s shorter ride to Redange, Luxembourg.
