|
Family lore has it that one of my uncles got a Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge (Eugene Bay, of Cambridge, Ohio). I tried to research that online real quick but could not. Anyway, he always down-played his medal in particular in view of the service of other family members.
But ... everything I think I know about the battle I learned from the History Channel (or somewhere). Needless to say to history buffs, the battle was a surprise counterattack by the fast retreating Germans in a desperate gamble to counter-attack somewhere ... anywhere ... just perhaps to check the Allied advance. But the Allied air forces reigned supreme over the skies at that point. The Germans could not effectively move tank and/or armor divisions at night without being readily discovered.
So the Germans gambled on foul, over-cast weather. And the gamble worked ... for a while ... for the while, that is, that the Allied planes were grounded due to inclimate weather. The Germans could concentrate power without being detected and without being vulnerable in any event to the overwhelming Allied air power. So you might notice that the pictures during the heaviest fighting are under overcast skies. That last picture shows what was one of the chief factors that quickly counter-checked the German concentration of power:– clearing skies. When the skies were clear enough, the Allied planes came roaring back, like angry hornets. And those contrails show that.
|
Linear Mode
