by Cory Ackerman, Research Historian
The Battle of the Bulge, the last large German offensive of World War II, was Hitler’s final, desperate roll of the dice trying to change the outcome of World War II. By some estimates, more than 700,000 American servicemembers1 engaged Axis forces, and more than 80,000 became casualties. People have told stories from the battle in every form of media, from Hollywood films to social media. Hitler and his staff timed the battle to take advantage of the snowy weather. Nazi command wanted miserable conditions to keep Allied fighters grounded, allowing for Nazi tank supremacy when they roared along the 75-mile front through Belgium’s snowy Ardennes Forest. On December 16, 1944, the attack began.
Hundreds of thousands of German troops pierced the American front and then surrounded most of an infantry division. The Germans then besieged the “bulge” this created in the American lines. The Americans began a desperate defensive battle which lasted for weeks. Unlike the storied World War I Christmas Truce of 1914,2 Christmas 1944 happened while the German Army was actively on the attack. What was Christmas 1944 like for our troops during the Battle of the Bulge?
Christmas in Paris and on the Front
The German counterattack through the Ardennes achieved complete surprise. Their strategy involved cutting the Allied forces in half in the hopes of turning the war in their favor. The surprise attack forced General Dwight Eisenhower, Allied supreme commander, to cancel Christmas party in Paris. Captured German infiltrators spread rumors that Eisenhower himself was at risk, purporting that a team of 300 men intended on sneaking into Paris to assassinate him. Guards patrolled the roof where he slept, their boots banging on the tin roof of his quarters. At the same time, in Belgium, his forces attempted to repulse the German attack.3
While command remained vigilant against potential threats, a very different Christmas unfolded in Belgium. As the Third Army, led by General George S. Patton, attacked to break the German siege, one of the most well-known episodes of World War II unfolded.4 On December 22, the same day that the American counterthrust began, the Germans delivered a note to the American commander in Bastogne, a town that the Nazis needed to capture and Americans stubbornly held.
The note demanded a surrender by the besieged Americans. In response, American General Anthony C. McAuliffe responded, “Aw, nuts!” The Germans failed to understand the succinct response. An American officer then explained, “in plain English it is the same as ‘Go to hell!’” McAuliffe informed his troops of the response in his Christmas message to them, as he urged them to continue their vital and desperate resistance.5
A preserved copy of General The “Aw, nuts” General McAuliffe uttered is now remembered simply as “NUTS” thanks to this message and what he reportedly began to say as the negotiations continued. Credit: National Archives
A Peaceful Christmas Dinner
No major Christmas truce existed during the World War II battle, but Reader’s Digest published a stunning and intimate account in 1973 of one small pause in the fighting. On Christmas Eve, three American soldiers, including one wounded man, found a small cottage in the rest. The forest lay near the German-Belgium border, north of where the Germans besieged 101st Airborne in Bastogne. The occupants, a mother and her 12-year-old son, Fritz, allowed them inside. The Americans had lost their way in the confusion of the battle and needed a place to hide and rest. Shortly after their arrival, more “guests” knocked at the door.
Officers of the 101st Airborne Division have Christmas dinner in Bastogne, Belgium. Credit: National Archives
When Fritz greeted the new guests, he found himself face-to-face with four German soldiers. They, too, had become lost and were looking to rest before resuming their search for their regiment. Fritz’s mother said, “You can also have a fine, warm meal and eat till the pot is empty. But, we have three other guests, whom you may not consider friends. This is Christmas Eve, and there will be no shooting here.”
She ordered all the combatants to pile their weapons outside and come into the cottage. The Germans complied and the Americans followed suit. Their “private armistice” continued until morning. In the cold daylight, the adversaries shook hands and parted ways, heading in opposite directions as they attempted to rejoin their respective units. This self-reported story is one of the vanishingly rare instances put to paper of a Christmas truce during World War II.6
Desperate Battle in the Snow
The tranquility of the private armistice belies the immediacy, bravery, and fear that most on the frontlines experienced. One small armor unit, the U.S. 3rd Armored Division’s Task Force Kane, spent December 23 locked inside their tanks. In claustrophobic close quarters, the servicemembers shivered in the dark, standing sentry duty, waiting for a German attack. The next day, Christmas Eve, the Germans moved to attack them.
Task Force Kane expected an assault by the Germans of the Das Reich Division on Christmas Eve. The Americans had arranged themselves into defensive positions in the hamlet of Freyneux, a small settlement consisting of a few dozen stone buildings. A stone bridge spanned a river running near Freyneux—a bridge which the Germans would have to capture as part of their larger offensive plan. The conditions were cold and miserable. A loader in an American tank, Albert Li Muti, said of the conditions: “We were half frozen, buttoned up in our tanks. We couldn’t turn on our engines, giving our position away. The inside of our tank was like a refrigerator.”
A fraction of the larger battle would take place in this small frozen hamlet, pitting a small against elite S.S. units on the offensive. The Germans expected the town to be lightly defended and approached without scouts ahead of their column. Overconfident, the German Panther tanks presented their more vulnerable side armor to the American forces. Within moments, American fire disabled two of the four approaching enemy tanks. The Germans gained a toehold in Freyneux, but found their position untenable as American fighter bombers, tanks, and infantry punished them.
By the end of Christmas Eve, the Americans had cost the enemy five Panther tanks and damaged several more. Crucially, they had also denied the Germans the town and disrupted German plans for the attack elsewhere. Victory came at a cost for the Americans as well. By the end of Christmas Eve, the Germans had destroyed or disabled five Shermans and two Stuarts. Four of those Shermans had been engaged by a single Panther tank.7
The year 2024 marks 80 years since the Battle of the Bulge began. Christmas 1944 was but one calendar date, one small steppingstone, towards the eventual Allied victory that lay a few weeks away.
Medical supplies and ammunition dropped from a C-47 into a field for Americans besieged in Bastogne, 12/25/1944. Credit: National Archives
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Notes:
1. https://www.army.mil/botb/
2. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-real-story-of-the-christmas-truce
3. Kershaw The Longest Winter, pp 165-166.
4. https://www.nps.gov/eise/blogs/the-present-situation-is-to-be-regarded-as-one-of-opportunity-for-us-and-not-of-disaster-dwight-eisenhower-and-the-battle-of-the-bulge.htm
5. National Archives Remembers Battle of the Bulge with Featured Document Display | National Archives
6. Truce in the Forest: The Story of a World War II Christmas Eve Truce Between German & American Soldiers During the Battle of the Bulge
7. World War II Quarterly, Spring 2017