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'A Duty to Memory': Bastogne Remembers the Battle of the Bulge
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23496 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
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12 / 2003 |
3,080 Words |
| Author
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Stephen Osmond
Stephen Osmond is associate senior editor of the Culture
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German troops surrounded Bastogne, and enemy marksmen could have been as close as the woods less than a hundred yards away. LeBlanc and a couple of other GIs had been assigned the task of securing one of the narrow roads leading into the town. They had worked their way into position by keeping hidden in the trees and bushes along the roadside. Now there were just open fields on either side of the moonlit road. With no available cover, they had to lay land mines across the road and nearby open ground. Mindful of the danger, they went about their task as quickly and quietly as possible.
They were not seen. Job done, they settled in to hold their ground, waiting for either relief or a German assault. In the context of the ferocious skirmishes that raged daily around this small Belgian town, this may seem a small act of courage. Nevertheless, in many ways it typifies the resolute commitment to duty and unflinching self-sacrifice of Bastogne's defenders. The fight for the town, and the victory there of American troops against overwhelming odds, was arguably the turning point of the greatest land battle fought in World War II: the Battle of the Bulge.
Of course, British and other Allied forces fought in different theaters of the battle, but the defense of Bastogne must be attributed to American soldiers. The effort forged a lasting connection. Today, fifty-nine years after the event, memorials and tributes to the American forces can be seen throughout the town and neighboring villages. "New memorials appear every year," comments Henri Mignon, an official guide to the sites of the battle. "Everyone feels that we must keep the memories alive. Now there are tributes to specific divisions, a monument to Native American troopers, a new memorial for
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