Remember Bastogne 1944 : 60th anniversary of the battle of the Ardennes.

Remember Bastogne 1944 : 60th Anniversary of the battle of the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge).
It will take 4 years for the victory to change the camps. Since 6 June 1944 the end of German Reich is announcing and since September the Western democracies are liberated. For the Allies, the objective now is the Rhine, but the Nazi Monster is very tough. Hitler is looking for control of the Ardennes. His goal is to advance to Antwerp, to cut off supply and separate British from American troops, to save time -while awaiting the V2 army- for the operation "Wacht am Rhein" (the guard on the Rhine).
The German mobilizes everyman: youth, old...and also fuel: and, above all, by attacking the area the least expected and considered to be almost impossible: the Ardennes, where everybody is already enjoying a taste of peace and freedom.

In the darkness and the bitter cold of December 16, 1944, the German artillery, under the command of Gerd von Rundstedt, tramples on a front of 135 km from Monschau to Echternach. At 5:30 a.m., the ultimate offensive is launched. The effect of surprise is total. Stunned, the US army staff believes in a distraction, but, in the forefront, the Germans are attacking the sparsely deployed American troops around Bastogne. In his HQ at Bastogne, Major General Middleton in command of the US army immediately grasps the seriousness of the assault; his men receive an order: RESIST. Keep positions, spend your last energy, prevent at all cost the enemy to regain the liberated soil, once and for all kick the "Boches" out, this will be the motto of the last hour combat. Due to terrible fog no air support can be obtained. 

Americans soldiers in Bastogne, Belgium, 20.12.1944.

Before the power of the attack, Eisenhower (General Dwight David Eisenhower), Chief Commander of the Allied Forces, decides the next day reinforcements by the 3rd Army of Patton (General George S. Patton), whose troup's base is currently in Champagne/France.  Among them are the "Tigers" of the 10th armored Division and the "Eagles" of the 101st paratrooper Division just having finished their battles in Normandy and the Netherlands. Their commander General Mc Auliffe -replacing General Taylor bound to go to Washington - ordered a hasty transfer of all his teams by trucks on 18 December. His troops arrive near Bastogne just in time to counter-attack the German panzers and grenadiers. The Germans are moving forward; road blocks are eliminated, villages are taken after fierce fighting: Mageret, Longvilly, Neffe, Wardin, Noville,... the inhabitants are fleeing. Fog is almost as dense as the smoke of the firing of all weaponry. In Bastogne the agitation and confusion is at its worst. Eisenhower orders Middleton (Major general Troy Middleton) and his staff to leave the scene in Bastogne; in their place Mc Auliffe and his men are settling in. "Stay OK!", said the first to the second. Now the Germans are executing the siege of Bastogne. All citizens and military understand this and are preparing. Residents take blankets and food to the soldiers, prepare their cellars for shelter, build hastily food stocks; the Mayor Jacqmin organizes the guard of the empty houses. The armored tanks are camouflaged with chalk or under white sheets provided by citizens and are positioned in the virgin white snow covered landscape.

The Bastognards and their defenders will live 15 days in a state of siege; the price for the freedom of a full continent.

On 19 December, the US 28th Division command post transfers to Bastogne from Wiltz, a large village in the southeast. At Wiltz, the division put up its last stand; 3rd Battalion of the 110th supported by armor and artillery arrives at the city around noon of that day. The 44th Engineer Battalion is set up north of the town, but they are soon forced to retreat into the city, blowing up a bridge behind them. This small force numbering no more than 500 in total is holding out until the evening, when their position is becoming completely untenable and they retreat to the west. While the 110th Infantry is completely destroyed as an effective combat unit, it is now up to the rest of the Allied Forces to defend Bastogne.

On 21 December, the siege is getting more tight,  but the defenders of Bastogne are maintaining a large escape route. At Marvie, Bizory and Mandé.... the war is ending at every next juncture. The US General Kokott, his grenadiers, his artillery and his Panthers, have 24 hours to reach the city, while the panzers of Von Manteuffel already moves towards the Meuse. At Reims, Patton and the 3rd US Army returning from liberating the Lorraine, are preparing to fly to the rescue of the besieged. But the snow is now blocking air transport and the cold is getting more and more intensive. 

On 22 December, at 11:30 a.m., German commanders are asking for the American surrender to which General Mc Auliffe answers quite briefly, "Nuts!” ("They are crazy!"). Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard has been suggesting that this historic response to the Germans has a different meaning than craziness; it should be understood as: "Go to the devil!".
After this event Bastogne has the nickname : Nuts City.
As soon as the battle of Bastogne begins the Germans, after furious fighting, are able to cut off all access roads. Surrounded, isolated in the middle of the enemy troops the city remains the ultimate bastion of resistance to the Nazi regime.
The next day, the weather suddenly clears up, allowing air retaliation and the parachuting of much needed food, medicine, and weaponry.
The Bastognards in siege who are at the end of their resources are crying of emotion, a miracle has happened.!

Christmas of 1944 is a White Christmas but not the one someone would like to dream of; this is a Christmas full of weapon firing, citizens endlessly sheltering in their cold and wet cellars. A Christmas of hell for the soldiers undercooled in their trenches waiting for Patton, while the German reinforcements are streaming in. The enemy is changing its plans and objective: Bastogne is now a matter of honor!

On 25 December, the panzers stop at the doors of Dinant. They won't go further.

Office religion in open air .

Finally on 26 December, the first tanks of the 4th Armored Division of Patton arrive South of Bastogne. Moving in record time a complete army is something; but with the snow, frost (-20 C°) blocking the convoys, soldiers covered with ice; this is an exceptional performence! Patton's participation in the fighting is an immediate and a terrible confrontation to the German troops. The Americans manage to break the infernal circle around Bastogne and make the connection with the besieged. The narrow corridor of Assenois immediately allows the evacuation of the wounded, the arrival of troops and equipment, while 130 DC3s bring supplies to the city, 32 gliders drop medical staff and field-hospitals while under fire of the enemy flak.
The US infantry counter-attack begins on 28 December. The next day, the German JU 88s are shelling Bastogne while American troops finally receive their winter outfits. The night of Saint-Sylvestre will be bloody.
On New Year day many citizens evacuate the city, others shelter in small cellars because the swarms Junkers lay blankets of fire and bring grief to the heart of the city.

The main road of Bastogne.

On 16 January, at the time of the last bombing, 212 homes and the Carré Square are fully destroyed and turned into ruins. 

Bastogne understands its duty of keeping the memories of these days alive, but the city also gets a second youth since then: "made in USA". 

From the "Star Memorial" high on the Mardasson Hill in honour of the 79,890 American victims of the winter 1944-1945, to the museums, monuments, tanks, cemeteries, everything here tells what were the terrible days of the fight for freedom which took place in and around the ancient city of the Ardennes. Bastogne will always be the symbol of this dramatic episode.

If victory is as much due to the power of determination of men, soldiers, resistants and citizens as to the power of the weapons, they all have to pay a very high price for it. The "Battle of the Bulge" was one of the deadliest of the second World War: the last outburst of Nazism made almost 80,000 casualties (killed, wounded or missing) in each camp and took 2,500 citizens lives.
With the deployment of 250,000 men, 2,000 canons, 1,500 tanks and 1,500 in the Ardennes offensive the German attacker was at the end of January 1945 thrown back to the Rhine, while its East front collapsed....By this siege and battle for Bastogne the exhausted Germans postponed the final Allied victory on the west front by 2 months and gave the Soviets an extra 2 months time profit on their way to Berlin on the Americans. These very important 2 months that would weigh heavily on the balance of the world stage and would finally trigger another war, the cold one.

                          The Mardasson Memorial to soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944

Scanned in image of copy of the letter sent to soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division during the Battle of Bastogne. Letter from General McAuliffe on Christmas Day to the 101st Airborne troops defending Bastogne.

Letter of the King of Belgium.

On December 10, 2011 was held in Bastogne, road of Clervaux, (turret of Sherman) the opening of a new commemorative plaque dedicated to the CWB (Combat Command B) of the 10th Armored Division for his action in and around Bastogne during the battle of Ardennes. 

Issued on 30.10.2004.

Michel number : 3378-3380

A Symbol of Love " Taj Mahal " 2004, India.

The Taj Mahal of Agra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, for reasons more than just looking magnificent. It's the history of Taj Mahal that adds a soul to its magnificence: a soul that is filled with love, loss, remorse, and love again. Because if it was not for love, the world would have been robbed of a fine example upon which people base their relationships. An example of how deeply a man loved his wife, that even after she remained but a memory, he made sure that this memory would never fade away.

This man was the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who was head-over-heels in love with Mumtaz Mahal, his dear wife. She was a Muslim Persian princess (her name Arjumand Banu Begum before marriage) and he was the son of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir and grandson of Akbar the Great. It was at the age of 14 that he met Mumtaz and fell in love with her. Five years later in the year 1612, they got married.

Mumtaz Mahal, an inseparable companion of Shah Jahan, died in 1631, while giving birth to their 14th child. It was in the memory of his beloved wife that Shah Jahan built a magnificent monument as a tribute to her, which we today know as the "Taj Mahal". The construction of Taj Mahal started in the year 1631. Masons, stonecutters, inlayers, carvers, painters, calligraphers, dome-builders and other artisans were requisitioned from the whole of the empire and also from Central Asia and Iran, and it took approximately 22 years to build what we see today. An epitome of love, it made use of the services of 22,000 laborers and 1,000 elephants. The monument was built entirely out of white marble, which was brought in from all over India and central Asia. After an expenditure of approximately 32 million rupees (approx US $68000), Taj Mahal was finally completed in the year 1653.

It was soon after the completion of Taj Mahal that Shah Jahan was deposed by his own son Aurangzeb and was put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. Shah Jahan, himself also, lies entombed in this mausoleum along with his wife. Moving further down the history, it was at the end of the 19th century that British Viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a sweeping restoration project, which was completed in 1908, as a measure to restore what was lost during the Indian rebellion of 1857: Taj being blemished by British soldiers and government officials who also deprived the monument of its immaculate beauty by chiseling out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. Also, the British style lawns that we see today adding on to the beauty of Taj were remodeled around the same time. Despite prevailing controversies, past and present threats from Indo-Pak war and environmental pollution, this epitome of love continuous to shine and attract people from all over the world.

Shah Jahan himself described the Taj in these word : 

Should guilty seek asylum here, 

Like one pardoned, he becomes free sin. 

Should a sinner make his way to this mansion, 

All his past sins are to be washed away. 

The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs; 

And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes. 

In this world this edifice has been made; 

To display thereby the creator's glory.

It has been included into a list of World Seven Wonders and UNESCO World’s Heritage Site.

Issued on 16/12/2004.