Today, the Veterans History Project launches a new online exhibit focusing on the Battle of the Bulge, one of the most pivotal and infamous battles of World War II.
On December 16, 1944, the German army attacked Allied forces—mostly American units—positioned in the Ardennes Forest, a densely forested area along the borders of Belgium and Luxembourg. Following D-Day, the Allies had fought their way through Western Europe on a path toward Germany. Desperate to stop their advance, the Germans launched a surprise offensive attack. Their push “bulged” the Allied line, leading to the battle’s historic moniker—the Battle of the Bulge.
It was a brutal fight, waged in the depth of a bitterly cold winter. It took the Allies a month of fighting before they finally secured victory in mid-January, 1945. Their success came at a great cost: nearly 20,000 Americans killed in action, with almost 50,000 wounded and another 20,000 captured. It was the single bloodiest battle fought by the United States during World War II.
Eighty years later, the Battle of the Bulge looms large in American collective memory of World War II. But while the Bulge is not in any danger of being forgotten, perhaps most worthy of remembrance are the personal stories of those who fought it. The simple dry facts of a battle can’t convey the lived human experience of it. For that, we turn to VHP’s collections, and specifically the narratives contained within the new online exhibit.
The new exhibit spotlights just a handful of the thousands of Bulge survivors who have shared their narratives with the Veterans History Project. Featured are stories as varied as those of Anthony Acevedo, a prisoner of war who survived incarceration in a brutal and inhumane forced labor camp; Katherine M. Nolan, a nurse serving with the 53rd Field Hospital; and Johnnie Stevens, the leader of a tank platoon in the segregated 761st Tank Battalion.
Another featured story—one that will always stick with me—is that of Eliot Annable. In 1944, twenty-year-old Annable was a radio operator serving with the Army’s 106th Infantry Division, which had arrived at the Western Front only days before. A replacement unit, the 106th was “green”—lacking any previous combat experience. On the morning of December 16, the Germans launched an hour-long artillery barrage, the strength of which was “almost enough to knock you on the floor,” as Annable related in his oral history.
What followed were the five most harrowing days of Annable’s time in the military. Dispatched on a communications mission to another unit, Annable and his buddy, Herb Heidepriem became stranded outside the line, and spent the next five days in the Ardennes Forest evading the enemy—without food, shelter, or even appropriate winter clothing. Traveling over 30 miles, they eventually made it safely back to join the remnants of the 106th.
Meanwhile, listening to the radio back home in Maine, Annable’s parents heard the news of the German Offensive and the destruction of the 106th. On December 31, Annable’s father wrote to him, describing their shock and anguish at not knowing their son’s fate and emphasizing his enduring love for Annable, come what may. The letter is poignant and heart-wrenching, and coupled with Annable’s oral history, provides an intimate view into one soldier’s—and his family’s—experience during the Battle of the Bulge.
For veterans like Annable, the sights, sounds, and experiences of the Bulge can’t be forgotten. Another veteran featured in the new online exhibit also served with the 106th—but unlike Annable, was captured by the Germans during the battle. In his oral history, Guy Martin Stephens describes the surreal feeling of combat, his obsession with food while he was incarcerated as a prisoner of war, and the continuing echoes of his experience in the Bulge, decades later:
And it is hard. It’s hard. And it’s something you can’t ever… your mind is just like a video, or camcorder, I guess. You put it in there. You get busy and get married. And you get home, and you get an education, and get a job, and raise your family, and everything like that. And you can kind of gloss it over, or try to push it back, but it’s always there, you know?
This Veterans Day, we invite you to remember the Bulge by exploring the stories of the battle’s survivors, shared in their own words via oral history interviews, photographs, letters, and even artwork. Once you’ve sampled the narratives in the online feature, you can dive into the larger pool of VHP’s related holdings—thousands of interviews with Bulge veterans, the majority of which are available online.