BASTOGNE BATTLE SITE IN
BELGIUM ARDENNES
Foxholes, "Nuts" and Voie du Liberte
It
has been 70
years since elements of the 101st Airborne made famous in an HBO series “Band
of Brothers” held back
the German siege of the southeast Belgian city of Bastogne in the
Ardennes forest. It is rare indeed that after so long a time, a war
battlefield
remains essentially as the soldiers who fought and died on bloody
soil left it. Such a place can be found a few kilometers outside
of Bastogne
in the Belgian Ardennes. In section of forest surrounded by open
fields one can walk among the same 
actual
foxholes where American solders huddled in
the
snow and
bitter
winter cold of the December of 1944, a thin line holding against
the German 507th Panzer Corps around the small village of Foy (pronounced “fwa”).
The foxholes have been slowly filling with dirt and needles fallen
from the pines, and the occasional careless can of Belgian beer left
by partying
teens over the decades, but remain mostly as if abandoned yesterday.
There are no signs to mark the location, just a small monument to
the 101st on the road several hundred yards away. To find it, pretty
much
takes a guide, which is probably why the battleground has survived.
The Siege of Bastogne is probably one of the best known incidents of
WWII and a symbol of the “Battle of the Bulge” for Brigadier
General Anthony McAuliffe’s one word answer to the German demand
for surrender, “Nuts”, perhaps recognized for its simple
uniquely American plain spoken defiance. The Battle for Bastogne involved
far more than the 101st in the siege which lasted of nearly a month,
included the 28th Infantry an Engineer corps and artillary units, including
the all African-American 969th Field Artillery unit. The town defender
were eventually liberated by clearing weather for air support and the
arrival of General Patton’s Third Army.
Bastogne was almost completely destroyed in the siege of 1944. A few
old historic buildings survive, but separated by empty spaces or post
war construction. The town of Bastogne was in the middle ages made an
important crossroads for its markets and cattle fairs. Once protected
by stone walls, ordered dismantled by France’s King Louis XIV in
1688, Bastogne had the misfortune to be directly on the path from Germany
into the heart of Belgium, suffering a brutal fate in two world wars.
Once a railway intersection of several rail lines, the town today has
no rail service. It’s lovely old station remains as a café and
office park where the local bus stops. The Port de Treves, a stone gate
tower is the only remaining vestige of the stone fortification which
guarded the town in medieval times.
The
most recognizable feature of Bastogne is its central square, named after
General McAuliffe, whose likeness stands in a corner of the square
facing the direction of the German Wehrmacht advance, next to a Sherman
tank still standing guard, freshly repainted. The statue and tank are
directly in front of the modern tourism office, where tours can be arranged
(including a popular WWII era Willys Jeep Tour) and assorted books,
maps and guides of the area and Battle of the Bulge sites can be found.
Bastogne War Museum
There
are WWII battle sites and museums all through-out the Ardennes forest
area of Belgium (see Battle
of the Bulge Museums). Bastogne has
several places to visit and some of the largest of the monuments. The
Mardasson Memorial, a ring of columns in the shape of a five pointed
star, stands as a stark memorial to the 76,890 American Soldiers killed,
wounded or missing the Battle of the Bulge, lies about a mile out of
town. 
Next
to the monument is the Bastogne Historical Center, a war museum with
a large collection of mostly uniforms, some weapons and diaramas.
In the center of Bastogne, a half block from the town square on the Rue
de Neufchateau is the original museum of the Pays d’Ardennes in
a three story store front next to the model store. Here, as well as
being a musuem, you can purchase actual war souvenirs, items
still found occasionally in the woods of the Ardennes. You can follow
General Patton’s advance to Bastogne along the La Voie du Liberte
(Freedom Road), the route the 3rd Army tanks took from Sainte Mere Eglise
to Bastogne, marked with colorful kilometer markers. A monument of the
likeness of General Patton is carved in stone in a park along the route,
though the general himself is buried in Luxembourg (see General
Patton Gravesite Hamm).
Surrounding Bastogne
Bastogne is not all war. The Animalaine is a museum of wool and farm
trades, located just beyond the Mardasson monument in the direction of
the Foy battlefield. Continue farther to the German soldier cemetary
(see German
Soldaten Graves Bastogne), and the buffalo farm and American
Indian life museum of Ferme des Bisons in Recogne. In April, the Liege
to Bastogne and back cycle race runs through town, and in June every
other year the Circuit des Ardennes vintage car run left over from the
road race which became the Belgian Grand Prix (see Spa-Francorchamps
Race Museum). In February, Carnival brings out the Giants of Bastogne and
the curious masks of Piche Cacaye, traditional Belgian characters of
the
Bastogne
region.
The
rail station for Bastogne is a bus ride from the town center. With a
car its easier to visit other areas and sight in the surrounding
towns
of
the
Ardennes. The city itself doesn't have much old picturesque architecture
left, but can be a base
for exploring
the surrounding countryside with visits to historic La-Roche-en-Ardennes
with its castle ruin, St. Hubert (see Saint
Hubert) and Libramont.
The very pleasant Best Western Hotel Melba is
just a block off of the main square on the Avenue Mathieu near bus service and
the old rail station. © Bargain
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